Timing of Georgia Insurance Chief’s Ethics Probe Stirs Controversy

An ethics activist is defending the State Ethics Commission’s decision to schedule a hearing involving GOP gubernatorial candidate and state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine less than a month before the crowded primary contest in which he is a front-runner.

George Anderson, executive director of the Rome-based Ethics in Government Group, has filed a friend of the court brief in Fulton County Superior Court. Anderson filed the initial complaint in May 2009 raising questions about two insurance companies funneling almost 10 times the legal limit for contributions into Oxendine’s gubernatorial campaign coffers, using 10 Alabama-based political action committees.

Georgia law forbids public officials from taking money from the companies they regulate. Oxendine later returned the money.

According to a lawsuit filed Friday in Fulton County Superior Court, State Mutual Insurance Co. of Rome, Ga., and its affiliate Admiral Life Insurance Co. of America, claim two members of the State Ethics Commission could have political bias that could taint the inquiry into the campaign contributions.

The insurance company claims State Ethics Commission Chairman James Gatewood and Commission member Patrick Millsaps have given prior campaign contributions to Gov. Sonny Perdue. State Mutual alleges that Perdue is “the leader of the faction within the Georgia Republican Party that supports the nomination of candidate Karen Handel and opposes the nomination of rival candidate John Oxendine.”

State Mutual is asking a judge to stop the ethics hearing, which is scheduled for June 24 — less than four weeks before the July 20 primary election. Oxendine’s campaign has also said the timing of the hearing may be politically motivated.

A call to State Ethics Commission Executive Secretary Stacy Kalberman was not returned. A message left with Anderson seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Topics Georgia