COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bill approved unanimously by alegislative panel in South Carolina on March 21 would makethe director of the state insurance agency an elected position.

The proposal would put South Carolina in line with 11states that elect insurance chiefs, according to staff for theSenate Judiciary subcommittee.

Myrtle Beach Sen. Luke Rankin, the bill's sponsor, said the billis needed to prevent insurance directors from feeling beholden tothe governors who appoint them — and to protect the directors fromdecisions that governors may not like.

"We've seen this before, with too much authority, too much powerconcentrated in too few hands," Rankin said.

The bill would change the title from "director" to"commissioner" and remove a prohibition on that person seekingelected office. Under the legislation, the first election for thepost would happen in 2014.

The move to take the position from an appointed to an electedone comes in the wake of the resignations of two of the last threepeople to hold the post. Gov. Mark Sanford's pick as insurancedirector, Eleanor Kitzman, resigned in 2007 over a disagreementwith the governor. Sanford said he would not go along withKitzman's plans to expand a hurricane coverage program that covereda strip of land on the coast to property further inland.

Sanford picked Scott Richardson, a former GOP state senatorpicked by Sanford to succeed Kitzman.

South Carolina has gone without an insurance directorsince December, when former Liberty Life Insurance CEO David Blackabruptly submitted his resignation. Black had been in office forless than a year after being appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley.

"It needs to be a position that the folks can have a sense ofconfidence in," Rankin said, of the top position.

The bill now moves forward to the Senate JudiciaryCommittee.