LBReport.com

News / In Depth / Perspective

State Senator Ricardo Lara Is Running For CA Insurance Comm'r...And If He's Elected It Could Trigger Feeding Frenzy Among Local Pols Seeking Higher Offices

LBREPORT.com learns Lara filed Insurance Comm'r paperwork in late Jan. 2017. weeks before LB rally alongside LB Mayor Garcia for Lara's "single payer"/state gov't run health care bill


LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. Support independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.
(March 21, 2017, 8:15 p.m., updated Mar. 22) -- A political campaign firm today (Mar. 21) issued a media release indicating that State Senator Ricardo Lara (D., LB-Huntington Park) is running for State Insurance Commissioner in 2018. We publish its text in full below.

It's a "free-shot" for Sen. Lara, not risking his four-year Senate seat (to which he was just re-elected in November 2016.) If Lara were to win the statewide office in Nov. 2018, the result could set off a local feeding frenzy for higher office among some LB City Hall incumbents

And we also report a fact that the Lara campaign's media release didn't mention: Lara's campaign for State Insurance Commissioner filed its organizational Form 410 paperwork on Jan. 31, 2017. Our source: CA Secretary of State's office. That means Sen. Lara (and perhaps others knew) he was seeking statewide office over three weeks before a Feb. 24, 2017 staged event at LB's Harvey Milk Park touting Lara's bill proposing a single payer/state government run health care system.

[Scroll down for further]

The Feb. 24 event featured LB Mayor Robert Garcia alongside Sen. Lara...who noted that SB 562 is numbered to stress its local connections. As introduced, SB 562 recites support for, but doesn't provide substantive implementing details. In 2008, the CA Legislative Analyst Office concluded that a 2008 "single payer" bill, passed by the CA legislature but vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, would cost over $40 billion more than then-estimated 2015-16 state revenue.)
Sponsor

Sponsor

Three other Dems have thus far filed paperwork to pursue the statewide Insurance Commissioner office: former Dem Assemblymembers Susan Bonilla and Henry Perea, along with Paul Song, a 2016 Bernie Sanders supporter and former board chair of the Courage Campaign (a group identifying itself on its website as fighting "for a more progressive California and country" that focuses on three priorities: "Economic Justice, Human Rights and Corporate and Political Accountability." Dr. Song stepped down as Courage Campaign board chair in April 2016 amid a political brouhaha after he introduced Sanders during a rally by stating: "Now Secretary Clinton has said that Medicare for all will never happen. Well, I agree with Secretary Clinton that Medicare for all will never happen if we have a president who never aspires for something greater than the status quo Medicare for all will never happen if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores who are beholden to big pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us." Song later tweeted an apology stating that he was "very sorry for using the term 'whore' to refer to some in congress who are beholden to corporations and not us. It was insensitive" and the next morning, Sen. Sanders tweeted a statement calling the remark "inappropriate and insensitive" and adding "there’s no room for language like that in our political discourse."

If Sen. Lara were to win the statewide November 2018 race for Insurance Commissioner, the result could ignite scrambling among LB City Hall incumvebts seeking higher offices...some just months after seeking reelection to their current City offices.

Sen. Lara was re-elected to his state Senate seat in November 2016 with no ballot opposition from any Republican candidate (a Libertarian opponent drew roughly 20% of the vote.) In a release, Lara's Insurance Commissioner campaign describes his LB-Huntington Park state Senate district (map at right) as "located in the heart of the South Bay and stretches from Long Beach to Lynwood, and from Huntington Park to Lakewood and Los Angeles" and notes the district "is roughly 70% Latino."

From the map, one can see that the district is roughly half Long Beach-Lakewood. The following is admittedly speculative but we believe politically plausible.

If Long Beach Mayor Garcia were re-elected in April/June 2018 (no challengers have thus far surfaced against him) and if Lara were elected Insurance Commissioner in November 2018 (three other candidates have filed paperwork thus far), Garcia could legally enter the race to fill the vacancy in Lara's vacated state Senate seat. That open state Senate seat would be filled in a no-runoff ("winner take all") special election in early 2019.

[Mar. 22 update] Another possibility: that if re-elected, LB Councilmembers Lena Gonzalez and/or Roberto Uranga might try for the seat if Garcia doesn't. [end update]

Thus far, no candidate(s) have surfaced against Garcia's Mayoral re-election bid and it's currently unclear if he'd face a ballot challenge for the state Senate seat.

Sponsor

Sponsor: Computer Repair Long Beach

If Mayor Garcia were to win the vacated state Senate seat (perhaps with Lara's endorsement) in early 2019, that could set off a scramble to fill the Mayor's office vacancy (with more than three years remaining on Garcia's abandoned term.)

Up to five current LB Councilmembers (districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9) will be on April/June 2018 Council district ballots, and any of them (or their replacements), or any of LB's other Council incumbents in districts 2, 4, 6 and 8, or former Councilmembers, or others who aren't former elected officials, could choose to run for the vacated Mayor's seat.

