No. 1 job: More work

COSTA MESA — Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman formally opened her Southern California regional campaign headquarters Monday night in Costa Mesa and brought with her a message of creating jobs, cutting government spending and improving education.

Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive of EBay, said Orange County was the easy choice for her first regional campaign headquarters outside her Cupertino base.

“Orange County … is so important to the Republican Party,” she told a crowd of about 300 enthusiastic supporters. “You will have an enormous effect on who wins this governor’s race. And so when my team said where should we open our very first regional headquarters ... I said, ‘Right here in Orange County.’”

The headquarters, in an office park at 150 Paularino Ave., will initially have two full-time staff members to recruit and organize what the campaign hopes will be hundreds of local volunteers.

Whitman will be making more campaign stops in the county soon as the June primary draws nearer, said campaign spokeswoman Sarah Pompei.

About 100 volunteers in the headquarters made phone calls to local supporters Monday night as Whitman roused the crowd outside. After her 20-minute speech, the candidate herself called a voter to ask for support.

Whitman said her top priority would be to create jobs in California by reducing government regulation of industry and cutting taxes that make the state expensive for employers.

“Job No. 1 has got to be putting Californians back to work,” she said. “If I could fix just one thing, I would fix the business climate in California.”

Whitman pledged to cut $15 billion from the state budget by eliminating waste and reforming welfare programs.

And she called on the state to improve education by holding public schools accountable for students’ performance and expanding the availability of charter schools to provide parents with choices.

Whitman formally threw her hat in the ring for governor in February 2009. She has campaigned heavily on her experience as EBay CEO, arguing that her business and entrepreneurial credentials make her best qualified to bring about an economic recovery in California and put the state’s fiscal house in order.