Insurance agents, brokers pad Schwarzenegger campaign chest

Governor Schwarzenegger’s ballot measure committe just reported receiving 10 grand from the Insurance Brokers and Agents Issues PAC. (Here’s the contribution as reported to the Secretary of State.) Arnold is spending his money trying to qualify a redistricting initiative for the November ballot. Who knew insurance brokers and agents were big good government advocates?  May be that they’re more interested in the politician than the issue. If that’s the case, they’re likely to be gunning for the governor’s support of legislation that would allow insurance "agents" (who get a commission from insurance companies and work for them) to call themselves "brokers" as well.  What seems like semantics between two names matters: insurance brokers charge consumers fees – that can be hundreds of dollars – for representing the consumer’s interests. They shouldn’t get to charge consumers extra if they’re really working for the insurance company.  The bill is AB 2956 – carried by the Chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, Joe Coto. More on this before it comes up in committee.