Texas Gubernatorial Candidates Continue Brawl

Texas Governor Rick Perry and his Democratic challenger Tony Sanchez continue to use the state’s homeowners market crisis against each other as a new poll shows the race tightening.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Gov. Perry has praised his own efforts to deal with spiraling premium rate increases, and expressed skepticism that Sanchez could be trusted to fix the problem.

Perry also claimed that Sanchez actually admitted his plan would raise insurance rates, suggesting the Democrat would prefer higher premiums because his bank, the International Bank of Commerce, sells unregulated property insurance.

Sanchez responded by reiterating his intention to keep carriers from moving homeowners policies to unregulated markets, and would enforce rate rollbacks for those companies unable to justify rate increases. Sanchez spokeswoman Michelle Kucera also denied Perry’s assertion that the Democrat’s plan would raise rates, given how high they already are.

Furthermore, the Sanchez campaign noted that the International Bank of Commerce acts only as an insurance broker, and does not write the policies it sells.

Perry’s lead in the polls has been cut in half since May; he now leads Sanchez 52 percent to 40 percent.

Topics Texas