Brown Will Not Run for Insurance Commissioner; Garamendi To Run for Lieutenant Governor in 2006
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (D) on Sunday said that although he filed papers to run for insurance commissioner in 2006, he does not plan to run for elected office again and wants to become the host of a television show, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Torassa, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/19). Brown on Thursday filed papers establishing the Willie Brown for State Insurance Commissioner Committee and filed a statement declaring his intent to run for the office. Brown has $835,000 in a political account from a previous planned campaign for the state Senate that can be transferred into another campaign (California Healthline, 7/16). Brown said he filed the papers to shield the contributions from a campaign finance deadline that would have required him to return the funds if he did not run for another office. He said he will return about one-third of the funds to the original donors and give the rest to a number of charities by the end of July (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/19).
In related news, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi (D) on Friday said he plans to run for lieutenant governor in 2006, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports. Garamendi said that he has helped maintain "the best consumer protection agency in the nation" as the state's first insurance commissioner between 1991 and 1994 and during his second term that began in 2002. Under state term-limit laws, Garamendi is eligible to serve as insurance commissioner until 2010, if re-elected. Garamendi said, "I see the office of lieutenant governor as an opportunity to continue working on issues that have been important to me throughout my career," including universal health insurance and consumer protection (AP/Contra Costa Times, 7/17).
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