Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner's campaign has paid the California Highway Patrol $24,000 for providing the candidate with a security detail, according to campaign finance records filed by Poizner yesterday. That amount is about a tenth of the annual cost of providing Poizner with the detail.
Rival Meg Whitman's campaign has criticized Poizner for not paying for the security detail, saying the cash-strapped state shouldn't have to foot the bill for Poizner, who's a multimillionaire and the state insurance commissioner. Whitman has made the security detail the focus of one of her TV attack ads against Poizner.
The commissioner has responded that he, like other statewide office holders, needs the detail at all times. State records show the CHP spent $214,335.61 in the last fiscal year for Poizner's security detail. See The Bee story about such security details.
Poizner's campaign gave $24,000 on March 9 to the Department of Insurance, which then used the money to pay for the CHP detail, the campaign records show.
Poizner communications chief Jarrod Agen responded that the $24,000 reimbursement paid for January and February's cost of providing the security detail.
He wrote in an e-mail: "Since this year Steve has been spending more time on the campaign trail, he felt it was right to reimburse CHP for overlap the security detail has had with campaign events. Reimbursing the Department of Insurance for CHP is neither standard practice historically, nor is it required under California law, but Steve was willing to take additional steps to save taxpayer funds. It's also important to note that Meg Whitman is running another false ad on this subject and once again she is lying to voters."
This post was updated at 6:20 p.m.
PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Poizner at a news conference, Feb. 1. Hector Amezcua/hamezcua@sacbee.com
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