The short answer is "No!"
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner sets rates for many insurance products.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner regulates the licenses of insurance agents and all insurance companies here.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner also decides to punish wayward insurance companies and others that gouge or harm our people, and what the punishment will be.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner and his experts at the Department of Insurance make countless decisions every day affecting the lives and livelihoods of those agents and companies, but, most importantly, decisions affecting the pocketbooks of every person and business in this state.
It has come to the attention of many educated voters as we prepare for the 2012 elections that one of the candidates for Commissioner of Insurance has worked for years as a paid lobbyist (!!!) and has even worked as an insurance company executive. That person is Republican Mike Causey.
No matter what he professes now to be -- farmer, consultant, businessman -- Mike Causey still worked as a paid, high-up insurance executive directly for three insurance companies!
His own campaign biography mentions that he worked as an "insurance executive" and has "30 years" of experience in the insurance industry. http://www.gocausey.com/about-mike He has also championed his insurance industry experience in a statewide voter guide this year where he personally declared he "has 30 years experience in the insurance business, as well as 10 years legislative lobbying experience ...." http://ncvoterguide.org/cos/insurance_causey.php
In a recent interview with Kristie Skinner Bass, Mike Causey spoke about his lengthy experience as an insurance man:
And on top of that, Mike Causey is proclaimed "The
Voice of the Industry". http://www.collisionexpert-news.com/Issues/2012/CE-Jan-web.pdf
This should make certain body shop dealers and some insurance companies ecstatic. (And it should worry the heck out of the voting public like you and me!) The
linked industry publication is the same publication that Causey has written
regular special interest articles for over a long period of time, including during
this election season while he's been a declared, filed candidate.
So, to summarize, Mike Causey is someone who has worked thirty -- 30 -- years for the insurance industry and 10 years as a lobbyist who now wants to be our elected state insurance commissioner and set our insurance rates?
So desperate is Mike Causey to become the grand poobah of insurance regulation in North Carolina that he has run unsuccessfully three - yep, three - times for the same office over the last twenty years. http://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/webapps/cf_rpt_search_org/cf_report_doc_results.aspx?ID=STA-C0979N-C-001&OGID=1283. So desperate is he for this office that he has filed and is now in a runoff election for the Republican nomination. He's running a fourth time! http://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/cf_pdf/2012/20120502_111524.pdf
And on his website and in his campaign materials and in his speeches Mike Causey pleads that he wants to lower insurance rates. As a candidate running for office he's probably expected to say that. But out of the other side of his mouth he says things that some insurance companies and their executives froth favorably at the mouth to hear, like "modernizing" and "streamlining". We know what that's double-speak for. Do we really believe that Mike Causey has had a Damascus experience, and has seen the light, eschewing his paid lobbyist and insurance industry ways? Do we think he can have it both ways, lowering insurance rates for people while promising insurance companies and their high-paid, multi-million-dollar executives that he's going to "reform"the system by raising rates on us all? And, has anyone noticed that he began his 2012 campaign by promising owners of multimillion-dollar homes on the Dare County beach that he'd make the rest of North Carolina (that's the rest of us) pay for their insurance exposures at the beach? (http://daretruth.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/ins-comm-candidate-mike-causey-announces-candidacy-in-dare-county-gop-elected-officials-local-media-snub/) He's already slamming his runoff primary opponent, Richard Morgan, for Morgan's standing up for the remaining 90 percent of the state's population that doesn't have million dollar homes at or live at the beach. Morgan, by the way, received the most votes in the May primary election, and Causey is challenging him to a runoff duel at the ballot box. Richard Morgan served as co-Speaker of our state's House of Representatives.
Masquerading now as a "farmer" by day, Mike Causey continues his campaign by night touting what he'd do as insurance commissioner, telling everyone he'd do away with a mysterious "good ol' boy network" and making promises fast and furious to anyone who will listen. (As for his "farmer" persona, even with that it appears he has run afoul of local law in the recent past, and has been accused of selling products under the table, etc. http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-7607-farmers-market.html)
This wolf in sheep's clothing tried to defeat the mighty Jim Long in 1992, 1996 and in 2000. Jim Long was the consumer's best friend as our Commissioner of Insurance.
