By Camille von Kaenel and Will McCarthy, POLITICO
FIRE AWAY: The fight over the future of property insurance in wildfire-prone areas is spilling over to the ballot trail.
Consumer Watchdog filed a new initiative Friday to temporarily ban insurers from selling insurance in the state if they refuse to renew or sell homeowners’ insurance to properties that meet wildfire mitigation standards. The measure would also require insurers to share more information about their non-renewals.
The initiative, which would still need to amass enough signatures to formally qualify for the 2026 ballot, is a return to the group’s origins: In 1988, Consumer Watchdog helped pass Prop 103, which required that the state’s insurance commissioner approve rate changes. It’s also a counterbalance to an initiative filed by Elizabeth Hammack, the owner of an insurance intermediary called Panorama Insurance Associates, that aims to repeal Prop 103.
“If we’re going to have a battle, we might as well protect California consumers rather than leave them to the wolves in the insurance industry,” said Harvey Rosenfield, the founder of Consumer Watchdog and one of the architects of Prop 103, in an interview.
But Steven Maviglio, a longtime Consumer Watchdog critic who has worked with the insurance industry in the past, called Consumer Watchdog’s initiative “a complete head fake” in a post on X because gathering the signatures and running the campaign would cost so much money. — WM, CvK