Meg Whitman adviser, Mike Murphy, responds to Steve Poizner's claim that Murphy and the Whitman campaign are using possibly illegal tactics to bully Poizner out of the race.
"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."
Read a report on Poizner's press conference here. Read Murphy's original email here (pdf).
