Neither candidate for California insurance commissioner is taking campaign checks from the insurance industry. That has not kept industry money out of the contest entirely, according to a CalMatters review of who is paying for the outside groups in the race.
Political action committees that work independently of the campaigns have spent more than $6 million on the race so far, counting the June primary, CalMatters reported. That is the most ever for the office, which regulates property and casualty insurers in California.
Who the money is helping
About $3.2 million of that has gone toward supporting state Sen. Ben Allen, and more than $1.5 million has been spent opposing former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim. Both are Democrats. Some of the groups behind that spending count insurance companies among their funders, campaign finance records show.
In the past week, three bail bond insurers each gave $10,000 to a committee backing Allen, an entity that appears tied to the bail bond business gave $9,500, and a PAC tied to health insurers gave $48,000. Investor-owned utilities, including Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, have also given to groups supporting him.
Larger donors to the pro-Allen and anti-Kim committees include Meta, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, a PAC of the California Business Roundtable, and Chris Larsen, a crypto billionaire whose roughly $3.5 million across three committees makes him the largest individual outside contributor.
Spending on Kim's behalf tops $958,000, with the California Working Families Party supplying most of it, which Kim led until she entered the race. That party's PAC is funded mostly by individuals and labor groups.
Because the committees act independently, candidates cannot send their donations back the way they can return a direct contribution.