And now Mike Causey, like a cicada emerging after an eight sabbatical from running as insurance commissioner, is back! (Some persons have heard that he never has really gone away because he did serve a role like campaign manager for the 2004 and 2008 Republican nominees in the interim, which means he's been trying to influence the election of Insurance Commissioner for over 20 solid years straight.) He's now in 2012 taking on Jim Long's protege and successor, Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, a protege who has saved North Carolinians over a billion dollars.
But Mike Causey has emerged once again, hoping that no one will remember his past campaigns and that no one will remember who and what he really is --- A long-time paid lobbyist and former insurance executive. Not to mention his title as frequently-failed candidate for office.
He appears once again as some insurance companies push and push for less public oversight, and to raise rates any and every way possible.
The re-emergence of Mike Causey is not an accident.
As we prepare for this year's elections, let's ponder these necessary questions:
Do we need our insurance commissioner to be someone whose very independence from special interests is called into question from day one?
Do we need Mike Causey, a former insurance lobbyist and a former insurance executive, to be elected State Insurance Commissioner and deciding insurance rates for us common folks?
Not just no, but hell no.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner sets rates for many insurance products.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner regulates the licenses of insurance agents and all insurance companies here.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner also decides to punish wayward insurance companies and others that gouge or harm our people, and what the punishment will be.
North Carolina's elected state insurance commissioner and his experts at the Department of Insurance make countless decisions every day affecting the lives and livelihoods of those agents and companies, but, most importantly, decisions affecting the pocketbooks of every person and business in this state.
It has come to the attention of many educated voters as we prepare for the 2012 elections that one of the candidates for Commissioner of Insurance has worked for years as a paid lobbyist (!!!) and has even worked as an insurance company executive. That person is Republican Mike Causey.
Official lobbying records from the Secretary of State's office verify that fact
here: http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/lobbyists/Lobbyist.aspx?PId=8060417
and http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/lobbyists/Lobbyist.aspx?PId=8059387
and http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/lobbyists/Lobbyist.aspx?PId=8059645
Perhaps Causey will try to make a distinction by saying that he wasn't a
lobbyist for insurance companies, as he has expressed in other media. (But what about Benecom?) Causey has also
tried to say he was a lobbyist as a "consumer advocate". Not exactly
true: He worked for special interests, including body shops and others trying
to get insurance payments and coverage, and advocating for measures that would
make our insurance costs go up and payments to those special business interests (his clients) go up! He called it "consumer" advocacy. I don't think so. And, Mike Causey was apparently a lobbyist for Benecom in
the mid-1990s, according to the Secretary of State. What is Benecom
Corporation? It's "an insurance firm", reads a 1998 article published
by the Greater Triad Area Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/1998/11/09/smallb1.html?page=allNo matter what he professes now to be -- farmer, consultant, businessman -- Mike Causey still worked as a paid, high-up insurance executive directly for three insurance companies!
His own campaign biography mentions that he worked as an "insurance executive" and has "30 years" of experience in the insurance industry. http://www.gocausey.com/about-mike He has also championed his insurance industry experience in a statewide voter guide this year where he personally declared he "has 30 years experience in the insurance business, as well as 10 years legislative lobbying experience ...." http://ncvoterguide.org/cos/insurance_causey.php
"Causey’s career in the insurance industry began with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) in the Charlotte, NC District office, where he worked as a sales rep and sales manager. Later, Causey was named General Manager of the Charlotte, NC Agency of Protective Life Insurance Company. In the mid-1980's, Causey was named Superintendent of Agencies with Standard Life Insurance Company for North Carolina and four other states." http://www.collisionexpert-news.com/Issues/2012/CE-Jan-web.pdf
So, to summarize, Mike Causey is someone who has worked thirty -- 30 -- years for the insurance industry and 10 years as a lobbyist who now wants to be our elected state insurance commissioner and set our insurance rates?
