Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, 52, a billionaire Republican businesswoman who built the online marketplace into a household name, now is looking to tackle the considerable financial problems of the Golden State: She has announced an exploratory committee to make a 2010 run for governor.

Whitman is entering what is expected to be a crowded and expensive contest, highlighted by the presence of three GOP moderates from the Silicon Valley: Whitman, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner - who made millions in cell phone technology before he entered politics - and former Rep. Tom Campbell of San Jose.

Democrats already lining up for a shot at their party's nomination include state Attorney General Jerry Brown, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who has already declared his intention to run, and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange County. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considering a run, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein refused last week to count herself out.

Whitman served as a lead adviser to 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Before that, she supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dropped out during the primaries.

Whitman's campaign - its motto is "A New California" - will have some high-profile help: former Gov. Pete Wilson; U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, the House chief deputy minority whip; and U.S. Rep. Mary Bono of Palm Springs will serve as co-chairs.

Whitman is expected to preview her gubernatorial campaign in two major speeches next week, one in the Central Valley and another in Orange County. She will formally address California Republicans as a candidate for the first time at their state convention, delivering the keynote lunch address Feb. 21 in Sacramento.

With the primaries a year off, political analysts say Whitman's entry into the Republicans contest could shake things up.

"Poizner and Whitman have a lot in common: business background, political philosophy and personal fortune - but what is the one difference in the race? Gender," said Bill Whalen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, who has also advised both Wilson and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He notes that the GOP has suffered from a lack of major female candidates at a statewide level - Maureen Reagan's run for Senate in 1982 was one of the last such campaigns. So if "there is a big sweet spot of women on the Republican side who are looking for a serious woman player ... then Whitman actually has a shot to peel them away," he said.

But Whitman, an Atherton resident who has two college-age children and is married to a neurosurgeon, has never run for public office.

Indeed, a Chronicle investigation showed that until about 18 months ago, Whitman was a decline-to-state voter who had not cast a ballot in some of the state's most important elections.

Records from San Mateo County show that she became a Republican in September 2007 and did not vote in more than half the federal, state and local elections since she registered to vote in the county in September 2002. Among the elections in which she failed to vote were the 2003 recall that ousted Democratic Gov. Gray Davis - a watershed for the state's GOP - and the 2005 special election that Schwarzenegger called the most important effort to reform California government in a generation.

Still, Whalen said that though Whitman could face criticism that she aims to parachute into the job without any record of public service, she might have an advantage against some of the Democratic hopefuls.

In the current economic climate, he said, "The voters are going to want to elect someone who can get things done. ... Which do you want: decades of experience or maybe someone who has also accomplished something on the private side?"

But Democrats say her resume leaves her open to attack. "Whitman is one of a long line of wealthy business types who want their first public office to be governor," including Democratic businessman Al Checchi in 1998 and Republican Bill Simon in 2002, said Democratic strategist Garry South, who advises Newsom. "With the exception of Arnold, California voters haven't shown receptivity to that.

"And given the current state of California, Arnold has further curdled that argument; he has left the state in worse condition than he got it in the recall in 2003. That's a classic example of how an outsider can't just ride in on a white horse and clean up the mess."

But Whitman could face other problems from inside her party. Within hours of her announcement, Tim Hudson, chairman of the GOP Placer County Central Committee, filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, alleging Whitman has failed to properly report income and expenditures from what he said have been months of campaigning.

Hudson is running for a party post - and has been endorsed by Poizner.