Developer Rick Caruso has donated about $3,400 to state Sen. Ben Allen's campaign for California insurance commissioner, adding his name to a donor list that includes real estate executives and a crypto-backed political action committee as Allen heads into a high-stakes November general election against former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim.
The contribution, reported by The Real Deal, lands in a race that has taken on outsized stakes for Los Angeles homeowners still rebuilding after the 2025 wildfires tore through Pacific Palisades and Altadena, destroying thousands of structures. Caruso's own Palisades Village shopping center largely survived the blaze, a fact the outlet notes was due in part to private firefighters Caruso hired to protect the property. The seed reporting also lists a separate $9,800 contribution from Caruso to Allen before the June primary, though the underlying details distinguishing that figure from the newer $3,400 donation were not specified.
Allen, a state senator since 2014, represents a Westside district that includes Pacific Palisades, giving him a direct stake in the neighborhood's insurance troubles. He finished second in the June 2 primary with 19.4% of the vote, trailing Kim's 27.4%, according to Insurance Business. The two advanced to a November 3 general election that will decide who oversees an industry in open crisis.
A Donor List Heavy With Real Estate Names
Caruso is far from the only real estate figure writing checks to Allen's campaign. Jason Oppenheim contributed $5,500 to Allen through several donations over the past few months, campaign finance data cited by the seed reporting shows, and Oppenheim has also met with Los Angeles mayoral candidate and city council member Nithya Raman. Real estate broker Jay Luchs gave $5,000, while Chris Cortazzo, Thomas Safran and Crest Real Estate CEO Steven Somers are also listed as financial backers of Allen's bid.
Political committees have added larger sums. The California Mortgage Association PAC and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California PAC each donated $9,800 to Allen's campaign, while the California Association of Realtors Small Contributor Committee kicked in $19,600. Those figures sit alongside a much larger war chest: Mission Local reports that Californians for an Affordable Future, a political action committee backed by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, has amassed roughly $2 million for Allen.
Allen's Pitch: Fix the Private Market
Allen has said that insurance coverage in high-risk areas requires both investment and a shift toward risk reduction, and he has named decreasing California's reliance on the FAIR Plan, building with higher fire safety standards, and reducing wildfire risk broadly as priorities if elected. Per CalMatters, he wants to get individuals, communities, fire experts, government officials and insurers all working together on wildfire mitigation. He authored a law creating a state-backed loan program to help homeowners harden their properties against fire, the outlet notes.
Allen also wrote Senate Bill 1209, signed into law this September, which lets the insurance commissioner order insurers to fix problems uncovered during investigations without a lengthy legal process, according to Mission Local's account of the race. On rate regulation, Insurance Business reports Allen supports speeding up Proposition 103 rate reviews while keeping current rules that allow insurers to factor catastrophe models and reinsurance costs into pricing — an approach that keeps private insurers at the center of the state's homeowners market.
Kim's Alternative: A Public Disaster Insurer
Kim is proposing a more drastic departure. She has floated Natural Disaster Insurance for All, a state-run nonprofit program that would guarantee coverage for disasters like wildfire and flood while leaving private policies to cover other risks, per Insurance Business. CalMatters describes the plan as a major change to how California insures its riskiest properties.
The two candidates have drawn support from different wings of state politics. Kim is endorsed by the California Teachers Association, the California Nurses Association and the California Working Families Party, while Allen has backing from the California Democratic Party, California Environmental Voters, the Sierra Club, California Professional Firefighters and the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board, according to Mission Local.
Why the Race Matters So Much Right Now
The contest has gained unusual weight because California's insurance market is under visible strain. Homeowners premiums rose 84% between the end of 2020 and March 2026, Insurance Business reports, and seven of the state's 12 largest home insurers had already reduced or halted new underwriting by 2022, according to a Stanford Report account of the crisis.
As private insurers have pulled back, the state's FAIR Plan — the insurer of last resort — has absorbed the overflow. The Los Angeles Times reports 696,000 insured properties as of June 30 and puts potential exposure at $788 billion in insured properties as of that date. FAIR Plan rates for new and renewing policies rose by an average of 29.1% beginning Oct. 15, according to CBS San Francisco.
Regulators have tried to coax insurers back into the market. Insurers have requested or secured $571 million in rate increases under the state's sustainable insurance strategy, CalMatters reports, but only five of the ten companies that sought those increases have committed to selling more policies. Consumer Watchdog estimates insurers have committed to writing 12,189 new homeowner policies statewide since January 2025 — a modest dent in a market still reeling from the fires that reshaped this election.
