Taxpayer group finds Poizner so ‘frightening’ that it gave him $2,500

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Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor enlisted Jon Coupal, the head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., to tape a new radio ad saying the election of her GOP opponent Steve Poizner would be ‘truly frightening’ for those who care about Proposition 13’s property tax protections.

The ad also says Poizner was the first Republican ever named by the association in an ‘official taxpayer warning stating that he was unqualified for office.’ That occurred when Poizner, now state insurance commissioner, waged a failed 2004 Assembly campaign. (Based on the look of the letter, the group was so thrifty that it seems to have still been using a typewriter six years ago.)

The supposed fear stems from the fact that in 2000, Poizner donated $193,000 to the campaign for Proposition 39, which reduced the threshold for approval of school bonds from two-thirds of voters at the ballot to 55%. And that Poizner also supported other measures to increase spending on schools -- positions he now says he’s reconsidered.

But if the taxpayers’ group was so scared of Poizner, why did it donate $2,500 to his campaign in 2008?

Coupal wasn’t available for comment, but the Whitman campaign noted that at the time, Poizner was the only Republican in the race. Next to a Democrat, the association apparently didn’t find Poizner so frightening.

--Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento