Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, will begin to campaign on behalf of Barack Obama, reports the Wall Street Journal. He is scheduled to speak Tuesday at a panel on the economy in Florida.
Schmidt has been an informal adviser to the campaign, but the official endorsement weeks away from the election gives Schmidt more of a voice in net neutrality issues that could affect Google, as well as better position him for a possible role as chief technology officer under an Obama administration.
"I'm doing this personally," Schmidt said. "Google is officially neutral" in the campaign.
But that’s not to say that Google hasn’t played much of a role in Obama’s campaign. About 70 percent of the $3 million Obama spent in online advertising during the primaries went to Google ads.
McCain has a few tech execs on his side, including former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carly Fiorina.
Google CEO Backs Obama [WSJ]
Photo: Flickr/worldeconomicforum
