Kansas Insurance Commissioner Faces Challenge to Re-election

Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger is facing a serious challenge to her re-election within the Republican Party — from a legislator who argues she isn’t pro-business enough.

Rep. Eric Carter of Overland Park began this year with nearly $94,000 for his campaign. Praeger, from Lawrence, had about $138,000 in campaign funds at the start of the year.

“It’s certainly a good indication that this race may be more interesting than anybody thought,” Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka, said Monday.

The campaigns disclosed the figures in reports filed last week with the secretary of state’s office, detailing fund raising and spending for 2005.

Praeger, 61, was elected commissioner in 2002 after serving 12 years in the Legislature, including as chairwoman of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee. Carter, an attorney, is serving is his second two-year term in the House, where he is vice chairman of the Insurance Committee.

Though other Republicans expressed surprise at Carter’s fund raising, Praeger said she had expected him to attract significant financial support.

“A regulator’s never going to be popular with everybody we regulate, and I have a record now that someone can look at and find ways to attack,” Praeger said. “I know we have not made everyone happy, and I’m sure there are ways to exploit that.”

Carter said he had been able to raise money because of his support for lessening the regulatory burden on businesses and for limiting the scope of litigation against them.

He noted that in 2004, Praeger endorsed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s health plan, under which the federal government would have reimbursed employers for up to $50,000 of a worker’s medical bills and expanded government health-care programs. She criticized President Bush’s plan to allow employer groups to create unregulated, self-insurance plans.

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Praeger’s campaign finance report showed that she raised more than $153,000 last year and spent nearly $35,000 on campaign-related activities.

Carter spent about $9,400 in his campaign last year, after raising more than $103,000.
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