Meg Whitman and her former maid Wednesday settled a dispute over back wages for $5,500, an amount dwarfed by the political fallout created when the illegal-immigrant housekeeper came out of the shadows to accuse the billionaire candidate for governor of California of cheating her.

The settlement emerged after lawyers haggled for nearly three hours at the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in downtown San Jose. Both parties met afterward with news reporters on the sidewalk, issuing completely opposite readings of the entire affair.

“We do our best for our employers and in return all we ask is to be treated with respect and to be paid for all the work we do,” said Nicandra Diaz Santillan, Whitman’s former maid. She had cleaned Whitman’s house in Atherton for nine years before the Republican candidate let her go. “We do all this because we need to support our families and to give our children a better future.”

Her celebrity attorney, Gloria Allred, stood by and held Diaz Santillan close to her with one arm and never let go. Another arm would have made it a bear hug.

“We are very, very happy with the settlement,” Allred said. “It’s a victory for us.”

A few minutes later on the same sidewalk, Whitman campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said the maid’s claim of being exploited was false from the beginning and politically manipulated to the end. Allred is connected well to the Democratic Party.

“This is the last, dying gasp in a political act,” said Bounds, who attended the negotiation. “It’s a political soap opera that has drawn its curtains.”

In September, when the race for governor between Whitman and Jerry Brown was still close, Allred stunned the state and rocked the billionaire’s campaign when she introduced Diaz Santillan and charged that Whitman fired her only after deciding to run for governor. Allred claims that Whitman for years knew that the 39-year-old Diaz Santillan was undocumented.

“I felt she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage,” Diaz Santillan, of Union City, said in news conference at the time. She alleged that when Whitman fired her, she said: “You have never seen me, and I’ve never seen you.”

Allred said Whitman and her neurosurgeon husband, Griffith Harsh, owed Diaz Santillan $8,000 to $10,000 for additional duties and expenses, such as mileage, beyond cleaning house, such as grocery shopping, driving the couple’s children around town and performing other errands during her nine-year employment. She did not release specifics about the settlement except to say that it did not include mileage.

Whitman steadfastly said throughout the campaign that she didn’t know that Diaz Santillan was undocumented. Whitman’s husband attended the negotiating session but Whitman did not.

Dennis Brown, Whitman’s attorney in the matter, described the $5,500 settlement as “routine” for this sort of pay dispute. He said the only reason the issue was heard was because there were no time cards involved and he emphasized that the settlement, does not mean Whitman and her husband admit wrongdoing.

Diaz Santillan read only from the prepared statement in both English and Spanish, showing a slight hint of stage fright but a good ability to read. When reporters came at her with a barrage of questions, including one about seeking legal status, she smiled and said, “Thank you very much.” She and Allred then walked to a waiting SUV, still stuck together in a half bear hug.

During the late stages of the campaign, there seemed to be as many outraged voices demanding Diaz Santillan’s deportation as those condemning Whitman.

Federal immigration officials have said they don’t reveal enforcement actions against individuals and would rather concentrate on hunting down and deporting criminal aliens. That policy hasn’t changed.

But Diaz Santillan has hired a San Francisco immigration lawyer, Marc Van Der Hout, to help her gain legal residency. Van De Hout said Diaz Santillan came to his office seeking help weeks before the campaign brouhaha broke out.

“Her chances are good,” he said, arguing that Diaz Santillan meets several criteria for winning legal status, such as her strong family ties here, the fact that she has two U.S.-born children, a clean police record, good working history and longevity in this country. He said Diaz Santillan has been in the United States about 20 years. Even so, he said, the case may take a long time.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed Wednesday that Whitman on Election Day dipped deeper into her pocket and gave her campaign $2.6 million, adding to the most expensive campaign for governor in U.S. history. The addition brought the tab to nearly $144.2 million from her personal fortune. Final campaign finance reports must be filed by Jan. 31, 2011.

Contact Joe Rodriguez at 408-920-5767 or jrodriguez@mercurynews.com.