[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Either it was Governor Schwarzenegger's endorsement of Prop 93 or internal tracking polls showing an upswing in support for Prop 93, but Insurance Commissioner Steve "I Love Being Fleeced by Consultants" Poizner has dumped another $1 million of his fortune into the anti-term limits reform measure. That makes his contribution $2.5 million bucks.

Poizner, once a golden boy in political circles, has cozied up with the state prison guards union (who've dumped in $2 million of their own). CCPOA, the union, apparently thinks it can get a better deal with inexperienced legislators than with seasoned lawmakers for its special interests. That's Exhibit A for Prop 93.

And then there's $1.5 million in mystery money from out-of-state. Poizner has refused to provide details on who's forked over this chunk of change to finance his campaign. Is it insurance companies that he's supposed to regulate? Or some right-wing zealot? We'll never know. Sure would be nice if someone in the journalism world would put the heat on Poizner to name names.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Rather than debate the merits of whether Prop 93 is an effective way to provide legislators with more experience, the shrill opponents of the initiative pulled out a prop for the cameras today: a Trojan Horse. One problem with their Mr. Ed: he, like much of their campaign money, is from out-of-state. The license plates on the trailer carrying the Trojan Horse were from Michigan (see photo).
 
Aside from Steve Poizner, the insurance commissioner whose pockets are once again being picked by GOP political consultants, the anti-93 campaign is being driven by U.S. Term Limits, a Washington, D.C.-based organization. Its leader is on the way to the Big House for campaign fraud.
 
No word on whether Jon Fleischman of the Flash Report was behind the Trojan Horse with a broom trying to clean up this latest mess by the Poizner-funded campaign.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Illegally canceling health care policies is stock and trade for the industry. Their competitor Blue Cross was already fined $1 million by the state in March and Health Net faced a massive court case for doing the same thing. There are lots of reasons why our health care system is a mess and this is one of them. LAT:

California's top insurance regulator has accused Blue Shield, one of the state's largest health plans, of 1,262 violations of claims-handling laws and regulations that resulted in more than 200 people losing their medical coverage.

Calling the allegations "serious violations that completely undermine the public's trust in our healthcare delivery system and are potentially devastating to patients," Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said he would announce today that he would seek a $12.6-million fine.

read more »

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Aside from Wanna-be Governor/MIA Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and the prison guards union, who's funding the right-wing effort to defeat term limits reform (Prop 93)?

Turns out it's an inside-the-beltway money launderer by the name of Howie Rich. The Pro-Prop 93 campaign has a new website that explores Rich's attempts to funnel and cover up contributions from wealthy conservatives to fight for right-wing causes. Check it out here.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Disclosure: I work with the Yes on Prop 93 Campaign. This is also available in orange.

There's already a Howie Rich exposed website, so the Contra Costa Times will have to just stick with the site they have now.  In today's paper (reg req'd), Steven Harmon goes into a little bit more about the mysterious initiative funder:

Just a few days after Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner's widely heralded takeover of the No on Proposition 93 campaign, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization quietly chipped in $1.5 million to the cause.

The group, U.S. Term Limits, spends considerable effort and money across the country trying to fend off attempts to weaken term limits laws, such as Prop. 93 -- which will appear on the February ballot -- in California. And the group tries to do so while steering clear of the limelight, which is precisely how Howard "Howie" Rich prefers it. (CCTimes 11/19/07))

More over the flip.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, California's only down-ballot Republican, will spearhead the effort to defeat a ballot measure meant to alter term limits, the Sacramento Bee reports. It's a bit ironic that Poizner is probablyusing the term-limits issue to build name recognition for himself, inanticipation of 2010 gubernatorial bid. And, as Lt. Gov. John Garamendiand other have pointed out, shouldn't he be looking after victims ofthe Southern California wildfires, not playing 2010 politics?

Dan Walters of the Bee offers some additional analysis of Poizner's foray into the ballot measure battle. Poizner is doing a political "three-fer," as Walters put: he's raisinghis profile, ensuring Proposition 93 will be competitive and threatensto take away Republican support for the initiative. LIke we said, agreat a way for a moderate to gain some trust in a GOP primary.

Saying he needs to devote his full time and energy to the "baseless " charges filed against himself, Orange County Sheriff Mike Caronna announced hisdecision to take a paid leave from office today, the Los Angeles Timesreports. it's sort of like Congressman John Doolittle, who has taken a"paid leave" from the House but still shows up and votes now and then.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

As the victims of last month's Southern California wildfires begin to rebuild their lives, one would think Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner would be out standing guard against insurance company malfeasance. But with today's pledge to dump $1.5 million of his seemingly bottomless pool of cash into the No on Prop 93 campaign, Lt. Governor John Garamendi is not convinced Poizner's priorities align with the interests of the people of California:

"Today our state is still recovering from last month's devastating Southern California fires where nearly 2000 people lost their homes," Garamendi said. "I would expect that our Insurance Commissioner would be focused on helping our fellow Californians rebuild their lives, not playing politics. Today we must focus on healing California. There will be plenty of time for politics tomorrow."