These contributions pale in comparison to the $119 million of her own $1.2 billion fortune amassed as CEO of eBay that Whitman has spent on the campaign.
Nancy Newman ’78 is the only trustee who contributed to Whitman’s Democratic opponent, Attorney General Jerry Brown, with a donation of $1,500.
Individual contributions to Whitman ranged from $1,000 to $51,800.
A total of $73,000 came from trustees currently living outside of California.
In addition to attending the University as an undergraduate, Whitman served as a University trustee from 2000 to 2004. In 2002, she donated $30 million for the construction of the University’s sixth residential college, which bears her name.
The trustees who contributed to the campaign said that personal connections with Whitman and their political leanings — not Whitman’s active support of the University — played a role in their decisions to donate.
“Although Meg has been an active and loyal alumna of Princeton, my interest in her campaign stems from my California roots,” Katherine Brittain Bradley ’86 said in an e-mail.
Other trustees cited a personal relationship with Whitman.
“In my case, my wife Mimi and I have known Meg for well over 30 years and consider her to be a friend,” Robert Murley ’72 said. “I have had the pleasure of serving with Meg for a number of years on the Princeton University Board of Trustees. We are delighted that someone of her capabilities and talents would be willing to serve the country in this way.”
Peter Wendell ’72 said in an e-mail that he and his wife, Lynn Wendell ’77, decided to donate a total of $11,000 to the campaign because of their longstanding friendship with Whitman and “because we think she’d be a terrific governor of California.”
Trustee John Diekman ’65 said he did not make a contribution to Whitman’s campaign due to a conflict of interest with his company, 5AM Ventures, which has headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. “I’m a Democrat, and I would have if I could,” he said. “It has nothing to do with Princeton. She’s a neighbor and a good friend.”
Current University trustees Thomas Barron ’74, Nancy Peretsman ’76 and Thomas Siebel, and trustees emeritus Dennis Keller ’63, Robert Stuart ’37 and Paul Wythes ’55, who also contributed to Whitman’s campaign, declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
In the last presidential election, the same nine trustees who contributed to the Whitman campaign split their donations between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. They donated a total of $51,500: $27,450 to Democrats and $24,050 to Republicans.
In total, current trustees gave $67,545 to Democratic candidates and $30,750 to Republican candidates in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Federal campaign finance law limits individual contributions in each phase of the elections to $2,400. The limit for each phase of California gubernatorial elections is $25,900.
Whitman made American electoral history in September when she crushed the record for personal spending in a campaign. Her recent donation of $15 million brought Whitman’s own contribution to her campaign to $119 million, surpassing the $109 million that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent on his 2009 reelection. Whitman stated early in the Republican primaries that she would not spend more than $150 million of her own money on the campaign.
As of mid-September, Whitman had raised $24 million from outside donations, according to BusinessWeek.
Brown has argued that her extensive spending conflicts with the fiscal discipline Whitman has argued for on the campaign trail. Particular attention was paid to the fact that she has spent over $675,000 on private planes, more than Brown had reported in campaign expenditures through July. According to Time magazine, as of the end of September, Brown had spent 3 percent of what Whitman has spent, or about $4 million, and has raised an additional $30 million in donations.
The Whitman campaign responded to Brown’s criticism by pointing to the need for greater spending in a state where there are 2.3 million more registered Democrats than Republicans. The campaign remained close throughout the summer, within the 4 percent margin of error of polls. The most recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows Brown with 47 percent support and Whitman with 46 percent.
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