Sponsor

Sponsor

If a LB Councilmember were to pursue and win the state Senate seat, or were to win a special election to fill the vacated Mayor's seat, that would create a Council vacancy that any current non-incumbent could seek in another no-runoff special election.

The last Long Beach city officeholder to leave his Long Beach office to pursue Sac'to office -- and trigger a taxpayer-costly "special election" -- was Councilman Patrick O'Donnell. He received, but politically brushed off, criticism for leaving his Council seat to seek the Sac'to Assembly seat roughly half way through his four year Council term of office. By comparison, Garcia would have to abandon his Mayoral seat just months after seeking another four year term. If he won the state Senate seat, LB taxpayers would end up paying for a citywide special election, more costly than a Council district special election.

Sponsor


We reiterate that our scenario above is speculative. We don't wish to imply that with the statewide Insurance Commissioner contested election roughly 18 months away, that any candidate now is a shoo-in.

Developing. Below is the release text issued today (Mar. 21) by the Lara Insurance Commissioner campaign:

[Lara campaign release text] RICARDO LARA ENTERS RACE FOR CA STATE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER

Progressive Champion, Senator Announces Statewide Bid; Vows to be California's "Defender" Against Trump and Washington's Efforts to Repeal ACA as California's Next Insurance Watchdog

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Today State Senator Ricardo Lara, who recently co-introduced Californians for a Healthy California Act (SB 562), which amounts to single-payer healthcare for the state, announced that he will be running to serve as California's State Insurance Commissioner - a statewide elected office dedicated to protecting consumers, enforcing all insurance regulations, and safeguarding Californians' economic and health security.

Dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as the "Point man in the push for immigrant rights," Senator Lara, who also previously served as Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus and currently serves as Vice Chair of the California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus, announced his candidacy by releasing the following statement:

"Our nation is in full blown crisis mode right now. We have a man in the White House with no popular mandate, who is methodically working to strip Americans of their healthcare, their economic security and their civil liberties.

"I'm running to be California's next State Insurance Commissioner because I believe at my core that California needs a strong defender, and a counterpuncher, who will stand up to fight our bullying President, Donald Trump, and his increasingly reckless federal government on issues from healthcare access to economic security and more. If millions of Californians begin losing their health insurance because of actions taken by Donald Trump, I will be there to fight him tooth and nail at every pass.

"As California's Insurance Commissioner, I'll work tirelessly to represent the great people of California, not the corporations, the billionaire class, the pharmaceutical or the insurance companies. I plan to work with anybody who is willing to come to the table, but my allegiance will always be first and foremost to the consumers, the patients, our working families, and our most vulnerable communities in our Golden State."

As a State Senator, Ricardo Lara has already been a leader on numerous issues that the office of the Insurance Commissioner interacts with. As stated above, he recently co-introduced a single-payer healthcare system for the state, and also spearheaded the groundbreaking law that provided health care for 170,000 immigrant children, and has played a strong, dynamic role in shaping, implementing and expanding Covered California.

In 2016, Senator Lara engineered the successful statewide campaign to allow for multi-lingual education in California's schools. He was also one of the key leaders behind a landmark effort to grant driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants in California. This legislation is more important than ever, now that Donald Trump has instructed border patrol agents that they may deport undocumented immigrants for the "crime" of driving without a license.

Senator Lara was born and raised in East Los Angeles and attended schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He graduated from San Diego State University with a double major in Journalism and Spanish. He worked as a legislative staffer for years, including working for State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and for then-Assemblymember and now State Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Léon. In 2010, Senator Lara was elected to the California State Assembly, and in 2012, he was elected to the California State Senate, where he made history as the first openly gay person of color in the State Senate.

His 33rd Senate District is expansive, encompassing nearly one million people, roughly 70% of which is Latino. The district is located in the heart of the South Bay and stretches from Long Beach to Lynwood, and from Huntington Park to Lakewood and Los Angeles.

Significantly, if elected, Senator Lara would be the first openly gay statewide elected official in California. Today, Senator Lara serves as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Senate, considered to be perhaps the most influential committee in the California State Senate.


Opinions expressed by LBREPORT.com, our contributors and/or our readers are not necessary those of our advertisers. We welcome our readers' comments/opinions 24/7 via Disqus, Facebook and moderate length letters and longer-form op-ed pieces submitted to us at mail@LBReport.com.



blog comments powered by Disqus

Recommend LBREPORT.com to your Facebook friends:


Follow LBReport.com with:

Twitter

Facebook

RSS

Return To Front Page

Contact us: mail@LBReport.com







Adoptable pet of the week:





Carter Wood Floors
Hardwood Floor Specialists
Call (562) 422-2800 or (714) 836-7050


Copyright © 2017 LBReport.com, LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of Use/Legal policy, click here. Privacy Policy, click here