Challengers Stand to Incumbent’s Left

The two candidates in the little-noticed race for the Democratic nomination for insurance commissioner were active in the Los Angeles area Friday and Saturday, both staking out positions on the liberal side of the political spectrum.

On Saturday, Marin County Supervisor Hal Brown told the Mexican American Political Assn. convention in downtown Los Angeles that if he becomes commissioner he will end “redlining” in auto insurance and work to provide every child in the state with health insurance.

Redlining refers to discriminatory pricing of insurance, with residents in congested urban areas paying much more than those in suburban and rural areas. Redlining can also mean refusing to sell insurance in minority neighborhoods.

“While the insurance companies are making millions of dollars, Californians are suffering,” said Brown, a first cousin of former Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr.

The candidate is an insurance agent by profession, but he has called for rigorous regulation of the industry.

On Friday, the other Democrat trying to unseat incumbent Republican Chuck Quackenbush--Assemblywoman Diane Martinez of Monterey Park--joined protesters in picketing the headquarters of the Edison electric utility in Rosemead on behalf of an initiative to lower electric rates 20%.

The initiative, backed by consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield and other consumer groups, is being circulated for the November ballot, but may have a hard time getting the required 433,000 signatures of registered voters in time to qualify.

Martinez displayed 5,000 postcards from people criticizing the present electricity deregulation plan as a “swindle.”

Although she voted for the plan in the Legislature, she now is trying to undo large parts of it through new legislation, which is facing an uphill fight.

Advocates of the initiative are critical of a 10% rate reduction now showing up on electric bills throughout the state, on the grounds that ratepayers will have to pay it back with interest between the years 2002 and 2008.

As the bills indicate, the payback will be more than the savings to be realized between now and 2002.

However, the utilities and the staff of the state’s Public Utilities Commission argue that many investments in power generating facilities will be paid back by 2002, so that, even with the payback of the 10% rate reduction, overall rates will be even lower after 2002.

Martinez said she fears that if the deregulation goes through, “it will be the biggest fiasco of all time.”

A Los Angeles Times poll last week showed that Quackenbush with a wide lead in the insurance commissioner’s race.

Approaching the open June primary, in which the top candidate of each party will qualify for the fall general election, the commissioner had 50% support, Martinez 14% and Brown 13%, with the rest undecided.

Quackenbush has always had massive support from the insurance industry in commissioners’ races.

Neither Martinez nor Brown has raised much money, but Brown said Saturday he hopes to have raised $300,000 for advertising before the primary.

Appearing before the Mexican American Political Assn. meeting, he put considerable emphasis on his belonging to the Brown family, a political dynasty that has produced two of the three Democratic governors in California this century.

“Do you remember Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and Kathleen Brown?” he asked the audience. “They stood with the Latino community for half a century. They never broke their word, and I won’t either.”