Wes Bannister, a longtime public official and three-time insurance commissioner candidate, died late Thursday of spine cancer. He was 73.
Bannister, a 40-year veteran of the insurance industry, was known as an expert on insurance and water policies. He fought for greater water recycling as chair of the Metropolitan Water District. In the last 1980s, he was appointed to the
Governing Committee of the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements plan. His work there was focused on protecting claims for Californians who lost belongings in wildfires.
Bannister, who served four years as mayor of Huntington Beach, ran unsuccessful bids for insurance commissioner in 1990,1994 and 2002. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said Bannister "broke new ground and helped to set the standard for all future campaigns for Insurance Commissioner."
"I knew and appreciated Wes as someone I could count on to tell me what he really thought and why about any subject," Poizner said in a statement. "He had that rare down home ability to understand things and to be able to explain them in a way everyone could understand."
Bannister's one-time opponent for insurance commissioner, Democratic Rep. John Garamendi, remembered Bannister as a "one of a kind" public official who had a strong knowledge of insurance and water policy.
"One of the real joys of a political campaign is to have an opponent that you not only respect but come to value as a close and dear friend," he said.
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