Best’s News & Research Service - March 03, 2011 05:00 PM (EST)
In Campaign for Miss. Insurance Commissioner, Three Candidates to Run
JACKSON, Miss. //BestWire// - Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney will have two challengers this fall when he makes his first bid for re-election since winning the post in 2007.
Those who have qualified to enter the race for insurance commissioner are Louis Fondren, a Democrat and a Pascagoula-based business man; and Barbara Dale Washer, a member of the Reform Party and a retired schoolteacher who lives in Hattiesburg.
Fondren, a former insurance adjuster and real estate lawyer, made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2007. He has been an outspoken critic of the rising cost of insurance in Mississippi.
Washer has made several unsuccessful bids for statewide office, including a run at insurance commissioner in 2003. Last year, she led an unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat out of Mississippi's 1st District.
Those who are following the race said that a number of issues could become important as the race heats up.
Cliston Brown, director of public affairs for the Coastal Region at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said his organization is especially interested in two pieces of legislation that would affect the insurance market.
The first, H.B. 620, would allow police officers to have Internet access to insurance registrations during traffic stops to check whether a driver is insured. The second bill, H.B. 1199, would create the Mississippi Windstorm Mitigation Coordinating Council, which would have the power to issue windstorm policies, purchase reinsurance, issue bonds and establish underwriting criteria as approved by the commissioner.
Brown said that PCI generally supports both pieces of legislation, but is awaiting making an official endorsement until the bills are closer to being finalized. "We support both of these concepts in theory. But you never know how these things will develop," Brown said.
Chaney, a Republican, handily won his first bid for insurance commissioner in 2007, besting Gary Anderson, a former chief fiscal officer for the State of Mississippi. Since then, Chaney has developed policies aimed to help the state address insurance concerns stemming from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina that still affects the region.
Among the tasks he has had to handle as insurance commissioner is working to convince insurers not to drop wind and hail coverage along the state's coast. Earlier this year, Chaney met with USAA Group in an attempt to keep them from making such a move (BestWire, Jan. 21, 2011).
Chaney has battled with some insurers over their attempts to raise rates. Last year, Chaney denied Allstate Property & Casualty Insurance Co.'s request for a 44% increase for homeowners' insurance. That denial led to the first rate denial hearing in more than 50 years. In November, Allstate said the rate increase was necessary to set an appropriate homeowners rate based on losses in the state (BestWire, Nov. 9, 2010).
Chaney has also been critical of the federal Affordable Care Act. Mississippi was one of more than 20 states who joined together to challenge the central provision of the law - the individual mandate to obtain health insurance - in a suit filed in Michigan (BestWire, Oct. 8, 2010). While the states lost that suit when a federal judge held that the mandate was constitutional, they found better luck in Florida, where a federal judge there determined that the entire law was unconstitutional (BestWire, Jan. 31, 2010).
Allstate Insurance Group currently has a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior). USAA Group currently has a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A++ (Superior).
(By Jeff Jeffrey, Washington Correspondent: jeff.jeffrey@ambest.com)