{"id":5545,"date":"2026-06-10T05:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T02:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=5545"},"modified":"2026-06-10T05:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T02:40:26","slug":"far-left-bernie-ally-vies-for-key-california-insurance-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/far-left-bernie-ally-vies-for-key-california-insurance-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Far-Left Bernie Ally Vies for Key California Insurance Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Jane Kim<\/strong>, who heads the progressive California Working Families Party, secured first place with 26.8% of the vote as of Tuesday night with 83% of ballots counted, according to <em>New York Post<\/em>. State Senator <strong>Ben Allen<\/strong> took second place with 19.6%, setting up a Democrat-versus-Democrat showdown in November.<\/p>\n<p>Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor who served as political director for Bernie Sanders&#8217; 2020 presidential campaign, benefited from an endorsement by the far-left Vermont senator that helped her surge past a packed field of 11 candidates. Sanders had promoted her candidacy in a political advertisement, portraying her as someone who would challenge established institutions and advocate for Medicare for All.<\/p>\n<p>Allen, who has sponsored legislation aimed at assisting fire victims, will compete against Kim during a period when California&#8217;s insurance industry faces unprecedented scrutiny. The Los Angeles wildfires from last year have thrust the Insurance Commissioner&#8217;s role into the spotlight, with numerous fire victims struggling to resolve claims and some calling for the resignation of current Commissioner <strong>Ricardo Lara<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The closest Republican challenger, insurance expert <strong>Stacy Korsgaden<\/strong>, fell short of advancing to the general election with nearly 16% of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>The insurance crisis has also emerged as a flashpoint in California&#8217;s gubernatorial race. Democratic frontrunner <strong>Xavier Becerra<\/strong>, a former state attorney general, drew attention by pledging to cap homeowners&#8217; insurance premiums\u2014a promise that experts say exceeds a governor&#8217;s authority.<\/p>\n<p>Becerra claimed he would summon the insurance commissioner and demand a freeze on rates, threatening to investigate insurance companies if they refused compliance. However, California voters approved Proposition 103, a landmark consumer protection law that requires insurers to obtain state insurance commissioner approval before implementing rate increases\u2014authority that rests with the commissioner, not the governor.<\/p>\n<p>During a forum, Allen confirmed that the governor lacks such authority. Kim declined to give a direct answer but suggested it would be <em>an interesting case study<\/em>, as reported by <em>New York Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two progressive Democrats will face off in November for California Insurance Commissioner as the state grapples with wildfire aftermath and insurance disputes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":5544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[6002,651,2610,6003,6001,6004],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-5545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-california","tag-democratic-primary","tag-insurance-commissioner","tag-jane-kim","tag-wildfires","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5605,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/5605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}