GOP Keeps Its Distance From Quackenbush

As Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush sees it, he is the victim of a Democratic ambush. But instead of riding to his rescue, the cavalry of Republican state lawmakers is running the other way.

Quackenbush’s fellow Republicans haven’t called for his resignation. They may never do so. But as investigations proceed, many wonder whether Quackenbush is so damaged by his dealings with insurance companies that mishandled Northridge earthquake claims that he will be unable to complete the final two years of his term.

Some decline to discuss Quackenbush publicly. They don’t want to speak ill of a fellow Republican, they say. One mused that he didn’t want to prejudge Quackenbush because he might have to decide the commissioner’s fate at an impeachment trial. But even Republicans who believe that Quackenbush can withstand the onslaught are extraordinarily blunt in their assessments of his actions.

“There is the Evil Party and the Stupid Party--and Quackenbush is a card-carrying member of the Stupid Party,” said Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), one of the most partisan Republicans in the Capitol.

Haynes said he does not believe that the facts so far prove that Quackenbush did something illegal or has lied. Unless that changes, Haynes said, he won’t call for Quackenbush’s resignation. But that doesn’t mean he is pleased with the man who many Republicans thought would be a strong GOP candidate for governor or U.S. Senate in 2002.

“We haven’t passed a law against political stupidity,” Haynes said.

Top Republican strategists are convinced that even if Quackenbush completes his term, his political career is over. However, they’re unlikely to ask him to quit unless voters begin blaming other GOP candidates for his conduct.

“This is a Quackenbush issue, not a Republican issue,” said Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach, leader of the Assembly’s Republicans.

Quackenbush, one of only two Republicans holding statewide elective office, might have more support if he had been a different sort of politician. For most of his career, Republicans say, he has kept them at arm’s length. One called him arrogant. Others call him aloof. Now that he needs friends, there aren’t many running to defend him.

State Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) served eight years in the Assembly with Quackenbush in the 1980s and early ‘90s. On Thursday, the lawmaker responded to a question about Quackenbush’s future by saying: “Not up to me; he’s got to do his own thing.”

Then he walked away.

Quackenbush only recently began asking legislators for help. Indeed, he was visiting lawmakers in their Capitol offices Wednesday when a Senate sergeant at arms served him with a subpoena to testify before the Senate Insurance Committee, headed by Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Daly City).

Quackenbush is the focus of investigations by the Senate and Assembly, state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and the Fair Political Practices Commission. Lockyer’s probe primarily involves alleged civil violations, though criminal investigators are also reviewing the matter, and Quackenbush’s legal team includes a criminal law specialist.

The investigations focus on foundations that Quackenbush established with $12.8 million from insurance companies. He extracted the money by dropping threats that the Insurance Department would seek more than $3 billion in fines and penalties against the companies for their handling of Northridge earthquake claims.

Quackenbush aides gave the bulk of the money to political consultants who produced high-priced television commercials featuring Quackenbush, and to organizations that had nothing to do with insurance or the Northridge earthquake. Lockyer has described the foundations as sham operations whose funds were improperly diverted by one of the commissioner’s top deputies.

“Nobody is going to defend the indefensible,” said Sacramento political consultant Wayne Johnson, who handles legislative campaigns for Republicans. Johnson did not call on Quackenbush to resign but said: “I would no longer describe [Quackenbush’s political career] as extremely bright.”

“There is life after politics,” Johnson said. “There is a whole world out there. You have to assess how you want to live your life. You have to decide whether you want Jackie Speier barking at you the rest of your life.”

Adding to Republicans’ puzzlement is that Northridge is GOP turf. Why, some ask, did Quackenbush ignore complaints of people there and use $500,000 in settlement money to help the Urban League of Sacramento, for example, build a new headquarters?

Among Quackenbush’s toughest critics is Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), who hopes to win a state Senate seat this fall. McClintock homes in on Insurance Department tactics of threatening insurers with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, then settling the matters for a few million.

“It’s a fundamental question of the rules and parameters by which government exercises its power,” McClintock said. “Does the state make it up as it goes along, or does it abide by the clearly enumerated guidelines we call law?”

Indeed, Quackenbush fueled the perception that he is not forthcoming when he refused to testify before the Senate Insurance Committee on Tuesday. He said he wanted to avoid a “political ambush.”

As evidence of a partisan attack on him, Quackenbush, with his defense lawyer by his side, cited a 15-month-old e-mail in which a Democratic legislative aide suggested to another aide that they “set him up” and “ambush” him.

Some Republicans said the e-mail buttresses the accusation of partisanship. But they advise him to disclose all he knows.

“We share his concerns that there is too much politicizing--and he has an obligation to respond,” Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino) said.

For some Republicans, the e-mail is of only passing significance. One Assembly Republican scoffed at the contention that the message suggests Quackenbush is the victim of a conspiracy. The commissioner, the Republican said, seems to be saying that his pursuers are wrong for catching him in questionable actions.