Feb. 27—It seems the gloves are off in Assemblyman Marc Levine’s bid to unseat state Insurance coverage Commissioner Ricardo Lara within the June 7 major.

Each Levine and Lara have lately despatched out mailers designed to tarnish the repute of their opponent. Levine’s mailer fees Lara with corruption for accepting cash from insurance coverage corporations searching for favors. The headline on the mailer asserts, “Re-electing Ricardo Lara would imply endorsing his corruption as insurance coverage commissioner.”

Lara’s mailer reads, “Get the information about Marc Levine’s Anti-Union Report,” and cites Levine’s votes on numerous payments to make its case.

The mailers will give Democrats attending the occasion’s state conference from March 4 to six one thing to speak about as they determine whom to endorse. Levine, a Democrat who lives in Greenbrae, stated he focused Democratic Social gathering central committee members and members of the media together with his mailing.

On Tuesday, Levine introduced he has launched two new payments to “restore ethics and transparency on the Division of Insurance coverage.”

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“Californians must regain belief within the Division of Insurance coverage,” Levine stated, “and have religion that the general public officers entrusted to guard shoppers are combating for them, not for insurance coverage corporations.”

David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State College, stated Levine has “a tall job” in difficult Lara, a Democrat with a powerful liberal biography.

“However he is finished numerous issues proper early on,” McCuan stated. “He’ll need to combat from behind, which implies he’ll need to assault.”

Lara grew up in East Los Angeles, the son of undocumented immigrants, and is the primary and solely non-White, LGBT+ particular person elected to statewide workplace in the US.

Lara additionally has endorsements from Gov. Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and “each state constitutional officer,” McCuan stated.

“Lara’s listing of endorsements reads like a veritable ‘Who’s Who,'” he stated.

However, McCuan stated, Lara’s uneven tenure as insurance coverage commissioner has left Levine a gap.

In 2018, when Lara was working for insurance coverage commissioner towards Steve Poizner, he took $50,000 from medical malpractice companies and different insurers, after pledging that he wouldn’t take insurance coverage business contributions through the marketing campaign.

Then in July 2019, seven months after Lara started his time period as insurance coverage commissioner, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that his reelection committee had accepted greater than $54,000 in donations from insurance coverage firm executives and their spouses after taking workplace.

A lot of that cash got here from an government employed by Utilized Underwriters, a staff’ compensation insurer owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and his partner. The sale of an Utilized subsidiary was pending on the time and required Lara’s approval.

The newspaper additionally reported that shortly after receiving the contributions, Lara intervened in 4 proceedings involving Utilized, on the request of its president, Steven Menzies.

In an interview with KQED, Lara stated he met with Menzies after taking workplace.

“Nothing in that assembly that got here out modified the course of my determination,” Lara stated.

Shopper Watchdog, a public-interest nonprofit in Los Angeles, has sued Lara to acquire emails and different paperwork associated to communications with Utilized Underwriters or its brokers. In that swimsuit, the nonprofit acknowledged that Menzies stood to lose $60 million if the sale of the Utilized subsidiary was not accomplished by Sept. 30, 2019.

In January 2021, Rusty Areias, a former Democratic member of the state Meeting, and Mercury Public Affairs, the place Fabian Nunez, a former Meeting speaker, served as a principal, sued Utilized for $2 million. Based on the swimsuit, the plaintiffs had been promised $2 million if their lobbying efforts resulted within the sale of the Utilized subsidiary.

Not one of the paperwork the Division of Insurance coverage equipped to Shopper Watchdog had talked about both Areias or Nunez.

“We knew they had been hiding one thing due to the Nunez lawsuit,” stated Jerry Flanagan, Shopper Watchdog’s litigation director.

Shopper Watchdog’s swimsuit remains to be working its method by means of the courts. A listening to is scheduled for subsequent week.

Levine’s mailer supplies a succinct recounting of those occasions.

“I believe it’s fully correct,” Flanagan stated of the mailer.

Lara didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Levine’s mailer or the Shopper Watchdog swimsuit. As an alternative, a marketing campaign aide equipped a replica of Lara’s mailer.

Levine says his new legislative package deal — Meeting Invoice 2323 and Meeting Invoice 2370 — would make the Division of Insurance coverage extra clear.

AB 2323 would prohibit ex parte communications among the many insurance coverage commissioner, division workers and an occasion until the commissioner and division workers disclose these communications on the division’s web site.

AB 2370 would require all state businesses to retain emails and different public information for at least two years. Levine stated this regulation is required as a result of in late 2021, the Division of Insurance coverage tried to institute an e mail retention coverage beneath which all emails would routinely delete after 180 days until manually archived.

Lara’s mailer cites a slew of Levine votes on payments to make the case that Levine has an anti-union file. It states that Levine voted “towards wages on publicly sponsored tasks, additional time pay for farm staff and vacation pay for staff on Thanksgiving and towards office protections for grocery staff.”

The mailer additionally accuses Levine of opposing payments that will have elevated constitution faculty accountability and boosted tenant protections from eviction.

Levine, a former San Rafael councilman, was elected to the Legislature by upsetting Assemblyman Michael Allen, who was backed by the Democratic Social gathering institution. Levine courted Republican voters and benefited from spending by two massive agricultural commerce associations that opposed Allen due to his help for laws defending farmworkers.

“There are a lot of folks, significantly on the labor facet, who haven’t forgotten that race,” McCuan stated. “Michael Allen was very near labor.”

In California, “Labor is a giant deal,” McCuan stated. “The Democratic Social gathering has progressive parts however labor controls numerous the occasion.”

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