How Quackenbush's career crashed

Charles Quackenbush resigned amid scandal

By MARK GLADSTONE

June 30, 2000 Web posted at: 11:56 AM EDT (1556 GMT)

In this story: "Awkward socially" Led astray RELATED STORIES

SACRAMENTO, California (San Jose Mercury News) -- In the Capitol, they called him ``the accidental commissioner'' -- a Silicon Valley Republican legislator who became California's chief insurance regulator during the GOP's electoral sweep of 1994.

But those who know Charles Quackenbush say he didn't simply fall into the travails that forced his resignation on Wednesday.

Instead, political colleagues and associates in Sacramento and the South Bay focused on a trio of personal factors that seem to have doomed this once-promising politician.

Quackenbush, they said, had a lack of sophistication about politics that led to missteps, including being too trusting of aides. He had a confidence, bordering on arrogance, that led him to underestimate his mounting problems. And he had an aloofness that left him with few allies when those problems exploded into scandal.

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``I guess the story of Mr. Quackenbush is a cautionary tale for us all,'' said Assemblyman Jack Scott, chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee that has been examining the conduct of Quackenbush's department. ``I think it's a story of hubris. ... Here's a very promising legislator, handsome, articulate kind of person. He runs for statewide office ... soon after he's a possible gubernatorial candidate. That's very seductive. It made it very inviting for public funds to be used to further his political career.''

Quackenbush's rise and fall is also a tale of California's changing political landscape. Historically, lawmakers like Quackenbush -- who served four Assembly terms -- gained more seasoning before they sought higher office, perhaps spending time in the state Senate. But with the coming of term limits at the dawn of the decade, relatively inexperienced officeholders were compelled to step up sooner if they wanted to stay in elective politics.

And Quackenbush clearly was drawn to the political life.

Born on an Air Force base, Quackenbush opted for the military as his first career choice. He enlisted in the Army, becoming a helicopter pilot, and met and married his wife, Chris, while stationed in Alabama.

Eventually, the pair came to Silicon Valley, where Mrs. Quackenbush opened Q-Tech, a Santa Clara-based temporary employment company that served the emerging high-tech industry. Quackenbush left the military to help with the company. In the early 1980s, he joined the American Electronics Association, and three years later entered politics.

A moderate by temperament, Quackenbush had instant appeal to the valley's prominent Republicans -- especially the group of business leaders known as the Lincoln Club. But he lacked the polish of local GOP stars like former congressman Ed Zschau and former state Senator Rebecca Morgan.

``He seemed very awkward socially in the beginning,'' said Mike E. Fox Sr., a well-connected South Bay Republican who had several fundraisers for Quackenbush at his Saratoga home. ``It seemed his wife was always leading him around making the introductions at events. He was like a big, awkward giraffe who didn't know quite what to do.''

While both men were graduates of the University of Notre Dame, Fox said Quackenbush never joined the San Jose area Notre Dame Alumni Club and they never became friends outside of social functions.

Eventually, Fox broached the personality question with Quackenbush. People, Fox told the aspiring politician, see you as arrogant.

``He told me, `I'm an Army brat, I've moved around an awful lot and it's not easy to make new friends. I'm tall and gawky and shy. That's why I'm like that,''' Fox said.

Santa Clara County Republicans ultimately rallied around Quackenbush -- in part because he ran against a conservative who had moved to the county at the behest of the Assembly's right-wing Republican leadership. Once he got to Sacramento, Quackenbush always remained distant from the leadership, and was an outsider throughout his eight-year legislative career.

Quackenbush openly aspired to move on to Congress, but he made a last-minute decision to go for the insurance commissioner's post because it seemed winnable. He accepted support from the insurance industry, which some pundits thought was a kiss of death. But later, in the wake of his victory over Democrat Art Torres, it seemed a good decision.

Once Republican Gov. Pete Wilson passed from the scene, Quackenbush remained as one of only two Republican officials elected statewide. He became one of the hottest draws on the state's GOP political circuit, and many considered him a strong contender for governor or U.S. senator.

Inside the Department of Insurance, too, Quackenbush initially set a fresh course. As the state's second elected insurance commissioner, he recruited a multiracial cadre of advisers to implement a more laissez-faire vision of insurance regulation. But, say legislative investigators, he failed to keep close tabs on his underlings, some of whom allegedly helped use the power of the commissioner's office to fund politically oriented commercials and polls.

Quackenbush also moved from Cupertino to Rio Linda in suburban Sacramento, leaving his political base behind. And he never built a new support network for himself in Sacramento -- a fact which became painfully apparent in recent weeks when Republican lawmakers turned against him.

In the end, only Chris Quackenbush issued a strong defense. ``He doesn't lie, cheat or steal,'' she said earlier this week. ``For him to consider that people are thinking of him badly -- as though he's done something wrong and violated the rights of citizens he intends to protect -- it's just devastating to him.''

Some longtime observers agreed that Quackenbush, 46, is a decent man, but said he had been led astray. Harry Snyder, a longtime lobbyist with Consumer's Union, said that Quackenbush was more willing than many other GOP lawmakers to side with consumers.

But as commissioner, Snyder said, ``He surrounded himself with a bunch of young ideologues who thought they could do no wrong. I don't think he got good advice ... I'm really sorry to see this happening to Chuck.''

Others saw Quackenbush as fatally flawed -- a lightweight who failed to study the ins and outs of the industry he regulated, and lacked the backbone to buck his political contributors.

Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, said Quackenbush's downfall was the result of his ``not taking care of detail and not having the integrity that is needed for that position ... Ambition took the place of doing the job he needed to do, taking care of the consumer.''

California insurance commissioner resigns in scandal

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