Up to 11 Commissioners Could See Terms End After 2012 Elections

January 19, 2012 by Jeff Jeffrey

As many as 11 insurance commissioners could see their
terms come to an end in 2012, either because they are part of gubernatorial
administrations that are up for re-election on Nov. 6 — or they
face elections of their own.

The five commissioners facing elections this year include Wayne Goodwinof North Carolina; Adam
Hamm of North Dakota;Monica Lindeen of Montana;Mike Kreidler of Washington
State; and Karen Weldin Stewart of Delaware.

Goodwin, a Democrat, was elected North
Carolina insurance commissioner in 2008. A former member of the State
House of Representatives, Goodwin oversaw the insurance response to
Hurricane Irene. He and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue have
been critical of the National Flood Insurance Program’s claims
adjustment process, saying that adjustments have been too often late,
incomplete or not done at all (Best’s News Service, Nov. 1, 2009).
With insured property damage exceeding $500 million, North
Carolina was one of the three states hardest hit by the Aug.
27 hurricane, according to Verisk
Analytics Inc. (Best’s News Service, Oct. 18, 2011).

Hamm, a Republican, was appointed North
Dakota insurance commissioner in October 2007 by Gov.John Hoeven and was elected to a four-year term in November
2008. He was recently elected vice president of the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners and has played an active role in a
number of issues facing the organization.

As chairman of the Life Insurance and Annuities Committee, Hamm has
been involved in the NAIC’s consideration of how to advise life insurers on
interpreting Actuarial Guideline 38, which addresses reserves for universal
life insurance policies with secondary guarantees (Best’s News Service, Nov.
5, 2011).

Prior to becoming commissioner, he served as a prosecutor for the Cass
County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Lindeen, a Democrat, also serves as an NAIC officer, having been elected
secretary-treasurer at the organization’s fall meeting in November (Best’s News
Service, Nov. 5, 2011). She was elected commissioner of securities
and insurance in 2008 and also serves Montana’s
state auditor. She was a member of the Montana House of Representatives
from 1999 to 2006.

In November, Lindeen was one of seven commissioners appointed to the Federal

Advisory Committee on Insurance by the U.S. Treasury Department
(Best’s News Service, Nov. 2, 2011).

Kreidler, a Democrat, is serving his third term as Washington
State’s insurance commissioner. Kreidler is an optometrist and
practiced at Group Health
Cooperative in Olympia,
Wash., for 20 years. He served as a member of the Northwest
Power Planning Council and a regional director for the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, according to his online
biography. In 1993, he was elected to Congress and served for one
term.

Last month, Kreidler ordered Geico
to refund $7.5 million by the end of the year after overcharging
its Washington state
customers. The automobile insurer was also fined $100,000 in
relation to the overcharges (Best’s News Service, Dec. 22, 2011).

Stewart, a Democrat, was elected in 2008 and has led the state’s effort to
become a leading captive domicile. Stewart oversaw the 2009 launch of the Delaware
Insurance Department’sBureau of Captive and Financial Insurance
Products, which was designed to focus its captive management and
recruitment efforts (Best’s News Service, Aug. 10, 2009). Since
then, Delaware has
passed the 100th captive licensing mark (Best’s News Service, May 10,
2011). Delaware
reported the second-greatest number of new captives in 2010, licensing 48 new
captives that year (BestWire, Feb. 22, 2011).

None of the commissioners facing re-election have officially announced their
candidacy yet, but those announcements would have to come relatively soon. In North
Carolina, for example, candidates must file by Feb. 29
to compete in the May 8 primary, according to the North
Carolina Board of Elections.

Goodwin, who is expected to run for re-election, will have at least one
challenger this fall. Republican Mike Causey has announced he
plans to run for insurance commissioner, marking his fourth campaign for the
job. Causey lost his previous bids for commissioner in 1992, 1996 and 2000.

While commissioners from six other states aren’t facing elections of their own,
they serve at the will of the governor and could see their terms end as a
result of the elections.

Governors in Indiana, New
Hampshire, Missouri,
Utah, Vermont
and West Virginia are all facing re-election in the fall.

From a national perspective, perhaps the most interesting gubernatorial
election is the one in Missouri.
Missouri Insurance Director John Huff, who was
appointed by the state’s Democratic governor Jay Nixon in
2009, currently serves as one of two non-voting members of the Financial
Stability Oversight Council. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, FSOC has been
charged with identifying and responding to potential systemic risks to the U.S.
economy. Some have argued that large insurance companies should be counted
among those potential risks.

Should Nixon lose in November, it could mean that Huff’s seat on FSOC could
become vacant. That said, it is common for insurance commissioners to remain in
office, despite a change in governor.

Industry representatives and state regulators from both parties, including
Huff, have routinely argued that the financial crisis showed that the existing
state-led regulatory structure in the
United States is effective in monitoring the solvency of insurance
companies.

(By Jeff Jeffrey, Washington Correspondent: jeff.jeffrey@ambest.com)

Originally Posted at InsuranceNewsNet on January 16, 2012 by Jeff Jeffrey.