California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara stole away to Bermuda for a junket last week, choosing to attend a conference of insurance executives instead of testifying at a state legislative hearing, with fire victims still in limbo.
Sacramento’s NBC affiliate, KCRA-3, reported:
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara was in Bermuda when he decided to skip an oversight hearing with state lawmakers at the capitol earlier this week.
Lara attended the Bermuda Risk Summit, an event in the Caribbean that is held by members of the insurance and reinsurance industry.
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It’s not clear if Lara is back yet from the Caribbean. The California Department of Insurance has not responded to multiple requests for comment as of Friday night. Earlier Friday, Lara announced he may approve State Farm’s request for an emergency rate hike with conditions.
Lara “provisionally” granted State Farm the ability to hike insurance rates by 22% on Friday.
He was recently criticized — by Democrats — for being too close to the insurance industry. Hie responded that he was tired of being “white mansplained” about how to do his job.
Lara gave a lecture at the conference in Bermuda in which he stressed the importance of “leadership” by regulators.
“This is an opportune moment for regulators and insurers to step up and provide the necessary leadership to address the challenges we face,” he said.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.