Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale says he’ll take legal action to fight the Mississippi Democratic Party executive committee’s decision to remove him from the ballot.
“I intend to continue to be a candidate for insurance commissioner and look forward to continuing to serve in 2008 forward,” Dale told reporters Monday.
On March 17, the Democratic executive committee decided, in a split vote, to remove Dale and longtime state Rep. Mary Ann Stevens of West from the party primary ballot.
Party leaders said the decision was made because of questions of loyalty. Dale said publicly in 2004 that he was supporting the re-election of President Bush, a Republican. And, some Democrats say Stevens votes too often with Republicans on issues in the Legislature.
Dale was first elected in 1975 and is the longest serving state insurance commissioner in the nation. Since Hurricane Katrina struck nearly 19 months ago, he has been sharply criticized by some Gulf Coast residents who think he has done too little to make insurance companies pay claims.
“You know, people forget, even with all (these) things about politics, I’m still commissioner of insurance. And it has some time-consuming responsibilities,” Dale said Monday.
He said the decision by the Democratic executive committee “is just another thing that has been dumped on top of all that. I enjoy being insurance commissioner a lot more than I do dealing with the politics of it.”
Mississippi voters this year are electing all eight statewide officials and a long list of regional and local officials. March 1 was the candidates’ qualifying deadline. Party primaries are Aug. 6 and the general election is Nov. 7.
Four Republicans and three other Democrats filed papers to run for insurance commissioner, but one of the other Democrats – Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg – was removed from the ballot by the Democratic executive committee last week.
O’Hara filed to run for all eight statewide offices and several other positions, including state senator. The Democratic executive committee decided to let O’Hara run for only one office, state treasurer. O’Hara also has said he’ll file a lawsuit against the party because of the vote to remove him from most spots on the ballot.
Current state law does not prohibit a candidate from seeking more than one office on the same day, but lawmakers are considering a bill that would do so.
Topics Mississippi Politics
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