Insurance commissioner urged to run in 2002
By Julie D. Soo
The Chinese Six Companies and the Fa Yuen Association last month played co-hosts to a crowd of some 600 politicos — past and present candidates, jurists, and community leaders and members. They gathered to fete California Insurance Commissioner Harry Low, whom former Secretary of State March Fong Eu declared “a clean politician.”
Among family, colleagues and friends, Low continues to be hailed as a man of integrity, a tireless, compassionate leader in the community for over 45 years. Those in attendance are urging him to run for office in 2002 to keep his current office.
Eu pointed out that both Low and she are from the same city (Oakdale, Calif.) — and born in the same spot.
“My family owned a laundry which we sold to Harry’s family,” she told the crowd. “I was born in the back of the laundry... and Harry was born in the back of the laundry.
“I’d like to say that people should vote for us because we are both very clean politicians,” deadpanned the 79-year-old Eu, who has declared her candidacy for Secretary of State, a position she held from 1974 to 1994.
For his part, Low has not made any public decision on whether he will make a bid for office. The first ever Chinese American Insurance Commissioner, Low was appointed by the Governor Davis to take over the troubled Department of Insurance last fall after Chuck Quackenbush resigned in disgrace. Low said that he enjoys the challenges of being the top regulator of California’s insurance industry, an $80-billion-a-year industry.
In recent times, Low played a key role in rehabilitating the San Francisco Police Commission and Human Rights Commission. Prior to that, he was the first Asian American to serve on San Francisco’s Municipal Court. Upon his retirement in 1992, he became a private judge for the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS). Low is also among a handful of Chinese American judges whom Chinatown family and benevolent associations ask to mediate internal squabbles.
Mulie D. Soo is a staff counsel with the California Department of Insurance.
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