Candidate for
Insurance Commissioner; State of California; Republican Party

Wes was the Republican nominee for California State Insurance Commissioner in 1990. He was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Union, the Monterey Herald, the San Diego Union, the San Francisco Chronicle, among others.

Wes Bannister has spent the better part of 40 years watching insurance carriers and working in the industry. In that period of time, he has served as vice president of a major insurance company, and he has been the owner of a successful insurance brokerage since 1974.

For the past 15 years, Wes has served as an elected official, subject to the scrutiny and approval of the public. For four years, he served as a city council member and mayor of Huntington Beach, the 11th largest city in California. For the past 11 years, he has served as an elected member of one of the largest special districts in the United States. Wes also serves on the board of the largest water agency in the world and he has sserved as chairman of the oversight committee for its $2 billion budget.

In 1987, Wes was appointed by the Governor of California to serve on the 10-member Governing Committee of the California FAIR Plan, which provides insurance for areas in California that insurance companies are reluctant to cover, such as inner-city areas and brush zones. Every Governor has reappointed him since that time.

Wes was honorably discharged as a Captain in the U.S. Army. He is a family man, married for over 40 years and father of three. He lives in the City of Huntington Beach where his insurance business is located.

Wes has developed insurance programs for clients by working for them in the insurance marketplace, at the same time managing the financial decisions and responsibilities of the firm. Wes Bannister wants to Insurance Commissioner to do what he has done for so long--aid consumers and protect the integrity of the insurance industry. As Insurance Commissioner, Wes Bannister will be a leader, not a politician. Since 1990 when the office of Insurance Commissioner became an elected office, the position has been dominated by highly visible and ambitious politicians. California has since witnessed the shameful antics of politician commissioners in what Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters calls a "scandal-tingered position. California has had two elected commissioners [Garamendi & Quackenbush] so far and both have been haunted by scandals." Wes Bannister will stop the shameful political antics of politician "Insurance Commissioners." Enough is enough. It's time to elect a commissioner who can and will do the job.