2006.09.29: September 29, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Ethiopia: Insurance: State Politics: San Fransisco Chronicle: Garamendi leveraging official duties as insurance commissioner to the max as he runs for Lt. Governor of California
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2006.09.29: September 29, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Ethiopia: Insurance: State Politics: San Fransisco Chronicle: Garamendi leveraging official duties as insurance commissioner to the max as he runs for Lt. Governor of California
Garamendi leveraging official duties as insurance commissioner to the max as he runs for Lt. Governor of California
Thursday, for example, he was at a San Francisco Soup Company restaurant on Fremont Street to talk about the success of the workers' compensation reform he worked on and the need for better benefits, which echoes themes he's using in his campaign. From there, he and his state-paid staff were off to the Bay Guardian and KTVU-TV for interviews on insurance issues and, to no one's surprise, the lieutenant governor's race. John Garamendi is the State Insurance Commissioner for California. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia in the 1960's.
Garamendi leveraging official duties as insurance commissioner to the max as he runs for Lt. Governor of California
Garamendi leveraging official duties as insurance commissioner to the max as he runs for Lt. Gov.
Insurance Commissioner -- and would-be lieutenant governor -- John Garamendi was in the news Thursday, pulling off a rare double reverse move that involved telling business-oriented Republicans that badly needed cuts in workers compensation costs were saving California companies billions, while promising labor-oriented Democrats that badly needed increases in workers comp benefits were coming.
Trying to have things both ways is nothing new for politicians, but Garamendi is taking it to new levels. Strapped for campaign cash after an expensive three-way primary, the insurance commissioner has taken to the road for a number of state-financed events that sound a lot like campaign stops.
For the past two months, Garamendi has been firing our regular press releases announcing everything from a Hollywood stop touting homeowner and auto insurance cuts to the sentencing of a San Diego couple for worker's comp fraud.
Even as using the public dime to tout his accomplishments, his campaign officials are pointing to that same work as insurance commissioner as a reason to pick him over Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock in the November election.
Thursday, for example, he was at a San Francisco Soup Company restaurant on Fremont Street to talk about the success of the workers' compensation reform he worked on and the need for better benefits, which echoes themes he's using in his campaign. From there, he and his state-paid staff were off to the Bay Guardian and KTVU-TV for interviews on insurance issues and, to no one's surprise, the lieutenant governor's race.
Today, Garamendi is holding an official town hall meeting at Santa Rosa City Hall to talk about bringing low-cost auto insurance to Sonoma County, but he'll hang around the area for a campaign rally and a fund-raiser later in the evening.
It's impossible to avoid a bit of crossover between official events and their campaign counterparts this close to an election, especially when reporters are asking questions, said Gary Gartner, Garamendi's spokesman in the insurance commissioner's office.
"Most of these things, there's a little of both, some of it about what he's doing as insurance commissioner, some about the campaign," he said.
But much of the election-time blizzard of press releases and well-publicized events is just what Garamendi, a former UC Berkeley football star, calls "a strong finish in the fourth quarter," Gartner said.
"There are a lot of issues he's been working on for four years that he wants to complete," Gartner said. "And anything he wants to see accomplished has to be done in the next three-and-half months."
Garamendi isn't the only officeholder using his official duties as a wink-and-a-nudge push toward November. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, isn't holding bill-signing events in every corner of the state because he needs the frequent flier miles. And government officials, from assemblyman to president, still have to do the job they're being paid for even during the crush of a campaign.
Still, watching a candidate grab free media attention because of his statewide job is a real tooth-gnasher for an opponent who doesn't have the same type of high-visibility office.
McClintock's people, for example, aren't happy with seeing Garamendi on television or with the timing of the insurance rate cuts he's been announcing.
"It did not escape our notice that John Garamendi has watched insurance rates skyrocket during the first three-and-a-half years of his administration and suddenly, 100 days before the election and out of money, he took a great interest," said Stan Devereux, a spokesman for the McClintock campaign.
When this story was posted in October 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: San Fransisco Chronicle
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Ethiopia; Insurance; State Politics
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