Will Steve Poizner's accusations that Meg Whitman's advisor attempted to force him out of the governor's race hurt his campaign or hers?
The week got off to a odd start when GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner held a press conference to announce that a campaign strategist for Republican rival Meg Whitman had made "threats" designed to drive him out of the race. Poizner's campaign released a copy of an e-mail sent by Whitman advisor Mike Murphy that asks a Poizner consultant if the candidate would consider dropping out of the race. According to the e-mail, which Poizner also sent to the FBI, the U.S. Attorneys Office, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, and the Fair Political Practices Commission, Murphy says Whitman's campaign could spend $40 million "tearing up Steve if we must." Poizner called Murphy's tactics "highly improper and unethical."
Read more:
Poizner claims political extortion by gubernatorial rival Whitman, Sacramento Bee
Will Steve Poizner's accusations that Meg Whitman's advisor attempted to force him out of the governor's race hurt his campaign or hers?
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2 Responses to “Will Steve Poizner's accusations that Meg Whitman's advisor attempted to force him out of the governor's race hurt his campaign or hers?”
Poizner is a rock bottom 30 % behind and is behaving like a very bad loser. He's been in office for several years and nobody even knows it…he lacks people skills and he's not going to win. He's LOSING, SO HE HAD NOTHING TO LOSE by being petty and mean. Either he staged it himself for press coverage OR there's always the possibility Jerry Brown did it because he's terrified of losing to Meg Whitman. Brown would like to campaign dirty and he's afraid how he'd campaign against her. It's well known Brown would prefer running against Poizner…who he could beat. Meg is very qualified and he can't play her like a Repub politician….cause she' not. She's a serious accomplished leader…. who charted her own course. She hasn't built up a long list of people she OWES, like jerry has. She independently did it all herself.. owes nobody !!!
I've never registered with any political party, so it's immaterial to me who runs in primary elections, but the email excerpt contained in Poizner's letter to the FBI sheds some much-needed light on how elections are shaped by people who are rarely reported on–campaign strategists.
And not just strategists for individual candidates. The email is an interesting insight into how a party takes a state-level view of all the races in any given election year. It wouldn't surprise me if something similar had been sent to Tom Campbell to get him to quit the Governor's race and try for US Senate instead.
As for whether it will hurt Poizner's campaign or Whitman's–in my view it should hurt hers more than his, but the media and voters have such a cynical view of politics the prevailing attitude seems to be if you can't stand the heat, get out of the devil's kitchen.