Editor’s Note: Who will be Florida’s governor?

Two Democrat and two Republican candidates are in an all-out battle to gain support as the candidate for governor. Visibility, action and the public’s conception of how the candidate’s actions affected them will be the deciding factor.

Next fall, Florida Democrats and Republicans will decide which candidate will represent them as governor: Democrats, U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, or Sen. Rod Smith; and for the Republicans, CFO Tom Gallagher, or Attorney General Charlie Crist. All four candidates participated in a Jan. 19 debate in Orlando at the Florida Association of Realtors winter meeting (see story on page six), and all four candidates seemed to be neck-in-neck.

All four agreed that something has to be done about Citizen’s Property Insurance. Gallagher and Smith support Florida’s insurer of last resort and suggest that 25 percent of the state’s homeowners would be in trouble without its coverage. Crist and Davis, however, didn’t seem to have many ideas about how to solve Citizens problems.

The two Democratic and two Republican candidates are in an all-out battle to gain support as their parties’ candidate for governor. Visibility, action and the public’s conception of how the candidate’s actions affected them will be the deciding factor.

In 1992, in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, Gallagher became well-known. Since then his notoriety has spread. After Andrew, Gallagher claims he rebuilt the insurance industry and proposed a lot of “solutions,” like Florida’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which helped provide homeowners with state funds for their hurricane damages.

During the debate Gallagher pointed out he has constantly been actively involved in fights to get homeowners claims paid, establishing and overseeing the operations of Citizens Property Insurance and touted his attendance at town hall meetings at which he and his staff helped settle hurricane claims.

At the same time, Gallagher couldn’t stop insurance premiums from climbing and couldn’t control Citizens and rate hikes or scandals about its officers taking kickbacks.

During the debate, Crist outlined what he saw as his strengths, but many of his most visible and highest-profile insurance cases have been as a result of investigations spearheaded by Gallagher and the departments he oversees, such as the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Bureau and the Department of Insurance.

Democratic candidates U.S. Rep. Jim Davis and especially Sen. Rod Smith excelled in their speaking abilities and mesmerized the audience. Davis assaulted the present administration, saying that in his opinion, Florida taxpayers have been “fleeced.”

Smith, meanwhile, vowed to use tax revenue, gained from Florida’s $3 billion reconstruction from hurricane damage, to bail out Citizen’s and to replenish the state’s Catastrophe Fund. He supported having the federal government develop a national catastrophe fund and plan.

Due to experience as a two-term Florida insurance commissioner, to me, Gallagher seemed slightly ahead in the race; but his opponents weren’t far behind and he would be wise to watch his opponents closely in his rear-view mirror.

Topics Catastrophe Florida Hurricane A.J. Gallagher