Delaware Commissioner Stewart’s Bid for Third Term Ends in Primary Election Defeat
September 15, 2016 by Thomas Harman
DOVER, Del. – There will be a new insurance commissioner in Delaware after incumbent Karen Weldin Stewart’s bid for a third term was derailed Sept. 13 by opponent Trinidad Navarro in the Democrat primary election. Poised to meet Navarro in the Nov. 8 general election is insurance industry veteran Jeff Cragg, who won the Republican nomination by narrowly defeating George Parish, a Sussex County Clerk of the Peace.
Navarro, the sheriff of New Castle County, is a former licensed life insurer who spent 20 years as a police veteran before taking his current position. Navarro won with 33,096 votes — almost 55% of the total. He told Best’s News Service early in 2016 he sought the commissioner’s job after experiencing difficulties helping his father deal with health insurance issues (Best’s News Service, Feb. 2, 2016).
Navarro ran a radio spot that claimed health insurance rates in Delaware increased 30% in the past two years and that Delaware has the nation’s fourth-highest automobile insurance rates. He said Stewart had been accepting donations that included ties to the insurance industry and said he would keep rates in check and demand accountability of large insurers.
Stewart told Best’s News Service early in 2016 that she would use a third term to reduce health care costs; maintain or increase transparency within the rate regulation process; and continue intervention directly with carriers on behalf of consumers.
On the Republican side, Cragg, who lost as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2012, captured his party’s nomination with 15,075 votes, 51.63% of those cast. Cragg defeated Parish, a retired federal employee who campaigned on a platform of lowering insurance costs, ending political contributions by insurance industry executives to insurance commissioner candidates, and reorganizing the Department of Insurance.
Cragg has 24 years of insurance company management experience, having worked for Northwestern National Life, Mutual of Omaha, Provident Indemnity Life, Employers Reinsurance, A-G Administrators Inc. and Academic Risk Inc., according to his campaign website.
Cragg’s campaign said Delaware regulations need to put consumers first and said he aimed to tackle increasing health insurance and workers’ compensation rates. The Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary said Delaware had the nation’s ninth-highest premium rate index after the state was listed as 30th in 2012 (Best’s News Service, Oct. 10, 2014).
“Skyrocketing consumer health care costs are a direct result of a shell game played by the incumbent and the industry, and it is time that we make the system work for Delaware citizens,” according to Cragg’s campaign website.
The state Department of Elections said Democrat primary voter turnout was 20% of eligible voters, while Republican turnout was only 16.05%.
(By Thomas Harman, Washington Bureau manager, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com)
