Former Nebraska senator and current NAIC CEO Ben Nelson,along with two colleagues, announced the launch of HeartlandStrategy Group LLC last week. This brings the portfolio of jobsNelson is juggling to four.

However, Nelson says the NAIC CEO stewardship will be hisprimary role.

The new business venture, Heartland, will be based in Omaha andfocus on government relations and public affairs, with clients fromacross a spectrum of business and nonprofit interests, according topress reports who were notified.

Nelson formed the Heartland Strategy Group with Tim Becker, hisformer chief of staff on the Hill, and former Nebraska DemocraticParty executive director (2003 through 2006) Barry Rubin, whorecently ran Red State Strategies in Elkhorn, Neb. On a corporateprofile page, Red State Strategies, founded in 2008, had only$56,000 in revenue in 2011. Rubin also was political hand for Gov.Parris Glendening, D-Md., in the late 1990s.

According to Becker's comments to Politico,Heartland already has some clients — which it cannot disclose yet —and Nelson and the Heartland team have been spending the pastcouple of months setting up the venture, around the time he washired by the NAIC.

Nelson accepted the NAIC position in mid-January and will make asalary of close to $1 million under a two-year renewable contract.Also in January, Nelson accepted a senior advisory position withAgenda, a national public affairs firm with offices in Washington.Agenda is a firm focused on winning through something called “newadvocacy,” according to its website.

In addition, the University of Nebraska at Omaha announced theappointment of an educational partnership between Nelson and theUNO Department of Political Science. Nelson will become thedepartment's “Politician-in-Residence.” Part of the Nelson'sresponsibilities will include team-teaching an upper-divisioncourse each semester, UNO announced in February.

“Serving as the chief executive officer for the NationalAssociation of Insurance Commissioners is my primary job — and I ampassionately committed to our responsibilities of helping stateinsurance regulators protect consumers and support their regulatoryoversight of insurance companies and producers. Throughout mycareer, I have juggled numerous roles. My teaching responsibilitiesand advisory positions with other boards, firms and educationalinstitutions will neither interfere nor influence my job as NAICCEO,” Nelson said in a statement.

Nelson has access to state regulatory information and strategyrepresenting the state governmental agencies he represents as NAICleader. The business firms he is partnering with will lobby onbehalf of interests before branches of government.

The well-funded and experienced former senator diddivest his Berkshire Hathaway (insurance company) stock beforetaking the helm of the NAIC, he said earlier at a press conference.According to open secrets.com, Neslon's PAC Contribution was 86percent business — much from insurance companies — 4percent labor and 11 percent ideological/single issue in the2007-12 election cycle. The top industries contributing to thecampaign committee and leadership total PAC are insurance byalmost a full length, followed by lobbyists, pharmaceuticals andlawyers/law firms.

The NAIC began courting Nelson at least as early asthe fall, when his name came up on a short list of candidates underconsideration. He was considered a top choice, according tosources.

Two years is the time former U.S. senators are barred fromlobbying after leaving Congress, which Nelson effectively did atthe end of the year.

But he can do advisory or advocacy work in the interim, workwhich his new positions suggest. Back in January, Nelson said beingCEO would be his primary function, Nelson said then that the timingof the two hiring announcements – the NAIC and Agenda — wasunfortunate, coming as they did within 24 hours of each other.

“We are fortunate to have the expertise and experience of Sen.Ben Nelson at the helm of our organization. During the CEO hiringprocess, we had a thorough discussion with him about ourexpectations for the position. At that time, the NAIC's leadershipteam acknowledged there would be other opportunities he wished topursue concurrently,” stated Jim Donelon, NAIC president andLouisiana insurance commissioner.

“We are confident these will not interfere with his primaryresponsibility of serving as our CEO,” Donelon added.

Nelson's predecessor, Terri Vaughan, travelled a great deal forinternational regulatory and supervisory work, which is likely tofall to other NAIC state regulators, specifically immediate pastpresident Commissioner Kevin McCarty of Florida andCommissioner Tom Leonardi of Connecticut.

The lifting of the international load may afford Nelson moretime for his portfolio of positions, some have suggested.

Nelson will speak publicly at the National Conference ofInsurance Legislators (NCOIL) event Friday in Washington, his firstpublic conference speech on insurance regulation since becomingNAIC CEO. He has spoken to other groups, but they were closedevents.