Jane Kim poised to win California insurance commissioner race Play

California voters appear to be backing a candidate who wants major experiments done involving fire insurance. San Francisco progressive Jane Kim is poised right now to be elected as the next state insurance commissioner.

Kim beat Ben Allen from Santa Monica. She campaigned on a platform that includes making wildfire insurance provided by a state-run company statewide, instead of the private market.

Kim is the first Working Families Party candidate to ever get elected to statewide office.

As the San Francisco Chronicle notes, the decisions of the insurance commissioner have a direct impact on the wallets of 9 million insured homeowners and the $100 billion California insurance industry. Kim intends to launch more investigations into insurers when consumers complain to her office.

She wants to institute profit ceilings on the lucrative insurance industry. And she wants to financially punish insurers who delay paying out claims.

Kim has also proposed to expand the state's public low-cost automobile insurance program. And she's also pushing for guaranteed health insurance for children.

We'll see how her agenda does.