The race for Georgia Insurance Commissioner pits a veteran politician against an attorney in his first foray into politics.
Democratic candidate Gaeton “Guy” Drexinger told Insurance Journal that he hopes to rid future political races of all industry contributions, citing conflict of interest. He wants to close a loophole in current state ethics laws that allows employees of regulated or licensed entities (i.e. employees of the insurance industry) to contribute campaign cash from their personal funds.
Drexinger set the stage for confrontation on his Web site with a spoof on the movie “Brokeback Mountain,” portraying Oxendine as a cowboy, hooked on certain alleged campaign contributions, uttering the movie’s tagline, “I wish I could quit you.”
Incument Republican John Oxendine claims Drexinger started out lobbying the insurance industry for support only to come up short.
“When he found no industry contributors, he started saying that he wouldn’t accept their money,” the incumbent maintains of his opponent.
Drexinger said early in his campaign he returned some $4,000 to insurance industry-related supporters and since then has not accepted similar support.
Drexinger believes Georgia is not tough enough on uninsured motorists. He said fines for driving without auto insurance in Georgia are $25 and $60 for first and second offenses respectively. Referring to a comparison with Arizona, he said that state’s fines are $500 and $700 respectively for first and second offenses.
“States like Arizona transfer a percentage of the collected fines back to their insurance commission to provide a mechanism to pay medical and property damage,” Drexinger said. “That lowers premiums for people who are doing the right thing.”
First elected in 1994 and re-elected in 1998 and again in 2002, Oxendine said, “I want to focus on the incredibly good job we’ve done. Georgia has a good competitive market; auto rates are one of the cheapest for a state of this size. Homeowners rates are cheapest in the southeast and for workers comp, Georgia is one of the lowest in the country.
Drexinger also said he wants to focus on workers compensation costs. “Georgia’s businesses are paying 28 percent more than in neighboring North Carolina and 36 percent more than Virginia,” he argues.
According to Drexinger, there are currently “only five or six fraud investigators covering entire state.” He said he wants more investigators on the job.
Oxendine touts his ant-fraud record, citing his investigation into fraudulent activities targeted at military members’ health care insurance. “The investigation reached a national scale. As a result of the investigation, $70 million will now go back to the victimized soldiers,” he claimed.
NOTE: This is an edited version of a story from the October 23 Southeast edition of Insurance Journal.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
The Future Is Near for Self-Driving Trucks on US Roads 
Growing Wildfire Risk Leaves States Grappling With How to Keep Insurers From Fleeing 
Hartford Q1 Income Up 41% on Commercial Lines as Auto Results Improve 
Investors Are Increasingly Interested in a Novel Type of Weather Insurance 
