For Garrett Gruener, $396.83. That’s what the venture capitalist spent for each of the 2,520 Californians who favored him in the October 7 election recalling Governor Gray Davis. That multiplies out to $1 million -- an investment that Democrat Gruener, who co-founded search engine Ask Jeeves and the San Francisco venture firm Alta Partners, says he doesn’t regret making. But he does regret receiving even those few votes; he would have preferred that they had gone to Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, whom Gruener endorsed ten days before the election, vainly hoping to prevent Arnold Schwarzenegger’s victory. “I didn’t vote for myself,” Gruener notes.
He finished 29th in the field of more than 130 -- 33 votes ahead of billboard model Angelyne. But he finished fifth in campaign funding, ahead of well-known pundit Arianna Huffington. Gruener believes that he succeeded in raising awareness of the economic, educational and environmental issues he cares most about -- a liberal-leaning campaign that continues on his Web site, gg4g.com. Will Gruener, 49, ever make another run? “It’s conceivable that I might,” he says, “but I have no specific plans.”
