The committee could have taken a stand by rejecting Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s appointment of Reberg. That would have obliged the governor to name a person better-qualified in the complex business of utilities regulation. Under Utah law, the governor must make the appointment with the concurrence of the committee.

Instead, the committee approved Reberg by a single vote. Her champions say she is a quick study who knows the ropes of government. She is, indeed, a longtime politico. She is a former director of the Salt Lake County Community Services Department and a former chief of staff to former county commissioner Randy Horiuchi.

But she also is a former lobbyist for US WEST, the telephone company that was swallowed up by Qwest. In that capacity, she worked for the passage of a legislative bill in 2000 that benefited her employer at the expense of ratepayers.

That is not the sort of professional experience that jumps immediately to mind for someone who is charged by law to represent the interests of small consumers in the battles with utilities before the Public Service Commission. That is Reberg's new job.

She will be expected to confront a phalanx of engineers, attorneys and consultants who do the bidding of the natural gas, electricity and telephone companies, and their large commercial customers. That would be a daunting task for anyone, even if he or she had the requisite professional expertise.

By comparison, Roger Ball, Reberg's predecessor in the job, was an engineer and former executive with British Telecommunications.

Huntsman fired Ball in March. The utilities had whined for years that Ball was too "adversarial," an odd complaint considering that his job was to represent small consumers in an adversarial forum. What the utilities really couldn't stand was that Ball was a formidable opponent.

The governor said last month that he wanted someone in the job who is "fair and balanced." But that's not an advocate's job. Sure, she should be honest, but balanced? That's the job of the PSC, which decides the cases, not the consumer advocate.

The committee should have held out for an experienced pit bull like Ball, not a politically connected novice.