Steve Poizner, the Republican nominee and frontrunner in the statewide race for Insurance Commissioner, warmed up for today’s debate with Democrat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante during a campaign swing through Southern California Tuesday. He met with several groups of fellow business leaders before returning north for today’s debate on the Bay Area’s CBS5 TV.
One of Poizner’s stops was at a luncheon hosted by San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus in Victorville. The high desert town is part of a booming valley with a population approaching 400,000 that’s known as one of the state’s last so-called affordable housing markets near a major urban center. It’s an area where employers struggle with automobile, homeowners and workers’ compensation insurance rates to protect their margins in what’s considered a business-friendly region within a business-hostile state. Many in the audience were either in the insurance business or in businesses heavily impacted by insurance laws and regulations.
Poizner is the only major-party candidate not accepting contributions from the industry he seeks to regulate. The inventor of the technology that allows cell phones to be located by GPS satellite in emergencies, Poizner has devoted much of the past several years to public service. His campaign themes include stopping “use it and lose it” insurance practices, insurance fraud and uninsured motorists while expanding on workers’ compensation reforms.
Tune in to the Insurance Commissioner candidates debate broadcast today on CBS5 or online at www.CBS5.com at 2 p.m. The debate will be archived here on the station’s website.