Gov. John Hoeven plans to appoint Fargo attorney Adam Hamm, a Republican activist and former Cass County prosecutor, as North Dakota’s new insurance commissioner.
The Associated Press confirmed the governor’s choice Monday, Oct. 8th with three people who had knowledge of the selection. Hoeven scheduled a news conference at the Capitol to formally announce his pick.
Hoeven declined comment late Monday. Hamm, who is a former Cass County Republican chairman, could not be reached immediately for comment.
Hamm will succeed Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman, who resigned Aug. 31 to go to work as a private insurance industry consultant. Poolman, a Republican, served as North Dakota’s top insurance regulator for almost seven years.
Hamm will serve out the remainder of Poolman’s term, which ends in December 2008. He must run for election next year to keep the job, which pays $76,511 annually.
No Democratic candidate has yet announced any intention to run for the insurance commissioner’s job, although another Fargo lawyer, state Rep. Jasper Schneider, D-Fargo, is expected to seek the party’s endorsement.
Hamm is an attorney in the Fargo firm of Anderson & Bottrell, where his practice includes commercial and civil litigation, transportation law and agricultural law, according to the firm’s Web site. He joined the firm in January 2002, after serving as an assistant Cass County state’s attorney for four years.
Hamm handled the 1999 prosecution of Kyle Bell, who was convicted of murder in the 1993 disappearance of Jeanna North, an 11-year-old girl who was a neighbor of Bell’s. The case drew national attention and prompted stronger state laws on community notification of the presence of sex offenders.
Three years ago, Hamm was one of seven applicants for an East Central District Court judgeship opening being left by the retirement of Norman Backes. Hoeven appointed Fargo attorney Douglas Herman to the job.
Hamm went to work in the Cass County prosecutor’s office after he graduated from the University of North Dakota’s law school in 1998.
He graduated from high school in Torrance, Calif., and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, in 1993, according to biographical information posted on the State Bar Association of North Dakota’s Web site.
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