When last Decs&Excs checked in on Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, he was demanding that the insurance industry be investigated by assorted law enforcement agencies for engaging in "blackmail" and "extortion." The industry's "crime" consists in daring to challenge the Commissioner's proposed revisions to auto insurance rate regulations -- in part by claiming that the revisions will actually raise auto insurance rates for many non-urban Californians -- at the same time as Garamendi is running for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor. Prior posts on this subject are below: #1, #2.
Here are some of the latest developments in this story:
- I have been trying to track down the "Insurance Department study" cited by the industry's spokespeople in support of their claims, thus far without success. I am continuing my inquiries and will report further if I am able to get my hands on the source material.
- The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday published a skeptical editorial suggesting, as I have done, that there is not much of substance in the Commissioner's accusations:
For the public watching all this, it's hard to see the crime here. People in our democracy, even a powerful special interest, are free to denounce decisions government officials make that they don't like. It's done all the time. Ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Public employee unions spent millions to attack him during the last special election. That wasn't a crime. It's called politics, free speech, democracy in the raw.
Garamendi's letter to the FBI looks like politics too, a creative way to blunt the political attack from the insurance industry that the candidate in a tough race for lieutenant governor knows is coming.
- With the calm demeanor and understated tone for which the Huffington Post is so well known, HuffPo commentator Michelle Kraus concludes that the Garamendi-insurer hubbub is a sign of a broader and more sinister "Republican Grand Plan to Hijack California."
Look carefully, and the specter of the plan coalesces and clarifies before your horrified eyes. . . .
[T]he stage is set for election extortion and blackmail against the current Insurance Commissioner in his race for Lt. Governor. The insurance companies have decided to pounce upon long-term worthy public servant Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi so that they don't have to deal with him again. . . .
This Commissioner just could not, and would not, turn his back on the people of the state for his own personal gain. Instead, John Garamendi has continued to fight for the People of California. He would not stand down and let the People lose money that they deserved.
On May 9th, Garamendi launched an FBI investigation and an investigation by the Attorney General against these insurance carriers for the aforementioned strong arm tactics. If he is to survive, if he is to be successful so he can continue his life's work as a true Public Servant (remember when that was not an oxymoron?), if we are truly fed up with the fixing of elections, we must rally to his defense, covering his back with our own. It must stop here!
California Voters - it's time to say no - to election rigging and lobbying by big industry. It's time to take back the democratic process and fight for a candidate that will not bend. We need to take back our power and raise our voices and help candidates that are honest like John Garamendi. Trust me when I tell you that this is not a ploy to gain attention. . . .
Apart from its hair-tearing intensity and occasional outright misstatement -- FBI investigations are "launched," if at all, by the FBI and not by state officials, and the Commissioner's accusations against the insurance industry do not include, as Kraus would have it, "election-fixing" -- this commentary is remarkable for the amount of pure confusion it deploys. The insurers' campaign is characterized as somehow part of a wider Republican "plan" to retake control of state government, but its impact will be felt in the Democratic primary election. If Garamendi is defeated in the upcoming primary, with or without input from the insurance industry, the upshot will not be a Republican filling the office of Lieutenant Governor. It will be another Democrat, freely chosen by Democrats, running to fill the post -- and probably winning it, given California Republicans' longstanding congenital inability to capture statewide offices other than the Governorship. (The Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor in November will be Tom McClintock, whose deep-dyed conservatism will appeal to the Republican base but will not necessarily appeal to the broader electorate.)
Does Dr. Kraus claim that Democrats should vote for John Garamendi in their primary because he is better qualified than his opponents, state Senators Jackie Speier (who just received the endorsement of the San Francisco Chronicle, not a particularly GOP-friendly institution) and Liz Figueroa? She does not. In a neat bit of misdirection, Dr. Kraus argues that Garamendi should receive all good Democrats' votes for Lieutenant Governor to teach those nasty insurers a lesson, rather than because John Garamendi actually deserves the position on his own merits.
For those who may want to ask her about her commentary in person, Dr. Kraus will be among the hosts of a Garamendi fundraising reception later today in Los Altos.
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