So desperate is Mike Causey to become the grand poobah of insurance regulation in North Carolina that he has run unsuccessfully three - yep, three - times for the same office over the last twenty years. http://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/webapps/cf_rpt_search_org/cf_report_doc_results.aspx?ID=STA-C0979N-C-001&OGID=1283. So desperate is he for this office that he has filed and is now in a runoff election for the Republican nomination. He's running a fourth time! http://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/cf_pdf/2012/20120502_111524.pdf
And on his website and in his campaign materials and in his speeches Mike Causey pleads that he wants to lower insurance rates. As a candidate running for office he's probably expected to say that. But out of the other side of his mouth he says things that some insurance companies and their executives froth favorably at the mouth to hear, like "modernizing" and "streamlining". We know what that's double-speak for. Do we really believe that Mike Causey has had a Damascus experience, and has seen the light, eschewing his paid lobbyist and insurance industry ways? Do we think he can have it both ways, lowering insurance rates for people while promising insurance companies and their high-paid, multi-million-dollar executives that he's going to "reform"the system by raising rates on us all? And, has anyone noticed that he began his 2012 campaign by promising owners of multimillion-dollar homes on the Dare County beach that he'd make the rest of North Carolina (that's the rest of us) pay for their insurance exposures at the beach? (http://daretruth.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/ins-comm-candidate-mike-causey-announces-candidacy-in-dare-county-gop-elected-officials-local-media-snub/) He's already slamming his runoff primary opponent, Richard Morgan, for Morgan's standing up for the remaining 90 percent of the state's population that doesn't have million dollar homes at or live at the beach. Morgan, by the way, received the most votes in the May primary election, and Causey is challenging him to a runoff duel at the ballot box. Richard Morgan served as co-Speaker of our state's House of Representatives.
Masquerading now as a "farmer" by day, Mike Causey continues his campaign by night touting what he'd do as insurance commissioner, telling everyone he'd do away with a mysterious "good ol' boy network" and making promises fast and furious to anyone who will listen. (As for his "farmer" persona, even with that it appears he has run afoul of local law in the recent past, and has been accused of selling products under the table, etc. http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-7607-farmers-market.html)
This wolf in sheep's clothing tried to defeat the mighty Jim Long in 1992, 1996 and in 2000. Jim Long was the consumer's best friend as our Commissioner of Insurance.
And now Mike Causey, like a cicada emerging after an eight sabbatical from running as insurance commissioner, is back! (Some persons have heard that he never has really gone away because he did serve a role like campaign manager for the 2004 and 2008 Republican nominees in the interim, which means he's been trying to influence the election of Insurance Commissioner for over 20 solid years straight.) He's now in 2012 taking on Jim Long's protege and successor, Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, a protege who has saved North Carolinians over a billion dollars.
But Mike Causey has emerged once again, hoping that no one will remember his past campaigns and that no one will remember who and what he really is --- A long-time paid lobbyist and former insurance executive. Not to mention his title as frequently-failed candidate for office.
He appears once again as some insurance companies push and push for less public oversight, and to raise rates any and every way possible.
The re-emergence of Mike Causey is not an accident.
As we prepare for this year's elections, let's ponder these necessary questions:
Do we need our insurance commissioner to be someone whose very independence from special interests is called into question from day one?
Do we need Mike Causey, a former insurance lobbyist and a former insurance executive, to be elected State Insurance Commissioner and deciding insurance rates for us common folks?
Not just no, but hell no.
Yours truly,
- Trust But Verify
("Trust but verify" was a popular phrase of our President Ronald Reagan, the hero of
many of us; for purposes of this post, trust what I say, but for assurance
and confirmation you're encouraged to go to the linked source material above for verification.)
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