SACRAMENTO — With a onetime State Farm official and a former insurance lobbyist in top staff jobs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is repeatedly siding with insurers in legislative battles as they maneuver to fend off fees, fines and concessions to policyholders.
A veteran insurance lobbyist, Dan Dunmoyer, is now the governor's deputy chief of staff, helping to craft his entire policy portfolio. Former State Farm official Kathleen Webb is Schwarzenegger's insurance advisor, vetting insurance-related bills that reach his desk and recommending which he should sign into law.
Both have given the insurance industry special access to Schwarzenegger's government and taken positions that protect insurers' financial interests. Webb, in particular, has met continually with industry trade groups and attended private meetings where insurance lobbyists plot strategy and discuss ways to push their agenda, her calendar shows. She has not recorded a single meeting with a consumer representative.
When insurance-related bills have crossed Schwarzenegger's desk, he has sided with -- or at least not opposed -- the industry nearly nine times in 10, a review of 56 bills tracked by insurance groups shows. At other times, he has sought to kill or blunt legislation before it reached him.
Administration officials have sent letters to lawmakers, for example, warning of their opposition to bills that the industry wants defeated -- letters that in some cases coincide with industry lobbying campaigns to beat back the legislation.
"I don't know that I can point to one pro-consumer bill that has made it through and been signed by the governor in recent history," said Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento).
The governor vetoed one bill that would have extended for nine years insurance industry fees that pay for seismic research. He rejected another that would have barred insurers from raising auto rates for home healthcare workers who use their cars to assist low-income patients. He also vetoed a measure that might have required insurance companies, rather than the state, to pay the medical expenses of certain accident victims.
"People expected of Arnold Schwarzenegger independent advisors who would bring a fresh perspective," said Doug Heller, executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "Instead, the governor has brought in State Farm and its cronies."
