Quackenbush Faces Conflict of Interest Complaint

A complaint alleging that state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush violated a conflict of interest law by accepting large contributions from insurers was filed Monday with a state watchdog agency.

Tony Miller, a lawyer and former secretary of state, asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate 16 instances between Jan. 1, 1999 and Feb. 19, 2000 in which, he said, Quackenbush accepted contributions from insurance companies who had business pending before his department.

Miller said the contributions violated a California law that disqualifies any elected officers of a public agency from participating in decisions affecting their campaign donors.

The law specifically applies, Miller said, to contributions that are more than $250 and have been received in the 12 months preceding a decision, or while it is pending or 90 days after it is made.

Miller said that in the 13 months of campaign finance reports he examined he identified $301,350 that Quackenbush received from insurers that had business pending before his department.

A spokesman for the commissioner declined to comment on Miller’s complaint, dismissing it as “purely political.” Quackenbush is a Republican and Miller a Democrat.

An official of the Fair Political Practices Commission said the complaint had been received and “we are reviewing it.”

Quackenbush is expected to argue that he is not covered by the law because constitutional officers are exempt from its provisions and all officials who are elected statewide are constitutional officers.

Miller said he will argue that Quackenbush is not a constitutional officer because the elected insurance commissioner position was created by a 1988 allot initiative and not a constitutional amendment. “The insurance commissioner is unique in California,” Miller said. “He is directly involved in the regulation of an entire industry. If anyone should be subject to the law, he should be.”

Quackenbush’s acceptance of large contributions from the industry he regulates has come under scrutiny because much of the money he collected in 1999 was used to pay off personal loans that his wife made to her unsuccessful 1998 campaign for the state Senate.

During that year he transferred to her campaign treasury a total $175,000, most of which he collected from insurance interests. Among the contributions he received was $50,000 from Allstate Insurance, an amount that Miller says in his complaint was donated shortly after the commissioner made decisions on regulatory issues involving the company.

Allstate spokesmen have said the company’s donation had no connection to any of the commissioner’s decisions.

The Assembly Insurance Committee has asked Quackenbush to appear at a hearing April 26 to answer questions about his regulatory decisions affecting insurance companies.