Poizner's choice of advisor criticized

Poizner, a Republican who said during his campaign that he would make consumer protection his top priority, named William L. Gausewitz as counsel to the insurance commissioner, specializing in writing laws and regulations. Gausewitz starts next week at the Department of Insurance.

Poizner said he valued Gausewitz's insurance expertise and asked consumer groups to be patient while he assembled his entire leadership team. But consumer advocates worry that the selection may signal a tilt by the department in favor of the business it regulates.

"He is the industry's inside guy in an agency Poizner said would be accountable and controlled only by the people. On its face, it's improper," said Harvey Rosenfield, author of the landmark Proposition 103 initiative approved by California voters in 1988 that made insurance a highly regulated industry.

Rosenfield, who endorsed Poizner in his race against Democrat Cruz Bustamante, said he was taken aback by the news. "I didn't think we'd see this kind of move," he said.

Gausewitz, 52, currently works in the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He spent a dozen years since 1990 lobbying the Department of Insurance and the Legislature, most recently for the American Insurance Assn. and earlier for Farmers Insurance Group.

In an interview Tuesday, Poizner said he was counting on Gausewitz to "help me understand the industry's point of view." The insurance commissioner said he needed often-technical information to "make sure that consumers are protected and insurance companies fulfill all their responsibilities to policyholders and that insurance prices come down."

Gausewitz said he had severed his ties to insurers and would use his expertise to give Poizner balanced analyses of all sides of insurance issues.

"I'll suggest options and what I think will be the outcomes of various policy choices, but it will be up to the commissioner to make the choices," he said.

Gausewitz said he left the American Insurance Assn. in 2004 and since then had not "worked to advance the insurance industry's interests at all."