Ruling on insurance report Friday

A Thurston County judge says he'll rule Friday on whether to let state insurance regulators disclose the identities of three insurance companies whose credit scoring practices were the topic of a 2003 state report to the Legislature.

The information is sought by the state Democratic Party, which seeks to link Safeco Insurance Co. with the practices of a company identified in the report as having canceled auto insurance policies based on credit scores. The report said the practice disproportionately hit minorities, divorced women and poor people, even those with clean driving records.

Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele accuses McGavick, the presumptive Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell in the November general election, of ramping up use of credit scoring when he led Safeco from 2001 to late 2005, getting rich in the process.

Jerry Kindinger, a lawyer for Safeco Insurance, told Superior Court Judge Richard Strophy on Friday that the information sought is the equivalent of a trade secret -- which is legally protected against disclosure.

He said the data were disclosed to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner in response to a request related to a formal examination of the company, which is specifically protected from public release, and the state also promised confidentiality.

But Christina Beusch, an assistant attorney general representing Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler's office, disputed those claims, saying the information actually sought by Democrats is contained in certain documents that are easily and legally disclosed.

"The fact a company wants to keep negative information confidential is not itself a trade secret ... just because it might be embarrassing or it might raise questions," Beusch told the judge.

Shelley Hall, attorney for the Democratic Party, echoed those arguments and said the Public Records Act is "meant to be interpreted broadly" in favor of disclosure. She blasted Safeco's stance, saying: "It seems to be that anything that puts Safeco Insurance in a bad light should not be subject to the Public Records Act."

Steele of the Democratic Party also noted that Safeco was fined $35,000 last year in Florida over its credit-scoring practices, providing documents to prove the finding.

Safeco spokesman Paul Hollie said he would need to do research on the subject of fines in Florida before confirming that claim or commenting.

Kreidler led efforts to outlaw the use of credit scoring to cancel policies, but the 2002 law does allow credit scoring in pricing and other insurer decisions.

McGavick has defended the practice of credit scoring, saying it meant the company could offer insurance in more diverse neighborhoods. Elliott Bundy, a campaign spokesman, said late Friday that during McGavick's tenure at Safeco he "supported the state's efforts to regulate credit scoring and expanded the company's coverage of minority customers."

"The Democrats' conduct in this campaign continues to sink below anyone's expectations," Bundy said in an e-mail that also blamed Cantwell for letting her allies attack McGavick, his career and now Safeco.