SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A newspaper says a powerful union helped the illegal immigrant former housekeeper of billionaire California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman make the story public.
The San Francisco Chronicle, citing anonymous people, reported Tuesday that Nicky Diaz Santillan reached out to a friend who knew a member of the California Nurses Association.
The union then put the Mexican-born housekeeper in touch with an immigration attorney and celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who appeared with her at a news conference in late September.
Diaz Santillan claimed the former eBay chief executive knew she was an illegal immigrant during the nine years she worked for Whitman and her husband, a Stanford neurosurgeon.
Her story helped sink the first-time Republican candidate.