From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

Steve Poizner’s Political Ambitions

Steve Poizner, California’s outgoing insurance commissioner, lost the Republican gubernatorial primary against Meg Whitman earlier this year, but he has no intention of exiting the political scene.

In a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Poizner sounded like a man bent on another run for office. "Voters clearly aren’t looking for rookies," he said. "They’re looking for someone like me."

Mr. Poizner has the distinction of being a rare Republican to win statewide. California has seven constitutional offices, but since 2002 Republicans have gone 3-for-19 in those elections, their only tallies being Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 recall win and subsequent reelection, and Mr. Poizner’s 2006 victory.

Then again, Mr. Poizner followed a model that Ms. Whitman used to no avail last month in the general election against Democrat Jerry Brown. He touted his Silicon Valley credentials, cut into Democrats’ support in the Bay Area and spent heavily from his personal fortune. It isn’t clear that Mr. Poizner would run a future campaign very differently than Ms. Whitman did, despite his claim that he would have made "a much, much stronger candidate than Meg Whitman against Jerry Brown."

Mr. Poizner will need to distinguish himself from Ms. Whitman if he plans to rally the waning and snake-bitten band of California Republicans. And he’s unlikely to get any assistance from Ms. Whitman herself. Time hasn’t healed the wounds of their particularly vitriolic primary, and Mr. Poizner isn’t exactly helping matters. When pressed about why he didn’t campaigned for Ms. Whitman after losing the primary, he replied, "I was really focusing on my job as insurance commissioner."

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.