Mercury Insurance is spending millions of dollars in order to hike up your auto insurance rates. And the company is paying myriad front groups to do its dirty work on Prop 17.

In February, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Mercury’s use of front groups.

In what is shaping up to be a hotly contested ballot measure, Mercury Insurance — the state’s third-largest auto insurer — is bankrolling an initiative that would allow insurers to base their rates partly on how long drivers have kept up their policies.

Yet, as often happens with ballot propositions, it would be hard to know that judging from the campaign literature on Proposition 17, the California Continuous Coverage Discount Act.

Officially, the proposition is the handiwork of Californians for Fair Auto Insurance Rates or Cal-FAIR, which describes itself as “a growing coalition of consumer advocates, businesses and insurers from across the state.”

But Cal-FAIR is actually the creation of a Sacramento public-affairs firm, Bicker, Castillo & Fairbanks, that has so far earned $200,000 from Mercury for its work on the campaign, part of the insurer’s $3.5 million total contribution to the effort.

Kathy Fairbanks, a partner in the firm, said the name is supposed to reflect the “broad support among consumers groups and businesses” for the proposition. “The objective of Mercury and consumers is exactly the same — to have a competitive insurance market,” she said.

But one of the four “consumers groups” that Cal-FAIR lists as supporting the proposition is a Sacramento consulting firm being paid $5,000 a month for the Proposition 17 campaign. Two are basically one-person operations that have often taken pro-industry stances. And one denies that it even supports the measure.

CAL-FAIR/Yes on 17

Mercury Insurance has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bicker, Castillo & Fairbanks, a public relations firm, to create a front group called Californians for Fair Auto Insurance Rates or CAL-FAIR.  The chief spokesperson for CAL-FAIR, Kathy Fairbanks, is a communications consultant and partner in the firm that runs campaigns for several different corporations and interest groups.

Consumers First, Inc.

Jim Conran, is listed as the co-chair for Californians for Fair Auto Insurance Rates (Cal-FAIR)/Yes on 17 campaign. As head of something he calls Consumers First, Inc. (which doesn’t appear to have a website), Conran has been paid tens of thousands of dollars by the Prop 17 campaign to help Mercury Insurance try to deceive voters on the measure.

Prop 17 is not his only deception. Mr. Conran is a pay-for-play PR professional who is paid by industry executives to run several front group projects.

Mr. Conran is the executive director, Consumers for Cable Choice. His partner in this and other front groups is Bob Johnson, an Indiana lawyer who apparently represents nearly two-dozen telecom firms.

Mr. Conran is also listed as the executive director for Consumers for Competitive Choice and is the executive director of the Child Safety TaskForce with Bob Johnson. Credit Card Con, a project of Consumers for Competitive Choice, the Citizens to Stop the Power Grab Coalition, and the Truth About Splenda are all headed by Mr. Conran.

Kirk West

Kirk West, a co-chair of CAL-FAIR, has already made over $30,000 as a paid spokesman for Mercury Insurance’s campaign on Prop 17. He was formerly the President of the Chamber of Commerce and is now a gun-for-hire by industry executives.