INDIAN WELLS — To Trisha Bowler of Diamond Bar, a proud member of a Republican women's group, Meg Whitman's failure to vote for most of her adult life rules her out as a choice in the 2010 race for governor.
"That's a big one with me," said Bowler, decked out Sunday in bejeweled, red-white-and-blue GOP regalia at the party's weekend convention in Indian Wells.
The same is true of Whitman's recent turn to the Republican Party, which she joined two years ago.
"I'm not thrilled with someone who just became a Republican in 2007; that doesn't sit well with me," Bowler said.
Off-year conventions are generally meant to rev up enthusiasm for the upcoming election year, a chance for the often unheralded volunteers like Bowler to celebrate among their own. But this time there was also an undercurrent of culture clash.
In primaries for both big-ticket races next year -- governor and U.S. Senate -- Republicans were being asked to choose between an up-from-the-ranks candidate who has spent years currying favor with delegates and a celebrity with few ties to those assembled here but far more money to spend for victory.
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine, who expects to face wealthy businesswoman Carly Fiorina in the Senate primary, was blunt as he implored delegates to turn aside the newcomer. (Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett Packard, has not formally announced a bid but has assembled a team of veteran strategists to run her campaign.)
"Hard work and principles can overcome celebrity and money," DeVore told one group Saturday.
In the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor, Whitman, the former head of EBay and a billionaire, is facing off against state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a former software entrepreneur who, despite limited time in office, has courted the party's conservative activists for years. Also in the race is former Rep. Tom Campbell, who has more elective experience than the others but has often alienated the party base with his more moderate views on social issues and budget matters.
A sharper contrast between candidates exists in the Senate race, which will pit Fiorina against DeVore for the chance to take on Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer. Fiorina campaigned on behalf of Republican presidential nominee John McCain last year but, like Whitman, would be making her first bid for elective office. DeVore, in contrast, is little-known statewide but has been working the party structure since he was 19 -- "and I'm now 47," he said Saturday, to underscore the contrast.
