Meet the candidates in California's closely watched insurance commissioner race

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- California voters will choose between two Democrats for insurance commissioner in November as the state faces growing wildfire risk, skyrocketing insurance prices and some insurers leaving the state.

State Sen. Ben Allen and former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim are competing for the office.

Allen, who was interviewed in fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades, an area he currently represents, said his experience with recent fires motivated him to seek the position.

"I don't think I'd be running for this if it hadn't been for the fire experience. I got to see the dysfunction of the insurance system up close," Allen said. "I've really become convinced the fact that I could make a difference.

"This is a really difficult job, but a really important job. Insurance undergirds almost every aspect of our economy, and the lack of insurance, the under-insurance, the challenges that my constituents here face that really harms the recovery and the ability of the community to get back on its feet."

Kim was interviewed in fire-ravaged Altadena, where she said climate change has exposed problems within the insurance industry.

"This office sits at the intersection of having the potential to address some of the biggest crises facing our state and our country at this time: wealth inequality, economic fairness and climate disaster," Kim said. "I actually think this is one of the most exciting offices to serve in as a policy leader and as a political leader if you really want to get things done and make California work for all of us."

"I think the insurance commissioner can and must play a major role in helping to drive a statewide shift in culture with regards to risk reduction," Allen said. "There's so much work going on around the state... to reduce the risk of their communities. But they're not able to get calls back from the insurers. And I think the insurance commissioner has a role to play in helping to ensure that the work that's happening on the ground in all these communities to reduce risk is actually going to be rewarded with real, available, affordable insurance."

Kim has proposed establishing something she calls "Natural Disaster Insurance for All," which would be run by the state, funded by premiums paid to insurance companies covering damage from floods and wildfires.

"In this type of system, we would claw back some of those premiums," Kim said. "The state of California would store those dollars. We would invest those dollars, and we would use a percentage of that revenue to actually plow back into our communities by investing in fireproofing, floodproofing."

Allen calls Kim's plan a "pie in the sky" idea.

"There is no country on planet Earth that has a comprehensive single-payer natural disaster insurance for all plan... As somebody who served on the budget committee, who knows how much the state budget was additionally stretched post-fire, the tax revenues came down, the state had massive new expenditures for firefighting and for transportation and infrastructure and rebuilding the schools, all those kinds of things, I really worry about making California the guinea pig for the world in this area," Allen said.

Both candidates believe the insurance industry has abandoned their mission and become too profit-driven. They just have different ideas on how to bring down the costs for Californians.

"Many candidates in this race, including my opponent, are arguing that they are the best person to drive this broken car. I want to fix the car. The system is failing us," Kim said.

"A lot of what we have to do is bring more competition to the market, open it up more, improve processes in the emitted market," said Allen.

Both candidates want to get Californians off the FAIR Plan and into the mainstream market, saying the FAIR Plan was only meant to be the insurance of last resort.