With the dust clearing after last week's letter-writing spat between Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, analysts today said both sides saw the squabble as an opportunity to gear up for statewide runs.

"They are two potential rivals for the governorship in 2010," said Allan Hoffenblum, editor of the California Target Book.

Analysts said that, for Garamendi, taking aim at Poizner's new insurance regulations, provided an opportunity to win attention from the media - something a lieutenant governor working under a Republican governor often has difficulty doing.

For Poizner, a pro-choice and pro-gay rights Republican, pushing back on Garamendi provided an opportunity to show state Republican Party activists he is willing to go on the offensive against a Democratic foe.

The spat started on Thursday, just after Poizner made public changes to the regulation system. Garamendi, a former insurance commissioner, fired off a letter to Poizner, writing that, "I am sure you will not be surprised to hear how disappointed I am in the ‘Prop 103 prior approval rate regulations' promulgated by the department during my tenure as Insurance Commissioner."

It did not take long for Poizner to respond, writing in a Friday response: "I am disappointed that the work product you left behind was flawed and needed to be fixed.  But, even more so, I am disappointed by the cavalier attitude you display in making inflammatory pronouncements about changes you admit that you have not reviewed.  The public deserves better."

Garamendi's public slap at a public official working in an outside an office raised more than a few eyebrows, but it gave Garamendi - who fashioned himself as a pro-consumer commissioner during his 1990-1994 and 2002-2006 terms - an opportunity to paint Poizner as pro-insurance.

"I spent eight years transforming the California Department of Insurance into the best consumer protection agency in America. I will not stand idly by and watch that be dismantled on the backs of consumers," Garamendi said in a statement.

"At a time of skyrocketing gas prices, an increase home foreclosure rates, and an uncertain state of our economy, Californians are looking for a champion someone who will fight for them. And John Garamendi has taken that mantle," Garamendi spokesman Mike Roth told PolitickerCA.com.

Poizner, who recently announced that he is using his personal wealth to fund a California Republican Party voter registration effort, swung back with a response designed to show that he could stand his ground.

"Steve has said his interest is doing what he thinks is right and then figuring out the politics of it later," said Poizner spokesman Darrell Ng. "Steve felt it was important to set the record straight and not let a false charge go unchallenged."

It's not the first time Garamendi and Poizner have clashed. Late last year, Garamendi took Poizner on for his opposition of Proposition 93, the ultimately-failed measure which sought to change legislative term limits.

Poizner's side, at least, doesn't believe it will be the last.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi returned to his old stomping grounds in search of a headline," said Ng.