Two Democrats lead California insurance commissioner race

Two Democrats, a former San Francisco supervisor and Los Angeles state lawmaker, were leading the primary race for California insurance commisioner, according to initial returns released Tuesday night.

Jane Kim, a progressive, was ahead with 24% of reported votes, followed by State Sen. Ben Allen, a more traditional Democrat, with 20%. Republican Stacy Korsgaden, an insurance broker from San Luis Obispo County, was in third with 16%. No other candidate had above10%.

The two top vote-getters in the primary will advance to the November general election, regardless of party affiliation.

As of Tuesday evening, about 13% of all ballots sent to voters had been counted. It was unclear how many total ballots will be cast, as they can arrive up to a week after the election and still be counted, and many won’t be returned.

The ultimate winning candidate will lead the California Department of Insurance, which is responsible for approving rate increases for home and auto policies, investigating complaints about insurers and enforcing consumer protections. The current commissioner, Democrat Ricardo Lara, is termed out.

While many voters may have been unfamiliar with the insurance commissioner’s role heading into Election Day, the position has become increasingly critical in recent years as destructive wildfires have upended the state’s home insurance market.

Citing the rising fire risk, insurers have repeatedly won approval to raise homeowner premiums while dropping many thousands of policyholders statewide. Some of the largest insurers, including State Farm and Allstate, have even paused writing new home policies anywhere in California.

At a firehouse polling station in Woodside, Kristin Undhjem described the stress of being dropped by her insurer last year and scrambling to find another company willing to cover her property in the wildfire-prone Silicon Valley suburb. Given insurers’ wide latitude to cancel coverage for homes deemed too risky, she was skeptical about how much progress any of the candidates could make in fixing the insurance market.

“I think it’s so much more complex than that,” said Undhjem, who declined to share who she voted for.

Kim, the leading candidate, has proposed establishing a state-run natural disaster insurance program that all homeowners would pay into, guaranteeing universal coverage for catastrophes such as wildfires and floods. While critics have questioned the state’s financial capacity to assume the insurance risk, she’s argued that the program would provide many homeowners with more comprehensive coverage at lower rates, and allow the state to invest a portion of the premium revenue it collects in wildfire mitigation.

Allen, who declared his candidacy after seeing his constituents struggle to resolve insurance claims following the Los Angeles wildfires, has been the top fundraiser in the race and secured endorsements from top California Democrats, including Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.

He’s called for expanding the state’s wildfire mitigation efforts, including grant programs to help homeowners clear vegetation and make their properties more insurable.

He also supports continuing a recent plan by the current commissioner to lure insurers back to the state by allowing them to use climate change models to justify rate increases. In exchange for using the models, insurers must agree to write more policies in fire-risk areas. Some consumer advocates, however, argue that the plan, dubbed the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, fails to hold companies accountable for adding policies and could cause premiums to soar.

Korsgaden’s platform focused on easing regulations to enable insurers to offer new policy types and coverage options, with the goal of boosting market competition and reducing overall costs.

She won the California Republican Party’s endorsement despite attending the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., a fact that could alienate independent voters whose support she would likely need to be competitive in the general election. Korsgaden said she neither participated in nor condoned the violence at the U.S. Capitol on the day of the rally.

The other candidates in the race include Steven Bradford, a former longtime Democratic state senator from Los Angeles County; Patrick Wolff, a San Francisco financial manager; Robert Howell, a Silicon Valley businessman who represented Republicans in the 2022 general election for insurance commissioner; and Merritt Farren, a Los Angeles Republican attorney and consumer advocate.

Also running are Eduardo Vargas, a science teacher with the progressive Peace and Freedom Party; Keith Davis, an insurance agent with the American Independent Party; and Sean Lee, a Republican financial services executive; and Eric Thor Aarnio, a Republican contractor.

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