The California Department of Insurance, an agency of 1,300 employees created in 1991, its mission is to watch over the interests of the consumer, license and regulate the 1, 500 insurance companies and more than 300,80 insurance agents and brokers in California, and to ensure that their work is honest, open and fair.
Ricardo Lara has led the department as Insurance Commissioner since January 2019. He has been running for re-election.
Notably, there are nine candidates for this position. The primary election will be on June 7, and the general election on November 8.
Of all of them, Real America News considers that the best option is the incumbent, Ricardo Lara, for his fruitful work in defense of consumers and families and their history of service to the community. Real America News calls on its readers to vote for Ricardo Lara.
he was elected to his current position on November 6, 2018. He took office on January 7, 2019.
His main rival in the June primary is Assemblyman Marc Levine of San Francisco, who has garnered support of three of the main media outlets in the state. Furthermore, Lara posts an impressive list of endorsements that includes Governor Gavin Newsom, US Senator Alex Padilla, and former Governors Jerry Brown and Gray Davis, among many others.
We believe that Levine’s positions are similar to what Lara is already doing in the position and that he would not bring anything new to the position beyond his relentless criticism of the incumbent. He is not enough to make us change our minds.
Previously, from 2008, Ricardo Lara was a state assemblyman and from 2012, state senator, position to which he was re-elected in 2016 with almost 80% of the votes. He was the first openly gay person of color elected to the state Senate, and later, to a state office in California history
Real America News has learned about Ricardo Lara’s presence and work through the years in his various functions, a task that we remember he accepted with decision and humility.
We remember that in 2011, when the corruption scandal in the city of Bell rocked to the Latino community, as its representative established the High Risk Local Audit Program to prevent a repeat of the embarrassment of that time in cities plagued by waste, fraud or mismanagement.
Since then, Lara has been one of the most successful parliamentarians in the state, with dozens of laws authored by him, generally on issues of social justice, defense of youth or medical coverage .
This facet was continued from his current position, making several of his proposals become new legislation.
In his first year on the job, his team made questionable practical errors spread by interested media, and which Lara overcame by canceling all of that which may have led to a personal criticism of him. These same interests now question him for having had strong ties to labor unions in his career, ties that we consider to be beneficial for the latter, for the community and ultimately for all Californians.
The pandemic led Californians to hardly drive on the roads. Ricardo Lara ordered the return of bonuses to the drivers for $2, 400 million, work that he has not finished and must continue.
Ricardo Lara deserves to be re-elected and continue with the work he has started. For all these reasons, on June 7, vote for Ricardo Lara for Insurance Commissioner!