Bustamante Accepts Insurance Industry Contributions
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the leading Democratic candidate for state Insurance Commissioner, has received more than $120,000 in campaign donations in the past year, as well as free meals and travel, from the insurance industry, including a health insurance association, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Some of the free meals and travel expenses were not reported in disclosure statements, according to the Chronicle.
Bustamante did report a $60 meal paid for by the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies in September 2005.
However, some consumer activists "worry that the lieutenant governor already has become too close to the industry" he seeks to regulate, the Chronicle reports (Chorneau, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/30).