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Before voters passed a proposition that overhauled insurance regulations in 1988, the insurance commissioner was appointed by the governor. Harvey Rosenfield, the proposition\u2019s author and founder of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, said that left the office open to the sway of governors seeking to pay back the industry for campaign contributions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole point of Prop 103 was to give the insurance commissioner power to protect the public against pillaging by the insurance industry and to make sure that the commissioner was more likely to be disposed to protect voters and consumers, not the insurance companies,\u201d Rosenfield said. \u201cThe voters made it an elected person, accountable not to the government, but to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Some fear the opposite\u00a0\u2014 insurance commissioners who could make choices based on political popularity, rather than what would be best for the market.<\/p>\n
Over the past 36 years, just five people have been elected for the job. Four came directly from the Legislature; none had direct experience working in the insurance industry. Two others were appointed by the governor to hold the position briefly after their predecessor resigned.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s field of 11 candidates contains two contenders with experience in the Legislature \u2014 current state Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat representing part of the Palisades Fire burn zone, and former fellow Los Angeles County state Sen. Steven Bradford, also a Democrat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bradford said he \u201cwould strongly suggest that we consider\u201d the idea of having the governor once again appoint the insurance commissioner, though he stopped short of full-throated advocacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this should be an appointed position, I really do,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cYou have folks afraid to make a decision because they put their fingers up in the political winds saying, \u2018How does this affect my next election? How does it affect my office?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But both Bradford and Allen touted their experience in Sacramento and their relationships with fellow legislators as a reason they would make for effective commissioners.<\/p>\n
The insurance commissioner enjoys broad authority over insurance companies\u2019 rates and regulating their claims practices, but not their underwriting practices. Issues such as how insurance companies use drone imagery to determine insurability or efforts to require insurers to cover wildfire-safe homes require partnerships with the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Allen, who has spent the past decade serving in Sacramento, noted there are both advantages and disadvantages to being one of few states to elect their insurance commissioner. But he said coming into the job with experience working in the political process and making good on campaign promises could only be a benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only other candidate who\u2019s spent time in elected office is Jane Kim, a progressive former San Francisco supervisor who supports continuing to allow voters to choose, due to the importance of public accountability. Kim noted that appointed officials can also be swayed by political demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you\u2019re dependent on another elected office, which is the governor,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s really no way to delete political dynamics from this office.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Stacy Korsgaden, a former insurance broker from San Luis Obispo County, was the only candidate who spoke to the Chronicle and voiced unabashed support for removing the insurance commissioner position from the ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If not, Korsgaden said she would work toward establishing a requirement that candidates for the job possess an active insurance license of at least six months. Fellow candidate Patrick\u00a0Wolff, a San Francisco financial analyst, obtained a license in preparation for his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be someone that knows what they\u2019re doing, that has had experience and knows what the whole ramification is,\u201d Korsgaden said, citing her firsthand experience working with homeowners who have become priced out of their insurance policies due to the crisis.<\/p>\n
Wolff echoed the stance that the insurance commissioner position is more technical than it is political, arguing it takes expertise in understanding financial markets. But it\u2019s still possible for such a person to occupy the office even if it\u2019s elected, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you need is politics that gets the right people in the right positions. That can be done through appointment, that could be done through election, but it\u2019s not a magic bullet one way or the other,\u201d Wolff said.<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s not conducive to success, Wolff argued, is a candidate viewing the position simply as a launchpad for higher office. Wolff himself, along with Bradford, have both pledged to not run for any elected position besides insurance commissioner.<\/p>\n
But Allen said the stepping stone concept, though oft repeated, is not well founded. Though previous commissioners have gone on to run for governor or other offices, only one \u2014 current Rep. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield\u00a0\u2014 has succeeded in holding a higher office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly is not a good stepping stone office,\u201d Kim said. \u201cHistory has not shown it to be one. But I do think that this office is tackling some of the most interesting issues today and could be a powerful ally for working Californians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Insurance Commissioner\u00a0Ricardo Lara, shown in Los Angeles in April 2025 after the deadly wildfires, will be termed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,204,13766,13],"class_list":["post-337375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-election","tag-home-insurance","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}