If you’ve been around California politics for a while, there’s something familiar about Steve Poizner’s complaint to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that Meg Whitman is trying to strong arm him from the contest for the Republican nomination for governor.

In 1986, former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis accused then-Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, a fellow candidate for U.S. Senate, of bribery. Fiedler and her top aide were indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury, accused of offering to pay off $100,000 of Davis’ campaign debt if he dropped out of a crowded field in the Republican primary. The charges were dismissed by a judge, but neither candidate recovered.

Of course, neither candidate had a personal fortune to draw on, either.

I wouldn’t bet on any prosecutor biting on Poizner’s complaint, especially Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee and, no doubt, would like nothing better than to watch his well-heeled GOP rivals beat each other to a pulp in the primary.

— Jim Sweeney