Former eBay Inc. CEO Meg Whitman handily won the Republican nomination for governor against state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in Tuesday’s primary.

The primary was dominated by two things: money and immigration. Whitman spent $80 million on the primary, much of it from her own personal fortune, and Poizner, who is also wealthy, spent $24 million.

Whitman struggled for a time when Poizner mounted an assault from the right on her stance on illegal immigration, but she responded swiftly and built a comfortable lead. She will face California Attorney General Jerry Brown, a former governor of the state, this fall.

California’s governor’s race is expected to be one of the high-profile races of 2010, pitting a high-tech business executive with no prior government experience against a longtime politician, Brown, who served as governor in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he was one of the nation’s rising young politicians.

(Source: WSJ)