Cal Gov Race: Poizner Calls in the Cops

Today Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate in the GOP gubernatorial primary in California, accused Meg Whitman’s campaign of making “crystal clear... threats” to get him to drop out of the race. Poizner also added that he had referred these “threats” to the FBI.

Today Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate in the GOP gubernatorial primary in California, accused Meg Whitman’s campaign of making “crystal clear... threats” to get him to drop out of the race against the former eBay CEO.

Poizner went further, saying that he had referred these “threats” to the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the California Attorney General.

The Whitman campaign was incredulous, responding with a press release that questioned Poizner’s sanity. In a statement obtained by FrumForum, senior Whitman campaign advisor Mike Murphy responded:

After reading the ridiculous charges made by Steve Poizner during today's strange press conference, all I can say is that I'm starting to worry about the Commissioner's mental condition.

In the press conference today, Poizner cited an email that Murphy had sent to one of his pollsters, Jan van Lohuizen, as proof of the threat. The email reads, in part:

Is there anything we can do to get [Poizner] to reconsider this race?...I hate the idea of us each spending $20 million beating on the other in the primary, only to have a damaged nominee...we can spend $40M+ tearing up Steve if we must. ... Bad for him, bad for us, and a crazy waste to tear up a guy with great future statewide potential — really the only guy on the CA GOP bench for the future.

Steve Poizner’s campaign has been relatively idle in recent polls despite Tom Campbell’s decision to drop out, transforming the gubernatorial primary into a two-way race. With this change, Whitman increased her lead in the polls, and Poizner barely peeked into double-digit support. A poll taken just five days ago by PPIC shows Whitman beating Poizner 41%-11%.

The question now is: has Poizner gone rogue?

“I know the staff inside Poizner’s campaign. I’ve worked with them in the past. They’re not crazy. There’s no way they advised Poizner to call for an FBI investigation into whether people think he’s electable or not. It only hypes his own negatives... which is nuts,” said one Whitman campaign staffer.