FlashReport: Poizner looking at 2010 governor's race

Insurance Commissioner Steve PoiznerA leading conservative blog and news aggregator says Steve Poizner has met with a top political consultant about making a run for California governor in 2010.

In a posting last week by FlashReport Publisher John Fleischman, Poizner was said to have had ongoing discussions with Mike Murphy, a Los Angeles-based strategist who helped engineer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the 2003 recall election of then-Gov. Gray Davis.

The posting said Poizner and Murphy have met and spoken frequently by phone about Murphy working for a possible 2010 campaign by Poizner, the only statewide elected Republican other than Schwarzenegger.

The governor's race in two years took on a higher profile last week in the face of notable fund-raising by Attorney General Jerry Brown and an announcement by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom that he was forming an exploratory committee about running for governor.

Both men are Democrats.

Unlike Brown and some other potential candidates on the Democratic side, Poizner has yet to create or designate a campaign account that could be used for a gubernatorial run in 2010. However, Poizner's personal fortune from years as a high-tech entrepreneur could be used in such a race.

A campaign Web site for Poizner has headlines for both his work in the insurance commissioner's office, where he would have to run for re-election in 2010, and the governor's race, such as Newsom's announcement.

Two other Republicans many believe will run in 2010 are also former high-tech players, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.

The FlashReport post noted that Poizner's move to employ Murphy could be seen as a pre-emptive measure to scare other potential candidates away from the race.