Pushing her way through a crowd of nurses at rally on Friday morning was 'Queen Meg,' a character invented by the nurses association to mock Whitman.
Playing on the story of Whitman shoving an employee during her tenture at eBay, 'Queen Meg' pushed into the nurses union headquarters, where the union's leadership unveiled their plans to shove Whitman as she campaigns this summer.
"We still ask why won't Whitman speak to nurses so we are going to bring the nurses to meg whitman " applause," Jill Furillo from the California Nurses Association said.
The irony for the Whitman campaign is that Whitman has been trying to speak to nurses, not in person but in a mailer.
A campaign spokeswoman said, "They've flatly refused to allow Meg to submit a personal letter to their membership stating her positions on the issues."
Whitman also fired up a website at truthfornurses.com. The website features a video of 'Queen Meg' and next to it a running tally of the cost of the actress and the rented bus, money presumably coming from the nurses union dues.
On Friday, a Whitman spokeswoman said, "the nurses in this election are evenly divided between supporters of Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown and the Whitman website shows the results of a poll commissioned by the campaign."
The union says the telephone poll was skewed.
"Nurses reported being pressed to give answers to questions about their job and profession in what was very clearly a set-up type of poll," Furillo said.
And they reiterated the union's call for Whitman to address them personally in a town hall meeting.
"What we have to say is what is Meg Whitman afraid of? Why doesn't Meg Whitman want to speak to nurses directly," Furillo said.
The Whitman campaign says that's just what Whitman wants with a direct mailing to the nurses. But Whitman has declined to speak to the nurses in person and the campaign declined our request for an on camera interview.
The nurses union says its members are planning to come to a Whitman campaign event in Atherton set for the middle of July.
