Democrats Helping Poizner in CA Governor's Race

What does this say about the GOP primary?

If Steve Poizner upsets Meg Whitman in the GOP side of the June 8 governor's primary, he can thank Democrats.

The California Democratic Party and major labor unions have joined Poizner in attacking Whitman. The CDP is spending $1.8 million on its anti-Whitman television ad and the California Labor Federation has deployed 25,000 volunteers to campaign against Whitman.

CDP and big labor think expected Democratic nominee Jerry Brown will have an easier time beating Poizner. Indeed, Brown leads Poizner 45 percent to 32 percent, while his lead over Whitman is a narrower 42 percent to 37 percent, according to the latest poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Officials with the Democratic Party and with unions have not said the strategy is to help Poizner, simply stating that they want to help counter Whitman's big head start in campaign advertising. But it's no secret they would rather face Poizner than Whitman.

"They'd prefer Steve Poizner because he's moved too far to the right" and would have a difficult time appealing to middle-of-the-road Californians in the general election, said Allan Hoffenblum, a former GOP strategist who now handicaps races with his Target Book.

There's also Whitman's huge wealth to contend with.

"I think Steve Poizner is the easier candidate to run against for a couple of reasons – not the least of which is that Meg Whitman has already spent $64 million of her own money and is willing to spend another $200 million," Assembly Speaker John Perez , a Democrat, told MSNBC.

Given Poizner's past support for an awful lot of liberal positions it wouldn't surprise me if some of this support has to do with him being a better Dem alternative for governor should California reject Jerry Brown's comeback attempt.