2 Democrats Struggle for Recognition

It’s been a struggle for the two contenders for the Democratic nomination for state insurance commissioner.

Neither Assemblywoman Diane Martinez of Monterey Park nor Marin County Supervisor Hal Brown is at all well known. Neither has substantial funds to change that through advertising. And neither is getting much free publicity as they move throughout the state seeking votes in the June 2 primary election.

With the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat on the ballot this year, plus a host of ballot measures in both June and November, it would be hard enough for Martinez, 45, and Brown, 51, to get much attention.

But there also is a widespread perception that incumbent Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, 44, the sole Republican in the race, is a heavy reelection favorite.

Brown and Martinez are campaigning as insurance reformers. They accuse Quackenbush of being beholden to the industry and using his rate-approval authority to keep rates too high.

But in a time-honored California political tradition, Quackenbush is moving toward the center in an effort to preempt his opponents.

By portraying himself as a protector of consumer interests, claiming credit for a 10% average decline in auto insurance prices during his term, spotlighting $30 million in regulatory fines against insurers and suddenly favoring HMO regulation, Quackenbush has been trying to squeeze his challengers toward the political margin.

And no state constitutional officer has lost a bid for reelection since Mervyn Dymally lost the lieutenant governorship 20 years ago.

In the latest Los Angeles Times poll, Quackenbush led with 41% of the vote. Martinez and Brown had 18% and 12%, respectively, among likely voters.

Still, Brown and Martinez are moving along as best they can, having entered the race in which such better-known Democrats as consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn and state Sen. Patrick Johnston of Stockton decided not to run.

Brown, a first cousin of former Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. and an insurance agent, has been traveling the state more than Martinez. He has campaigned in 38 of the 58 counties and made the most effort to raise campaign funds.

Weeks ago, he set a goal of $300,000, enough to make a small radio and television buy.

Brown speaks caustically about Quackenbush’s claims that he has been tough on the insurance companies, taking strong enforcement action and lowering rates.

“I don’t think the media or the public is going to buy it when he says he’s not with the insurers,” Brown said. “He’s given away everything to the insurance companies. What else does he have to give?”

From the beginning, Brown has advocated having the insurance commissioner regulate HMOs in California.

“It’s a huge issue everywhere I go,” he said. “One half of the state’s population has HMO coverage. They’re being denied care. They’re being given cheap prescription drugs. Their hospital stays are severely limited. Their doctors are not battling for them.”

So Brown promises that as commissioner he would fight to change all this, although he acknowledges that a bigger role for the commissioner would require legislative action and that the Legislature has been reluctant to give the insurance commissioner more authority.

Other themes of the Brown campaign include more rigorous enforcement of the reform initiative, Proposition 103, adopted in 1988; reform of worker’s compensation to increase benefits; and reform of the California Earthquake Authority, with lower prices for quake insurance and more coverage.

Martinez (D-Monterey Park), the daughter of U.S. Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park), has served in the Assembly for three terms, the legal limit, where she has acquired a reputation as a maverick often at odds with party leaders.

Martinez has been a strong advocate of an immediate further 10% auto insurance rate reduction across the board, although past experience with Proposition 103’s mandated rollbacks would indicate that the companies would try to tie this up with protracted litigation.

“Prices are 60% higher in California than elsewhere in the nation,” Martinez said last week. She expressed confidence that she would be able to implement her pledge.

Martinez, like Brown, disparages Quackenbush’s attempt to build credentials as a consumer champion, saying, “I doubt very seriously that this leopard has changed his spots. The only thing he seems to be good at is spinning the press or deceiving the public.”

She also opposes ZIP Code-based pricing of auto insurance, under which urban dwellers pay by far the highest premiums; advocates a low-cost policy for low-income, previously uninsured drivers; and supports beefing up the Consumer Complaint Division in the commissioner’s office.

Martinez also believes in HMO regulation, saying that she would work to guarantee a consumer’s choice of a doctor, to ensure that treatment be determined by a physician and not corporate bureaucrats, and to force HMOs to cover emergency care.

In an attempt to give Martinez more exposure, Democratic Assembly Speaker Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles appointed her this spring to head a select committee on insurance reform.

But Quackenbush refused to testify at its first meeting, on auto insurance, saying that the committee was “blatantly political.”

The second meeting will be after the primary, said Martinez, who vows to subpoena the commissioner.

When Quackenbush was first elected commissioner in 1994, he bested a Latino opponent, then-state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles).

Torres had relatively unified Latino backing, but Martinez does not, having long feuded with some Latino leaders, such as state Sen. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), who has endorsed Brown.

Martinez described Solis as “quite venomous” and said “pure vindictiveness” had led her to back Brown.

Brown also recently added the Mexican-American Political Assn. (MAPA) to his list of endorsements after appearing before its convention. Martinez did not show up at the meeting.

Martinez downplayed the significance of the endorsement, charging that fund-raising is an integral part of the group’s endorsement process, with $5 collected from each person who votes his or her preference.

Brown often fortifies his appeal for minority votes by stressing his family relationship to Jerry and Pat Brown, both Democratic governors who had great support in the minority communities.

Polls have shown Quackenbush getting a strong plurality in the blanket primary. But the Democrat who gets the most votes, no matter how small a total percentage, will oppose him in the fall.

Minor party candidates on the primary ballot are two Peace and Freedom contenders, Gary R. Ramos, a private investigator, and Tom Condit, a writer; American Independent Merton D. Short, an aviator; Libertarian Dale F. Ogden, an actuary; and Natural Law businesswomen Barbara Bourdette.