Art Torres for Top State Consumer Job : State senator is preferable for insurance commissioner

Insurance--whether for homes, automobiles, health coverage or workers’ compensation--has been a hot political topic in California for some time now. There have been many controversies over how much it costs, how available it is to consumers and businesses and the ways insurance companies deal with policyholders. The unceasing disputes were one reason state voters in 1988 made the post of insurance commissioner elective by approving Proposition 103, the much-debated initiative that also aimed to roll back auto and liability insurance rates.

The overall effectiveness of Proposition 103 remains open to argument, but there can be little doubt that its provision giving voters, rather than the governor, the power to select California’s insurance commissioner made that previously obscure post an important and highly visible one. The state’s first elected commissioner, John Garamendi, used the position as a bully pulpit to become a strong--some critics uncharitably argued strident--advocate for consumers who felt the insurance industry needed to be firmly regulated. He also used the commissioner’s job as a springboard for a campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor, and is now leaving office as a result of his defeat in that race earlier this year.

The two major-party candidates running to replace Garamendi are both veteran members of the Legislature who must move on to new jobs because of term limits. Both state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Charles W. Quackenbush (R-Cupertino) can proudly point to long records of public service in Sacramento, and both are well-regarded as political moderates more interested in getting things done than in ideological posturing. We endorse Torres on the basis of his experience in dealing with insurance issues and his track record as a conscientious, but not contentious, advocate for consumers.

Torres has been chairman of the Senate’s Insurance Committee for three years. He was elevated to that post by the leadership of the Legislature after the previous chairman, Alan Robbins, agreed to plead guilty to taking bribes from a powerful insurance industry lobbyist, among other counts. Torres helped restore public confidence in the committee. He pushed legislation to reform the state’s badly run workers’ compensation system, to crack down on auto insurance fraud and to protect the rights of homeowners who complained they had been poorly served by insurance companies after disasters like the Oakland Hills fire and the Northridge earthquake.

Although hard-working, Quackenbush simply cannot match Torres’ track record on insurance issues or his knowledge of the insurance industry. A Silicon Valley resident, Quackenbush has good ideas on using computer technology to make the state insurance department, and the industry itself, more efficient and customer-friendly--ideas that should interest Torres.

It is somewhat troubling that more than half of the money given to Quackenbush’s campaign (more than $600,000 by last accounting) has come from insurance industry sources. By contrast, Torres has accepted roughly $100,000 from sources with insurance industry links, mostly law firms that represent insurance companies. Both legislators argue they would not allow insurance industry money to sway them from the strongly pro-consumer stance that Garamendi took, and we take them at their word. But on the basis of their records, Torres’ claim surely will sound more credible to voters--as it did to us.