Insurance Firms’ Gifts to Governor, Legislators Told

California’s property and casualty insurance industry--including auto, homeowner and commercial carriers--gave legislators $2,713,489 and Gov. George Deukmejian $460,645 in campaign contributions during the three-year period from 1985 through 1987, a Consumers Union study said Monday.

Only three of the 120 members of the Legislature got nothing from the insurance industry, and Insurance Committee members and the legislative leaders got heavy contributions, according to the study.

For instance, the most insurance money that went to any legislator, $146,499, went to state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), the chairman of the Senate’s Insurance Committee. The second-largest amount, $142,450, went to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

In a less-complete summary of contributions by the insurers’ political rival, the trial lawyers, the Consumers Union said the political action committee of the California Trial Lawyers Assn. gave the legislators $1,258,262 and Deukmejian nothing over the same period.

No individual breakdown by legislator was given for the trial lawyers.

The Consumers Union said in March that in 1987, the insurers as a group were the largest special-interest political contributor in the state. The trial lawyers were No. 2.

The insurers’ contributions included gifts by individual insurance companies as well as industry political action committees, while contributions of individual law firms were not listed. The author of the study, Bob Shireman, explained that it is difficult to determine which law firm contributions are given for purposes of the legal profession and which for clients’ interests.

Mercury Casualty Co., whose chief executive, George Joseph, exerts major influence within the industry, gave the most of any company, $376,250. Behind Mercury Casualty were Transamerica at $281,695, 20th Century at $205,000, Surety Co. of Pacific at $199,705, Zenith National Insurance at $162,700 and Farmers Insurance Group at $160,350.

Zenith is headed by Stanley Zax, president of the Assn. of California Insurance Companies, the industry’s chief Sacramento lobbyist. That company gave 3,282% more in 1987 than in 1985, when Zax was not head of the lobbying organization, by far the biggest increase of any company.

The study was released in conjunction with a San Francisco news conference by Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp urging voters to support Proposition 68, the initiative introducing public funding and limiting special interest contributions that is on the June primary ballot.

Both Van de Kamp and the Consumers Union last week endorsed an insurance initiative backed by the trial lawyers that is aimed at insurance industry interests, and both put their prime emphasis Monday on what they viewed as inordinate influence by the insurance industry on the legislative process.

But Van de Kamp, referring to all special interests who make heavy campaign contributions, declared:

“The outrageous escalation of campaign spending has led to legislative breakdown. Legislators, understandably concerned about reelection, are typically loathe to act against such powerful interests. Too often, the interests flex their muscles, the Legislature fails to resolve the tough issues, and citizens’ interests are swept aside in this tawdry game of monied politics.”

Among the main points of the study on insurance industry contributions were these:

- After Robbins and Brown, the third-largest recipient of insurers’ contributions over the three-year period was Assembly Republican Leader Patrick Nolan of Glendale, who got $124,400. The vice chairman of Robbins’ committee, Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Woodland), got the fourth-highest total, $115,300. Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) got the sixth-highest, $87,850.

- Senators on the Insurance Committee received 2 1/2 times as much money on average as senators who were not on the committee, and Assembly members of that chamber’s Insurance Committee got nearly twice as much as non-committee members.

- Nearly half the three-year total was given in 1987, which was not an election year but was marked with increasing popular pressure on the Legislature to act to stem increases in insurance prices. The Legislature failed to act in that direction.