Billionaires for Meg

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Meg Whitman is a billionaire who has poured $91 million of her own money into her bid for governor -- but the former EBay executive is also raising loads of money from others.

On Saturday, the Republican nominee reported more than $1.65 million in new donations from many of California’s leading business executives. Five of her recent donors have been on Forbes magazine’s past list of the state’s billionaires.

They include: Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo! Inc.; Eli Broad, the Los Angeles philanthropist; A. Jerrold Perenchio, the former head of Univision; Thomas Siebel, the founder of Siebel Systems; and William Barron Hilton, the hotel and casino magnate.

Each gave the legal maximum for the general election: $25,900.

Dozens of others gave as well, including Gene Sykes, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, the controversial Wall Street firm where Whitman once served on the board of directors.

-- Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento