California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi ran for Lieutenant Governor this year in the Democratic primary. He was opposed by two well liked and pretty well funded women, both State Senators. Early in the year while still wearing his Commissioner’s cap, he introduced a change in auto insurance regulations that would limit the insurer’s ability to tie geographic location to the cost of insurance premiums. Garamendi is apparently still holding to the increasingly archaic belief that auto insurance costs ought to be tied to driving records.

The insurance lobby in California is powerful, well organized and has been at odds with Garamendi for years. Their concern over the impact of his proposed regulations on the health and welfare of their customers led them to launch a two million dollar mail and TV campaign decrying Garamendi and his regulations, warning that the new rules could cause YOUR insurance rates to be raised arbitrarily. This ad campaign ran just before the election, oddly enough, and the Commissioner was infuriated.

Garamendi claims the insurance industry offered to call off the ad campaign if he would shelve his regulations. The insurance industry scoffs – if they return calls at all. From any perspective, it was two million wasted dollars because Garamendi won the primary with over 43% of the vote. One can extrapolate from those facts that if the insurance lobby REALLY wanted to damage Garamendi’s chances, they should have endorsed him.