Appointive Insurance Chief Urged

SACRAMENTO — A senator who failed to cut off insurance industry campaign contributions to the insurance commissioner proposed legislation Wednesday to fill the office with a gubernatorial appointee instead of an elected official.

“I don’t believe in the long run that electing the head of the Department of Insurance is salubrious,” said Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco).

“This is an office that is almost singular in the opportunity and availability of corruption and of influence in the election process,” he said.

Two powerful insurance industry groups gave the bill cautious endorsements, but a consumer activist called Kopp’s announcement bizarre and disconcerting and predicted that voters would reject the move.

“Elected insurance commissioners are accountable to the people,” said Jamie Court of the Proposition 103 Enforcement Project. “With appointed commissioners, it’s the governor’s campaign contributors who call the shots.”

Dana Spurrier, a spokeswoman for Republican Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush, said Quackenbush hadn’t reviewed Kopp’s bill but agreed in principle that the office should be appointive.

However, Spurrier contended that Quackenbush, who has been frequently criticized by consumer advocates, has been a tough regulator whose policies have contributed to a drop in auto insurance rates.

Kopp’s bill, if approved by legislators, the governor and voters, would take effect in 2003.

Kopp held a news conference to announce his latest legislation six days after the Senate soundly rejected another one of his bills, a measure that would bar insurance industry donations to candidates for insurance commissioner.

California had an appointed commissioner until 1990, when Democrat John Garamendi was elected to the post after voters made the office elective by approving Proposition 103 in 1988.