CA: Running Against Schwarzenegger

Stu Woo of the Wall Street Journal reports:

Mr. Poizner has run three television ads comparing Ms. Whitman with Mr. Schwarzenegger, who is subject to term limits.

One particularly memorable ad shows Mr. Schwarzenegger's face morphing into Ms. Whitman's face. After the transformation, U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, a Poizner endorser, appears onscreen with this message: "California can't afford Arnold Schwarzenegger's third term, and that's Meg Whitman."

The Whitman campaign has responded to the attacks with its own name-dropping charges.

"There's only one candidate in the race who has spent $20 million [in previous campaigns] trying to convince voters that he's the Schwarzenegger politician, and that's Steve Poizner," Mike Murphy, a Whitman strategist, said Tuesday. He added that the commercials have been "entertaining, but it's an ineffective thing for the Poizner campaign, so I hope they keep on doing it."