Insurers have struck back against new California regulations that will change the way companies set auto policy premiums. California’s Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi released new guidelines in May that requires insurers to calculate rates primarily on their driving records rather than where they live. This issue took on cultural and racial overtones as the neighborhoods associated with higher rates are almost invariably low income and populated with minorities.

The insurance industry took action this week in two lawsuits filed in Sacramento Superior Court claiming that the rules will force them to charge customers more for car insurance. “We felt the right thing to do was to file a lawsuit and ask a judge to kind of call timeout and make a judgment over whether or not these regulations are valid,” quoth Sam Sorich, president of the Association of California Insurance Companies which represents companies that have about 50 percent of the policies in the state.

Garamendi ran in the June primary for Lieutenant Governor, and the insurance companies also took time out to spend about two million dollars in the last two weeks of the race on slam campaign against him in the mail and over the airwaves. Garamendi won the primary handily. Perhaps the industry will have better luck convincing a Superior Court Judge that the State’s Insurance Commissioner is not qualified to regulate insurance policy than they did convincing the electorate that he was a poor choice for Lieutenant Governor. Perhaps not.