ELECTIONS: 38TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT : Wilcox Takes Insurer Funds After Seeking Donation Ban

Assembly candidate Rob Wilcox, who pledged two months ago not to take campaign contributions from insurance companies, has received $1,900 this year from insurance agents, a Van Nuys insurance brokerage firm and the owner of a Woodland Hills insurance agency, campaign records show.

Wilcox made the promise in a code of ethics he urged four other Republicans to sign in their race to succeed retiring Assemblywoman Marian La Follette (R-Northridge) in the 38th Assembly District.

In a March 29 letter, Wilcox called on the other candidates to refuse to accept insurance contributions “until the insurance crisis is solved.”

“The insurance crisis has gone unsolved because the Legislature has been beholden to those special interests . . . . It is time for those candidates who believe in returning ethics in public service to join me in this major step for ethics and integrity,” he wrote.

Wilcox, a La Follette aide who has her endorsement, defended his acceptance of the contributions, saying they came from individual insurance agents, not large insurance companies such as State Farm or Allstate.

“I don’t think that local agents in the San Fernando Valley qualify as insurance companies . . . . These are by no means insurance companies and certainly not what I was referring to in my pledge,” he said.

But Wilcox’s GOP competitors were quick to attack him Friday for accepting the donations.

“I think it’s a little hypocritical of him to conduct himself as he has,” attorney Bob Scott said.

“He challenged everyone else not to accept insurance contributions, and he has, as far as I can see, ended up breaking his vow. I guess he felt it was OK to change horses in the middle of the stream. . . .”

Real estate broker Paula Boland said the insurance money “shows to me a lack of integrity.”

Wilcox and Boland are considered the front-runners to win the 38th Assembly District seat, which La Follette has held for 10 years. The district stretches across the northern Valley from Hidden Hills in the west to La Crescenta in the east.

Two Democrats, Irene Allert and Gary Crandall, are competing for their party’s nomination. But Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district 86,000 to 74,000, and the GOP nominee is favored to win the November general election.

In a state-mandated campaign finance report filed last month, Wilcox listed five contributions totaling $1,900 from donors engaged in insurance sales.

The contributions were: $250 from Advanced Insurance Managers of Van Nuys; $500 from Joseph G. Havlick, a Granada Hills insurance executive; $550 from William H. Hawkins, a Sacramento-based agent for Connecticut Mutual Alliance, which sells life insurance; $100 from Northridge insurance agent Jeffrey A. Thomas; and $500 from Kenneth D. Ulis, owner of a Woodland Hills insurance agency.

Scott said he refused to pledge not to take insurance money because he believed insurance interests shouldn’t be singled out and banned from contributing to political campaigns.

Boland said she is “proud to have the support” of insurance agents and companies.

Wilcox identified Advanced Insurance Managers as a brokerage firm. He said that Hawkins, the Sacramento insurance agent, is a longtime friend and former chairman of La Follette’s campaign fund-raising organization, the “38 Club.”

Wilcox said his opponents are attacking him because, with only three days left before the June 5 primary election, he is in the lead.

He said that Boland, a longtime chamber of commerce activist, “should know the difference between small-business people and big insurance companies.”