Amid the din of right-wing demagogues taking cheap political shots at librarians, LGBTQ people and other invented bogeymen, serious ideas will struggle to gain attention during the annual legislative session that began Monday.
One measure worthy of rising above the clatter is state Sen. Kirk Talbot’s proposal to make the office of insurance commissioner appointed rather than elected.
Talbot, R-River Ridge, chairs the Senate Insurance Committee. His bill, SB208, would take effect at the end of Commissioner Jim Donelon’s current term next January. Donelon, who has served as insurance commissioner since 2006, has opted to retire. Donelon opposes Talbot’s bill, but the senator is pushing forward.
Only 11 states elect their insurance commissioners, putting Louisiana among those outside the norm.
Back in 1973, delegates at the Louisiana Constitutional Convention debated at length the preferred number of elected statewide officials. They settled on eight — but the constitution authorizes lawmakers, by two-thirds vote, to make the superintendent of education and the commissioners of elections and insurance appointed.
Previous Legislatures dispensed with the first two. Is it time to do likewise with the insurance commish?
Skyrocketing property insurance premiums have angered Louisiana voters to the point that anyone running for commissioner right now could just as easily be a candidate for a lunacy hearing.
If there’s an upside to the insurance crisis, it may be the opportunity it presents to rethink the notion that an election rife with highfalutin promises will produce lower premiums. History suggests it’s more likely to give us a felon as commissioner. Three of Donelon’s predecessors went to the federal pokey.
Talbot says he will fine-tune his bill in the weeks ahead. For now, it proposes a commissioner with years of regulatory and/or industry experience who would serve no more than two consecutive six-year terms. The governor would select a commissioner from a list of nominees submitted by a committee representing various interests and viewpoints. The appointee would have to win Senate approval.
“We need to hire someone with experience and expertise to do a very technical, regulatory job,” Talbot said. “We also need to free the commissioner to make hard decisions and not worry about the political winds — by severing the regulator from the regulated industry.”
Talbot says his bill is not a critique of Donelon. He says Donelon would have met his bill’s proposed qualifications had they been the law in 2006, when Donelon first took office. “And I’m not looking for the job myself,” Talbot added. “I don’t meet the qualifications.”
Talbot acknowledges that getting a two-thirds vote is “always a challenge,” but he says his idea has received “cautiously positive” reviews from his colleagues.
Louisiana lawmakers generally do their utmost to avoid controversial topics during election-year sessions. Donelon’s retirement and the current crisis have created a rare opportunity for lawmakers to seriously consider changing how our state chooses its insurance regulator.
It’ll be interesting to see if lawmakers give it the consideration it deserves.
Clancy DuBos is the political columnist for Gambit Weekly in New Orleans. Email him at clancy@gambitweekly.com.
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