COMMENTARY: Election Patriots
Comment by Mark Lacter
There’s a pretty interesting race for California Insurance Commissioner and if you follow state politics, the candidates will sound familiar: John Garamendi, who held the job in the early 1990s, Tom Calderon, chairman of the state Assembly Insurance Committee, Gary Mendoza, who headed the state Department of Corporations, and Wes Bannister, who ran against Garamendi in 1990.
Of course, since not many us follow state politics, or haven’t the remotest interest in who wins, the insurance commissioner’s contest is a non-event. That means minimal newspaper coverage and nothing on television and radio. Pity, because next Tuesday is Election Day and out of that field will emerge the candidates who will be running in the general election this fall for one of California’s most important offices.
What’s striking about the voter indifference this time is that it comes after five months of faux-patriotism evidenced mostly inside sports stadiums and on the sides of automobiles. We say we love our country, but somehow that affection doesn’t extend to a voting booth.
The non-voters have their excuses: I don’t know enough about the candidates. All politics is crooked. The primary isn’t that important. There’s no difference among the candidates.
It’s hard to argue these points because, ultimately, people believe what they want to believe. Suggesting, for example, that they can learn more about the candidates if they really want to only segues to other excuses. And when something happens to affirm the predisposed biases say, a political scandal their cynicism is ingrained.
This is a nation that takes its democracy for granted even after Sept. 11 and there’s no better illustration than an empty polling station.
But let’s go back to the Insurance Commissioner because it’s a great example of how one officeholder can make a difference. Actually, let’s go back to the 1994 election. Insurers had been battered for four years under Democrat John Garamendi, whose anti-business policies caught the eye of consumer groups and made him an early prospect for governor. But it also mobilized the insurance industry to bankroll a candidate more to their liking.
That was Chuck Quackenbush, a four-term Republican assemblyman with country club good looks and a moderate-sounding platform that was enough to defeat Democrat Art Torres. (The industry was so involved that some agents made campaign calls misrepresenting themselves as cops.)
Quackenbush insisted he would stay independent, and for a while it seemed that way. He ordered insurers to lower their auto premiums and led an effort to overhaul the state’s antiquated earthquake insurance laws. But critics were always skeptical as it turned out, with good reason.
Instead of making insurance companies fork over $3 billion for mishandling Northridge-related claims, Quackenbush allowed them to donate $12 million to a nonprofit foundation he established. There was more: Quackenbush traveling first class on the industry dime, his deputy pleading guilty to money laundering, donations to the foundation that wound up in somebody’s bank account, etc. Quackenbush resigned in advance of impeachment proceedings, moved to Hawaii and hasn’t been heard from since.
Point is, Chuck Quackenbush made a difference because not enough voters were watching. Perhaps more important than one guy’s failings, though, are the successes of so many other elected officials folks who, believe it or not, are dedicated to doing the right thing.
The trick is getting them elected. And that only happens if you bother showing up next Tuesday.
Mark Lacter is editor of the Business Journal.
