CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / INSURANCE COMMISSIONER : Garamendi Objects to Format; Debate Canceled

An apparent last chance for a televised debate in the Democratic and Republican primary contests for insurance commissioner has disappeared with a decision by KCET, the Los Angeles public station, to cancel plans to air such a debate six days before the June 5 election.

Tom Thompson, KCET’s director of news and current affairs, said Monday that arrangements by the station to put on a program featuring the two leading candidates in the polls in both parties collapsed when state Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) said he would not appear unless all seven Democratic candidates and five Republicans were on the show.

Thompson said the station felt that with so many candidates, any opportunity to make the show “a meaningful exchange of ideas” would be lost. On the Democratic side, he said, “The polls all told us this was clearly a two-person race, between Bill Press and John Garamendi.”

The news director acknowledged that the Press campaign was “very, very, very strong in their opinion they wanted it to be a two-person debate,” and had made such a request, but he said the station had decided on that approach on its own. If there had been a third candidate in one of the parties up near the leaders, “we would have invited him,” Thompson said.

A California Field Poll released at the end of last week showed that among 631 registered Democrats surveyed, 16% favored Press, 13% Garamendi, 4% Walter Zelman, 3% Ray Bourhis, 2% Conway Collis, 2% Larry Murphy and 1% Michael Blanco. The other 59% were undecided.

Among 550 registered Republicans, 9% favored Wes Bannister, 9% John Hardin, 5% Joseph Dunlop, 4% Tom Skornia and 4% John Perise.

KCET’s decision to abandon both sides of the debate because one of the leading Democrats would not go along was criticized Monday by Zelman, who said that the station is allowing itself to be “manipulated” and should have invited everyone.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic contest, letters surfaced giving new indications that Garamendi has important insurance industry support and Press important trial lawyer support in their respective campaigns. The insurers and the trial lawyers are the two groups with the greatest financial stake in regulation by the new commissioner.

In a letter to attorneys whose practice is defending insurance companies, Michael J. Brady, an officer in the Assn. of Defense Counsel, backed Garamendi and asked insurance defense lawyers to contribute to his campaign.

Describing Garamendi as a “conservative Central Valley Democrat,” Brady called him the “one candidate in this race whose goal is to maintain a healthy California insurance industry while at the same time looking out for the interests of California consumers.”

Brady said in an interview he had told Garamendi of his plans to send the letter and the senator had no objection.

On the other side, in a letter to lawyers who file cases against insurance companies, J. Gary Gwilliam, a former president of the California Trial Lawyers Assn. and long one of its most influential members, said that Press is the best candidate and called upon trial lawyers to each give him $250 or $500.