Insurers Pleased with Results of 2004 Federal and State Elections

While most folks are just happy the political advertisements are gone, Election Day 2004 did provide some results of interest to the insurance industry.

President George W. Bush (R) was re-elected for a second term, Republicans gained seats in both the Senate and the House, and five states elected insurance commissioners by returning four to office and electing one to take over a vacated spot.

As Dennis Kelly, director of federal media relations for the American Insurance Association (AIA) sees it, the Bush victory and those of other Republicans should be well received in the insurance industry and among businesses in general.

“The Nov. 2 election results in the U.S. House and Senate were a big win for the business community and proponents of legal reform,” Kelly commented. “Republicans increasing their Senate majority to 55 seats betters the chances of getting the 60 votes needed to break filibusters and invoke cloture in the Senate. Republicans also increased their lead by at least four seats in the House, but we want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean passing pro-business legislation is going to be easy. The GOP is not monolithic and we still have plenty of work ahead of us.”

“We were pleased with the increase in the seats gained by the Republicans in the Senate. It seems to me that the election showed that a majority of the American people are for free markets, less litigation and less burdensome regulation,” said Scott Duncan, director of public affairs for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

Tort reform was a major topic of the President during the campaign and industry leaders hope to see some push in legislation to limit high medical malpractice rates.

“One thing that is very clear is that President Bush comes back to Washington with a mandate for reforming lawsuit abuse,” Duncan said.

“Medical liability reform is an issue that a great majority of Americans understand. Anybody who pays for their health insurance, has insurance through their employer, or owns a small business understands it is remarkably expensive. Liability reform can play a key role in decreasing some of those costs,” the PCI representative added.

Some Democrats have blocked reform legislation in the past but Duncan notes that the opposition has been weakened. “The Republicans now have three or four more seats in the Senate to play with,” he noted. He suggested that the insurance industry feared what the election of Sen. John Kerry (D) and Sen. John Edwards (D) might have meant to liability reform. “With the costs of liability, asbestos, and all this other stuff, it makes the industry very nervous when a trial lawyer is going to be the vice president.”

Commissioners back in office
Across the country, 38 insurance commissioners hold appointed positions, while 12 are elected. There were five commissioner spots up for election this past Nov. 2.

While most incumbents won rather handily, one chose not to seek re-election. Delaware’s Donna Lee Williams chose not to run again, opening the door for Democrat Matthew Denn to take over in The First State. Denn is a former member of the Governor’s staff.

Elsewhere, Montana’s John Morrison, North Carolina’s Jim Long, North Dakota’s Jim Poolman, and Washington’s Mike Kreidler will all be back. Long will be returning to office for a sixth term.

Joe Annotti, vice president of public affairs for PCI, indicated there were no major surprises in the commissioner races and that the industry can work with all the victors.

“I think Denn (Matthew) has an excellent background, certainly excellent legislative and public policy experience,” Annotti said. “The other commissioners (Kreidler, Morrison, Long, Poolman) are known entities and these are people we have excellent working relationships with. It certainly is not going to upset the balance of power.”

Annotti sees something to like everywhere. “Washington is giving serious consideration to regulatory modernization, particularly flex-band rating. I think Commissioner Kreidler has moved a long way towards seeing the value of a more competitive environment for consumers in the state. Commissioner Poolman is an exceptionally strong supporter of a more modernized regulatory system. Commissioner Long has a very long tenure and we’ve been working with him well for over a decade now in North Carolina and hope to see some regulatory modernization moves there. We also work very well with Commissioner Morrison both in Montana and in his role in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He’s very active on the debate over credit-based insurance scores. I think he has the best interests of the citizens of his state at heart and you can’t really ask for more from a commissioner.”

Goals beyond the election
PCI’s Duncan said among the top priorities for his association in 2005 will be federal terrorism insurance. “I think President Bush showed a great deal of leadership in 2002 in getting that bill (TRIA) done. Now that the election is over, he can get focused on establishing his policy priorities and hopefully that is one of them,” Duncan commented.

AIA has similar goals. “President Bush has shown a singular focus on the war against terrorism, and now that the election is over, we hope this frees him to advocate for an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002–a logical extension of one of his dominant campaign themes,” Kelly said. “The President has also stated his strong support for tort reform and we hope his re-election will be the spark needed to propel class action reform over the 60-vote hurdle.”

Kelly pointed out that his association also had its eyes on some of the state judiciary races and is pleased with what it has seen. “Illinois voters made a statement for judicial reform by electing fair-minded Republican Judge Lloyd Karmeier to the State Supreme Court over a Democratic challenger, who is also a former trial lawyer. The contested seat represents the ‘judicial hellhole’ of Madison County,” Kelly said.

The AIA lobbyist maintained that Mississippi’s re-election of three state justices– Michael Randolph, George Carlson Jr. and William Waller Jr.–bodes well for civil justice. In a fourth race scheduled for a Nov. 16 run-off, challenger Samac Richardson, a Rankin County circuit judge, was to face incumbent Justice James Graves Jr., who Kell said has been “friendly to the plaintiffs’ bar.”

Kelly also praised the results in Ohio’s three state Supreme Court races that resulted in the “election of three fair-minded candidates”– Chief Justice T. Moyer, Justice Terrance O’ Donnell and Judge Judy Lanzinger.

Topics Carriers Legislation Washington Market