Quackenbush Rejecting Industry Donations

Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, recipient of $6 million in insurance industry contributions, will not accept new donations from the companies for now, a campaign spokesman said Tuesday.

Jonathan Wilcox, the spokesman, said Quackenbush has in fact not accepted any insurance company money for the last 18 months.

Quackenbush, the sole Republican candidate for the office and a favorite to win reelection in November, said he has continued some fund-raising from insurance agents and brokers, who traditionally donate far less than insurance companies do. He said those gifts will be reported on a contribution filing due this week.

The commissioner said he has never been embarrassed at taking any contributions because he believes contributions are part of the democratic system of government.

He offered no reason for changing his policy on company contributions. In his first race for the office in 1994, Quackenbush initially said he would not take such gifts, but later changed his mind and did so.

Part of the $6 million in industry contributions he raised during his campaign and first term in office went to pay for personal television ads by Quackenbush for an initiative he sponsored that restricted the rights to sue in auto accidents involving uninsured motorists.

The commissioner has often been mentioned as an eventual candidate for higher office, and ceasing to take insurance company funds could reduce the impact of a major argument by opponents that he is beholden to industry interests.

Two leading industry lobbyists in Sacramento, Dan Dunmoyer of the Personal Insurance Federation and Barry Carmody of the Assn. of California Insurance Companies, confirmed that Quackenbush hasn’t been soliciting gifts from them or their members in more than a year.

Meanwhile, two Democratic challengers, Assembly Diane Martinez of Monterey Park and Marin County Supervisor Hal Brown, said they believe that regardless of not taking companies’ contributions, Quackenbush does remain an industry backer.

Brown, an insurance agent, has said he will take industry contributions, and Martinez has said she won’t.