In California’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Steve Poizner says that a Meg Whitman adviser is trying to push him out of the race; the Whitman adviser questions the sanity of Poizner. I suspect that this back-and-forth is not going to help either candidate.

From Steve Poizner’s campaign:

Republican candidate for governor Steve Poizner today revealed intimidation tactics from Meg Whitman in which her top political advisor threatened to spend $40 million “tearing up” Commissioner Poizner. Last week, Meg Whitman’s trusted advisor Mike Murphy contacted multiple people connected to the Poizner campaign and attempted to intimidate Poizner out of the race. In return for dropping out, Meg Whitman offered to deliver to Commissioner Poizner the Republican nomination for the 2012 U.S. Senate race against Dianne Feinstein.
“Meg Whitman can’t risk the chance that voters have a choice. This is the Whitman campaign’s way to cancel the election and take away the fundamental right of voters,” said Commissioner Poizner. “Instead of debating the issues with me or answering questions from the press, Meg Whitman chooses to hide behind threats and intimidation tactics to stop Republicans from having a choice in the primary.”

Mike Murphy, senior adviser to the Meg Whitman campaign, issued the following statement responding to accusations made by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner:

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 Commissioner’s mental condition.
It is true that I have been trying to find a way to avoid a costly and unnecessary Republican primary. I believe it is important that Republicans across California unite around Meg Whitman to defeat Jerry Brown in the fall. It is also true that I am not the only one with this view. Many Republican leaders are more and more concerned that the Poizner campaign, now 28+ points behind in the polls and still sinking, is becoming little more than a stalking horse for Jerry Brown and the Democrats, especially since Commissioner Poizner has been loudly threatening to run a multi-million dollar negative campaign against Meg Whitman for months.
Several weeks ago I was advised by a source close to Steve Poizner that his pollster, my old friend Jan van Lohuizen, had been expressing grave doubts about the viability of the faltering Poizner campaign. So I emailed Jan; this is the email the Commissioner is so excited about. About ten days ago I also placed a phone call to a second senior Poizner consultant. We had a nice talk and discussed the option of Poizner considering a race for Senate in 2012. The consultant offered to discuss this with Commissioner Poizner and asked for a number where I could be called back. I do not plan to make any further comment on these discussions, as I do not want to create even more embarrassment for his consultants, or get anybody fired.
Judging from the Commissioner’s rant today concerning the FBI and Jerry Brown, I take it the Commissioner’s answer is “no.” Hopefully the Commissioner was not serious about wasting taxpayer dollars by asking state and federal authorities to waste their time on such a silly matter of perfectly legal politics. Should they be interested, however, I will fully cooperate and provide them with a full details of my communication with various Poizner consultants about the dangerous futility of his campaign.

Maybe I’m getting cynical in my old age, but “You’re down a bunch, try another race in another year” doesn’t quite meet the bar of ‘intimidation tactics,’ but . . . hey. This is why we have primaries.

Look, considering the shape that California is in, couldn’t you question the sanity of anyone who wants to be the next governor?