Comedy!
GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner today said he has reported "threats" made by the Republican rival Meg Whitman's campaign adviser to law enforcement officials.
Poizner said at a press conference that Whitman campaign strategist Mike Murphy issued "crystal-clear" threats to his staff in an attempt to effectively "cancel the election" by pushing him to drop out of the race.
The e-mail in question was sent by Murphy, and apparently sought to take Team Poizner's temperature on clearing the primary field for Whitman, who is the establishment GOP pick for Governor and has already self-funded in the race to the tune of just under $40 million.
There were both carrots and sticks deployed in this missive. The carrot: Murphy seems to imply that the Whitman campaign would somehow work with the party to box out the 2012 Senate nomination for Poizner, should he stand down in 2010. The stick: in colorful metaphor, Murphy intimated that Team Whitman would not hesitate to "put [Poizner] through the wood chipper" if he did not step aside.
Poizner sent a complaint regarding the "threats" made against him to several locations. No doubt, the most amused recipient of the complaint is state Attorney General Jerry Brown. Brown, of course, is the presumptive Democratic nominee to face the winner of this particular primary.
Murphy, for his part, is quite honestly laughing it off:
"[A]ll I can say is that I'm starting to worry about Commissioner's mental condition," he said in the statement, adding: "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."
Poizner is trailing in polls, although he has also decided to self-finance to the tune of eight figures in this race. The free spending of both candidates drove a third serious candidate, former Congressman Tom Campbell, from the field earlier this month.