Allegations of coziness between California’s elected state insurance commissioner and the insurance industry led to accusations flying between him, critics in Sacramento and Washington, and frustrated Californians who lost everything in the Pacific Palisades fires.
Commissioner Ricardo Lara accused Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., of trying to “White mansplain” the role of insurance commissioner after the Los Angeles Times reported his criticisms of the agency.
Garamendi, who was California’s first insurance commissioner after the position became an elected one in the 1990 contests, had said Lara’s intended reforms are ones that “clearly… the insurance industry wants.”
“Your job is to hold the companies accountable, and he seems to be doing the exact opposite, and that is giving the companies whatever they want,” he said of Lara to the Times.
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Lara claimed in response that he does not have the power to compel companies to write insurance policies, and that Garamendi’s suggestions would “exacerbate the problem at a time when insurance companies are pulling out of California.”
“[Q]uite honestly… this is not going to be the first or last time that I get White mansplained on how to do my job,” Lara, who is the son of Mexican immigrants, told the Times.
With six years in his current role under his belt and several prior in the state legislature, Lara’s reform plan seeks to help Californians following the weekslong conflagration of Los Angeles County that destroyed untold numbers of homes.
Insurance companies may be on the hook for about $45 billion, and State Farm reportedly asked for an emergency rate hike following the blazes, which Lara rejected, according to the Times.
The paper described Lara’s plan as a “carrot-and-stick” effort to offer concessions to insurers who agree to help underwrite customers in areas prone to natural disasters.
A representative for Lara expounded on the controversy to Fox News Digital, saying that it is entirely normal for an insurance commissioner to meet regularly with insurance companies.
“The California Department of Real Estate [also] meets with Realtors. The California Public Utilities Commission meets with SCE and SoCalGas. If they didn’t, they would be rightly criticized for failing to do their job,” the representative said.
“The same standard applies to the Department of Insurance.”
He also took aim at a prominent critic cited in the original report, a group called Consumer Watchdog that had claimed Lara and associated entities “attempted to conceal” $122,000 in contributions from the insurance industry to support his re-election.
A state commission later found “insufficient evidence” to support the complaint as a violation of state law and closed the case in January, according to the Times.
The Lara representative called those allegations “baseless,” when reached Tuesday by Fox News Digital.
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The Lara representative characterized Garamendi as a “member of Congress who has failed to act in his current position to protect consumers.”
The representative added Lara is committed to holding insurers accountable in the rate-making process and met with residents at 900 town halls covering every Golden State county.
“Californians want solutions, not distractions. Commissioner Lara is battling the status quo that has failed consumers for decades, while his critics have done nothing of merit to help consumers and make insurance more available and more affordable.”
When asked for further response, a representative for Garamendi pointed to recent remarks he made on the subject.
“The commissioner must really stand up for consumers, and that is the challenge that the current commissioner (Lara) must address in the days ahead.”
“Unfortunately, in the months and years past, he basically rolled over and let the insurance companies cancel policies which they did in the Palisades area, and he allowed the insurance companies to double and, in many cases, triple and quadruple homeowner insurance rates without the normal and the required public hearings and detailed investigation,” Garamendi said.
Meanwhile, in the state legislature, Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom as well as Lara and Sacramento Democrats for putting off serious reform to the insurance structure.
“Waiting this long leaves us now with the current system waiting for major reforms to take effect, and could result in the total failure of the insurance market during these catastrophic events like those we are seeing in Los Angeles,” said Jones, R-San Diego.
“Sadly, if the FAIR Plan collapses, every Californian will be paying the price with a surcharge on their homeowner policies to cover the state’s failures to act.”
Fox News Digital also reached out to Newsom for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
