{"id":687609,"date":"2026-03-28T09:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T09:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/687609\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T09:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T09:50:21","slug":"california-insurance-commissioner-candidates-vow-reform-fixes-for-fair-plan-san-gabriel-valley-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/687609\/","title":{"rendered":"California insurance commissioner candidates vow reform, fixes for FAIR Plan \u2013 San Gabriel Valley Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top contenders in the state insurance commissioner\u2019s race squared off Friday, March 27 at a Pacific Palisades forum where they discussed wildfire risks and how they would reel in soaring premiums for homeowners in the aftermath of devastating California wildfires.<\/p>\n

For the 2026 race, a crowded field of 11 candidates is vying to replace term-limited incumbent Ricardo Lara<\/a>, the eighth person in the commissioner role since it became an elected position in 1988.<\/p>\n

The forum, sponsored by the Palisades Recovery Coalition, invited a narrow field of candidates, including three Democrats: state Sen. Benjamin Allen, a 48-year-old attorney in Santa Monica, former state Sen. Steven Bradford, 67, who grew up in Gardena where he got his political start 26 years ago with a city council post, and Patrick Wolff, a 58-year-old San Francisco financial analyst with an insurance background.<\/p>\n

The lone Republican was Merritt Farren, a 65-year-old media and technology attorney who lost his home in last year\u2019s Palisades fire, and became an advocate while fighting State Farm\u2019s controversial rate hike request.<\/p>\n

The top two finishers in the June 2 insurance commissioner\u2019s primary, regardless of political party, will move on to the Nov. 3 general election, with the winner assuming the mantle of a job that has plenty of tough decisions to make.<\/p>\n

Farren drew a rare round of applause from the forum\u2019s tiny audience of 30 when he called out L.A. Mayor Karen Bass for \u201cfailed leadership\u201d for what he described as\u00a0insufficient firefighting resources at the time of last year\u2019s fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt led to the destruction of her city, and she should have resigned,\u201d said Farren, a former Democrat who recently switched parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaren Bass Resign Now\u201d signs are still planted along the road climbing into the hillside business district \u2014 underscoring the community\u2019s lingering anger toward the city\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n

The Jan. 7, 2025, firestorm in the seaside community<\/a>\u00a0and in neighboring Malibu turned to ash more than\u00a023,448 acres, killed a dozen people, destroyed 6,837 structures<\/a>\u00a0and damaged nearly 1,000 others before extinguished on Jan. 31.\u00a0In Altadena<\/a>, the fires were so destructive that customers have been slow to return to Lake Avenue businesses because so much of its community went up in flames in the January wildfires. The conflagration\u00a0turned more than 14,021 acres to ash, killed 19 people, destroyed 9,414 structures, and badly burned another 1,074.<\/p>\n

The candidates covered a wide range of topics over two hours, including calls for modernizing firefighting technologies and more transparency for the Department of Insurance in rate adjustment cases and claims handling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of Sacramento bureaucracy that\u2019s woefully behind with technology,\u201d said Allen, who had a front row seat to the January 2025 fires in the coastal city where he lives. \u201cThere\u2019s exciting things happening in the fire prevention space,\u201d he said. \u201cWater catapults are able to use AI to determine exactly where all hot spots are coming during an influx of a fire \u2026 to new types of drones to drop water tactically based on incoming data to control a burn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford also said the DOI needs greater transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to show why these rates are increasing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need a gold standard. I\u2019ve talked to homeowners who have done everything that they were asked to do, and they still can\u2019t get a discount.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to dodge insolvency<\/a>, State Farm was granted a 17% emergency rate hike<\/a> for homeowners, plus other premium increases for renters, condo owners and certain property owners. DOI\u2019s rush to give State Farm a rate hike was initially criticized by Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, which wanted the insurer\u2019s parent in Illinois to kick in hundreds of millions of dollars to help keep State Farm financially viable.<\/p>\n

With homeowners and businesses unable to find coverage in the standard market, many consumers ended up in the state\u2019s insurer of last resort \u2014 called the Fair Access Insurance Requirements Plan, or FAIR Plan. This insurer now wants a\u00a035.8% hike to keep it from slipping into financial trouble.<\/a><\/p>\n

As of year-end 2025, about four in five of the plan\u2019s more than 668,600 homeowner policies in California would get a higher bill by 5%-60% if FAIR can persuade DOI to approve its request. The number of policies it carries grew 43.8% from 464,900 in the fall of 2024 \u2014 just a few months before the Jan. 7 wildfires \u2014 and was driven by a rejection of claims from private insurers and other insurers who stopped underwriting new new policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need to move homeowners off the FAIR Plan \u2014 and quickly,\u201d said Farren in a recent statement provided to the Southern California News Group. If elected, Farren said at the forum that he\u2019d eliminate the need for the FAIR Plan by implementing \u201cCAL Reinsure,\u201d a plan he developed that shifts community wildfire risk off insurers and onto a state-organized reinsurance authority, allowing traditional\u00a0insurers to write policies statewide without fear of catastrophic losses from major fires.<\/p>\n

A reinsurer is essentially insurance for insurance companies.<\/p>\n

Farren believes it\u2019s one way to get insurers to begin issuing California policies again, expand access to affordable coverage, and end the delays and denials in the claims process that consumers face today. \u201cIt is a huge problem for those who are forced on it, and is largely responsible for driving insurers out of the state,\u201d said Farren of the FAIR Plan.<\/p>\n

Bradford said much the same and that he would \u201cfix this market and stabilize it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said\u00a0that profound change is desperately needed to right the ship as too many companies in the entertainment industry and manufacturers have already left the state \u2014 and that\u2019s not a trend he wants to see continue with insurance. \u201cWe need greater transparency in the FAIR plan,\u201d Bradford said.<\/p>\n

Also see:<\/strong>\u00a0Pacific Palisades businesses slowly return to work with \u2018a lot of people gone\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cState Farm has been one of the most difficult companies to deal with,\u201d complained Wolff. \u201cThe Department of Insurance let the market get so upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others contenders<\/p>\n

Jane Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor from Lakeport, is the only Democratic candidate who did not attend the forum.<\/p>\n

Republican contenders not at the forum include:<\/p>\n

\u2014Stacy Korsgaden, a Grover Beach insurance and financial services agency owner who advocated a return to free markets, citing overregulation and insufficient wildfire prevention and mitgation as the root of the system\u2019s woes<\/p>\n

\u2014Robert Howell, a San Jose cybersecurity equipment manufacturer who ran for commmissioner in 2022<\/p>\n

\u2014Sean Lee, a financial services executive from Irvine<\/p>\n

\u2014Eric Thor Aarnio, a contractor from the Sacramento area<\/p>\n

Eduardo \u201cLalo\u201d Vargas, a Socialist candidate with the Peace and Feedom Party and high school environmental science teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, has called for a public insurance system paid for through a tax on those who are responsible for the climate crisis and the state\u2019s wildfire disaster \u2014- the fossil fuel industry, utility companies and their billionaire owners, according to a candidate statement.<\/p>\n

Keith Davis, 40, an insurance agent from Winchester, is with the American Independent Party.<\/p>\n

None of the Democratic candidates secured an endorsement at the party\u2019s convention in late February. Allen won just over 41% of the ballots cast, followed closely by Kim.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party holds its convention in April.\n<\/p>\n