CUPERTINO, CALIF. — A day after launching her campaign for governor, former EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman on Tuesday unveiled a sharply conservative approach to California's fiscal crisis and offered a fusillade of positions on other issues that are likely to complicate her run for office in 2010.
In a wide-ranging interview, the first-time Republican candidate's demeanor vacillated between that of a confident, take-charge chief executive officer delivering a PowerPoint presentation to that of an ill-at-ease novice who has studied stacks of policy binders, but has yet to master the art of political maneuvering.
"I don't know the answer to that question," Whitman responded when asked her stand on school vouchers, a perennial issue of importance to the conservatives who dominate her party's primary.
Views that could potentially attract or alienate all manner of voters emerged on the subject of gay marriage.
Explaining her support for Proposition 8, the November measure that banned same-sex marriage, she called it a "matter of personal conscience and my faith."
But Whitman, a Presbyterian who supports gay civil unions, said the thousands of same-sex marriages that took place last year before the ban should be legally recognized -- a sentiment opposed by many Proposition 8 backers. Moreover, she said, gay and lesbian couples should be able to adopt children.
Whitman's approach on fiscal matters -- a key element of her pitch to voters -- rested on other seeming contradictions.
At a time when California has frozen tax refunds and halted highway construction to preserve solvency, Whitman, who described herself as a billionaire, said the state should not ask even those in the highest income-tax bracket to pay more.
"One of the things which I'm sure you know," she said, "is that 1% of the people in California pay 50% of the taxes, right? And I am not in favor of raising taxes on anyone right now."
At the same time, Whitman praised former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson for his role in the 1990s budget crisis. She said the tax hikes imposed by Wilson -- whom she described as the greatest California governor in memory -- made sense at the time, even if they would be inappropriate now.
"I trust his judgment back then," she said of Wilson, her campaign chairman.
The interview, which took place at the spartan Silicon Valley office of the company that designed her campaign website, was the first since she announced her candidacy.
