Ads for No-Fault Seek Support of Minorities : Lobbying: The insurance industry spent $300,000 on a campaign on Spanish-language radio stations and in minority newspapers. It hoped to aid an auto insurance bill.

The insurance industry funded a $300,000 advertising campaign in minority newspapers and on Spanish-language radio stations throughout the state this week in an attempt to pressure Latino and black lawmakers into supporting a no-fault auto insurance bill that had been scheduled for its first legislative hearing on Tuesday.

But on Friday, the hearing on the bill--sponsored by state Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) to replace state-required liability insurance policies with a no-frills, no-fault policy--was postponed for at least several weeks.

The cost of the advertising, including full-page ads in the Los Angeles Sentinel and La Opinion and 80 or more spots on each of numerous Spanish-language radio stations, was confirmed by Robert Gore, spokesman for the Assn. of California Insurance Companies, and John Gamboa, head of the Latino Issues Forum.

Latino Issues Forum, the Consumers Union, Public Advocates and the California Council of Urban Leagues are part of a coalition of 26 minority and low-income organizations that are supporting the Johnston bill. They were prominently identified in the newspaper ads; at the bottom was a line saying the ads were paid for by the insurers.

The minority and low-income groups reason that even restricted benefits contained in the no-fault plan are better than nothing, and they note that millions of Californians are going uninsured rather than pay for liability policies that cost $1,000 or more in urban areas. The proposed no-fault policy would cost only $220 the first year.

The insurers have seized on the basic no-fault bill as a means of dealing a blow to the state’s trial lawyers, who would be prevented from representing the lion’s share of insurance claims. Under no-fault, a driver’s damages are paid by his own insurer, regardless of who is to blame for the accident.

The California Trial Lawyers Assn. counterattacked the insurer-financed advertising with ads against no-fault Thursday and Friday in the Sentinel, La Opinion and on a few Spanish-language radio stations. CTLA spokeswoman Dina Huniu said the cost was less than $20,000. The lawyers say the low-cost policies would pay very little in case of accidents.

The insurer-financed ads in Los Angeles targeted three state senators who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the first hearing was to have been held--Democrats David Roberti, Art Torres and Dianne Watson.

All three senators said their offices received many telephone calls and letters in favor of no-fault as a result of the ads.

Watson said that despite the pressure, she probably will vote against no-fault. Roberti and Torres said they supported delaying the hearing until a time when all auto insurance reform bills could be considered at once. On Friday, Johnston, realizing his bill would be rejected in the committee without support from the trio of Los Angeles lawmakers, put off the hearing until at least mid-May.

“The insurers have the people fooled into thinking no-fault is the panacea,” Watson said in explaining her position.

Torres charged that suggestions in the ads that Latino immigrants applying for residency under the amnesty program run the risk of being deported if they don’t buy the present expensive liability policies are far-fetched. “Under current law, it would take conviction of a felony, three or more misdemeanors, prosecution of a person for hate crimes, or failure to register for the draft to be deported,” he said.

Gamboa, however, said uninsured Latino immigrant motorists can be deported if they are caught several times driving without coverage, or driving with suspended licenses as a result of not having coverage. He said only the $220 no-fault policy can relieve them of the burden they are under.

Traditionally, most Democrats have supported the trial lawyers’ position against no-fault. The trial lawyers are among the heaviest contributors in the state to Democratic candidates.

But lately, as the costs of the state-required minimum liability policy have mounted, pressure from minority grass-roots organizations has been focused on minority legislators to change their position to cut insurance costs of their constituents.

A shift by the minority legislators could provide the impetus to pass the Johnston no-fault bill, which has been endorsed by Gov. Pete Wilson and many other Republicans.

In another development, Proposition 103 author Harvey Rosenfield assailed the trial lawyers for carrying in their ads a claim that his Voter Revolt organization had joined them in opposing the Johnston bill.

“I’m against it in principle, but we have taken no formal position on that bill,” Rosenfield said. “We never authorized the CTLA to use our name, so we believe using it was improper.”

Huniu said Voter Revolt’s name was used because of a misunderstanding.