Won’t get fooled again

Originally created to grant consumers some power over a giant $80 billion industry, the commissioner post is a powerful one, literally affecting everyone in the state who drives, owns a home or suffers a tragedy. As the sole California elected officer to regulate a single industry, the commissioner approves insurance rates, makes sure companies are trustworthy before they sell policies and investigates consumer complaints against insurers.

As early as 1996, the media and public began developing an awareness that Quackenbush, who took $8 million in campaign contributions from insurance companies, seemed to be turning his department into an arm of the very industry he was supposed to watchdog. Quackenbush’s staff even responded to one SN&R investigation by taking legal action against the paper, attempting to force reporter Nick Budnick to reveal his sources inside the Insurance Department. SN&R eventually won a legal battle against him and prompted a Fair Political Practices Commission complaint.

Four years later, the case against Quackenbush became even more amplified with revelations about his mishandling of claims from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. State and federal investigators went after him for going easy on insurance companies in exchange for payouts that benefited him politically. In 2000, under a cloud of scandal, Quackenbush resigned from office. Though it looks like no criminal charges will be filed against him, the promising young GOPer’s career was ruined and he became “Exhibit A” in the California effort to win campaign finance reform. So far, though, no effort to reform financing practices has made it through the legislature.

On March 5, Californians will vote for a new commissioner. Among the Democratic candidates, Assemblyman Tom Calderon (D-Montebello) is the lone man to accept big bucks from the insurance industry, about $900,000 at press time. Harvey Rosenfield, who years ago wrote the legislation that created the commissioner post, says “it’s pretty clear that Calderon is the insurance industry’s candidate.” Other choices in the primary are Assemblyman Tom Umberg and former insurance commissioner John Garamendi, who leads in the polls.

So long as California has no limits on campaign financing, big contributors such as the insurance industry will have their way in Sacramento. But let’s hope, at least, we’ve learned the lesson history offers us when it comes to the commissioner post. Candidate Calderon should not have accepted insurance company monies in his bid for office. We urge you not to vote for him.