Gay California Official Fueled Flamboyant Lifestyle With Funds From ‘Shell’ Campaign, Report Finds

California’s insurance commissioner spent tens of thousands in funds from a “shell” campaign on lavish meals and glove-trotting travel while skipping key hearings on the state’s worsening insurance crisis, a Thursday investigation by The San Francisco Standard reveals.

Ricardo Lara, who hasn’t officially announced a run for higher office, used over $30,000 from his lieutenant governor campaign committee for fine dining expenses — including $700 tabs at celebrity-chef restaurants — and first-class travel to destinations like Bermuda, Paris and Bogotá, according to the Standard. The report alleges the state’s top insurance regulator, a homosexual, has been wining and dining with industry insiders while providers flee California — neglecting his elected consumer protection duties at a time when many residents in wildfire zones are left without coverage.

“He’s a perfect example of someone who had no business being elected to this position, but he was supported by the Democratic establishment,” a Democratic political consultant told the Standard. “It turns out he’s taking advantage and abusing the office.”

Lara’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

I am proud to be California’s first #LGBTQ elected statewide leader and to continue the fight for equal access to #healthcare & equal treatment by insurance companies. Today we celebrate but tomorrow we keep mobilizing. Felix Orgullo! Happy #Pride! pic.twitter.com/MdaZsw2tgv

— Ricardo Lara (@ICRicardoLara) June 1, 2021

The investigation alleged Lara’s campaign expenditures included extravagant meals at upscale restaurants like San Laurel in Los Angeles, where he reportedly ordered dishes like jamón ibérico, sea urchin, a $16 grapefruit, lobster salpicón and several bottles of Spanish white wine, all partially billed to the phantom campaign fund he created in 2023. Lara’s “special guest” at the Iberian feast picked up the rest of the tab.

The Standard couldn’t find any evidence of formal campaign announcements, nor any news reports speculating about such plans. Sources within state politics told the outlet they haven’t heard anything about a Lara campaign either.

“It’s a way for them to forward their funds and keep a campaign war chest, regardless of whether they have any real intention of running for that office or not,” Sean McMorris, who studies campaign ethics at Common Cause California, told the Standard. “But the public and the press absolutely have a right to question how a politician is using campaign funds in a committee that they have open.”

Meanwhile, Lara has missed numerous Senate insurance hearings meant to address the ongoing crisis in California’s homeowner insurance market. Lara skipped the first state insurance hearing of 2025 entirely, choosing instead to speak at a Bermuda insurance summit, where a large chunk of global reinsurers are based — many of which hold financial stakes in California’s wildfire claims.

“Commissioner Lara’s job is to ensure that California consumers have real choices — not just last resorts …  This involves going over to heads of insurance companies and engaging directly with the global insurance groups that support them. Nearly 40% of the world’s reinsurance companies are based in Bermuda, paying out trillions of dollars in claims — including those for wildfires,” the commissioner’s office wrote in a statement to ABC7 News Los Angeles.

While Lara’s team insisted the Bermuda trip was work-related, internal confusion surrounding seemingly constant taxpayer-funded trips to exotic locations — including inexplicable junkets to places like Colombia and France — have left lawmakers questioning his priorities.

“As insurance commissioner, my job was to always put consumers first. Clearly, this value hasn’t continued,” Democratic California Rep. John Garamendi, who served as California insurance commissioner in the 1990s, separately told ABC7 News Los Angeles.

California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican from San Diego, similarly called for “transparency and accountability from all levels of government,” emphasizing the need for officials to “show up” and “do the work” in a statement to the outlet.

Since taking office in 2019, Lara has reportedly logged at least 46 trips abroad and across the U.S., often staying in five-star accommodations on the public dime, according to another investigation by ABC7 News Los Angeles. The report revealed Lara was absent for nearly all of the state’s Senate insurance hearings since he assumed office.

California’s insurance market has become increasingly unstable as companies exit high-risk areas, citing unsustainable losses from wildfires and climate regulations. In response, Lara has floated reforms like a one-year moratorium on insurance cancellations and non-renewals — though critics, including Consumer Watchdog, have argued his policies allow insurers to avoid meaningful commitments to expand coverage in wildfire-prone areas.

Under current California law, officials can maintain campaign committees without formally running for office, though they are still beholden to personal expenditure and disclosure rules.