21st Century Insurance

* Crystal Cruises has promoted Adam Leavitt, vice president, marketing, to senior vice president, marketing. He will oversee development of the Los Angeles-based cruise line's advertising as well as work on increasing market awareness. * Semiconductor industry veteran Sue Powers has joined El Segundo-based ISuppli Corp., a provider of procurement and supply chain management services for the electronic components industry. Powers will be vice president, planning and customer service.

With only days left before the November election, state Republicans solicited nearly $1 million from a Los Angeles insurance company and channeled it to key races around California in a way that hid the source of the contributions. On Oct. 21, Woodland Hills-based 21st Century Insurance Group wrote checks ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 to the California Republican Party and GOP committees in 15 mostly rural counties.

Britain's Prudential declared Wednesday that its plan to buy Texas insurer American General Corp. "remains in full force and effect," but analysts predicted victory for a surprise rival bid by global insurance giant American International Group. Prudential issued its statement Wednesday after AIG late Tuesday made an unsolicited $23-billion stock offer for American General, one of the nation's largest insurance companies.

* Woodland Hills-based 21st Century Insurance has promoted Marina Lubinsky to manager of Internet business development, with responsibility for strategy and technology development. Lubinsky joined 21st Century in January 2000. 21st Century recently redesigned its Web site, I21.com. The company also named former Progressive Insurance Co. executive Michael Mobley vice president and California product manager responsible for design, pricing and legislative and regulatory strategies.

Five companies that cut millions of dollars in settlement deals with former state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush have filed court papers trying to prove the agreements are legally binding--despite a lawsuit by the state attorney general intended to wipe them out. If the companies fail, they will face a fresh investigation into allegations that they low-balled hundreds and possibly thousands of people while paying damage claims linked to the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Auto insurers are launching a well-financed campaign against Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi's push for new regulations that the industry contends would raise rates for millions of California drivers. The campaign is expected to be unveiled Monday, less than a month before Garamendi faces two challengers in the June 6 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Insurers insist their "broad-based education campaign" isn't politically motivated.

Joey Buttafuoco, notorious for his love affair with a teenager who shot his wife in the face, was sentenced to a year in jail Monday for insurance fraud and banned from the auto body business in California for life. Prosecutors dropped other charges, including grand theft, in return for Buttafuoco's guilty plea. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Horwitz also ordered him to pay $4,624 in restitution to 21st Century Insurance Co.

Every campaign finance reform plan seems to wind up with some sort of loophole. California's Proposition 34, approved by voters in November 2000, has a doozy. That's why we learn only now that a Southern California insurance company gave nearly $1 million to the Republican Party in the waning days of last year's campaign.