George Dale, Mississippi's insurance commissioner for 32 years,was defeated in a Democratic primary, losing to a governmentrelations political consultant by a close vote.

Gary Anderson won the election on Tuesday, receiving 51 percentof the vote to Mr. Dale's 49 percent.

Mr. Anderson will face Republican challenger Mike Cheney inNovember.

In 2003, Mr. Anderson ran unsuccessfully for Mississippi StateTreasurer. Prior to that, he served as Mississippi's Chief FiscalOfficer from 2000-2003. He has also worked as a banker.

Mr. Dale took office in 1976 and will serve out his term untilJanuary 2008. He is the longest-serving elected Mississippiofficial, he said, and the longest-serving insurancecommissioner.

In an interview with National Underwriter, Mr. Dale discussedthe primary election, saying he would not run as an independentcandidate because "the people have spoken."

"Katrina did hurt me," he said. However, he maintains "theinteresting thing is that we didn't get killed on the Gulf Coast"even with unfavorable publicity. Mr. Dale said he garnered 40percent of the vote there, usually receiving 60 percent of the votein the past.

Since Katrina, $11.9 billion in claims have been paid out in thestate, Mr. Dale said, with $8.2 billion of that total paid oncoastal claims.

Mr. Dale criticized the television campaign against him (seeHYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgsraseRlbs"www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgsraseRlbs and HYPERLINK"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRHuJgOfwvY&mode=related&search"www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRHuJgOfwvY&mode=related&search),stating that "a lot of liberty was taken with issues."

He said it is not true that he was indicted for bribery, asstated in the campaign ads. He added that a pledge made by Mr.Anderson not to take campaign money from insurers was more theresult of his not being able to get company contributions.

When asked if he had taken over $200,000 from the industry, Mr.Dale said he had "probably taken more," but that many of thecontributions were from individual agents exercising theirconstitutional right to make campaign donations.

Mr. Dale's candidate report form, stamped received on July 31,2007, shows itemized contributions of $171,798 and nonitemizedcontributions of $41,112, and a year-to-date total of $348,160.Contributions were a mix of individual donations, donations frominsurance agencies and insurance companies as well as a $5,000 July12 contribution from Douglas Sizemore, former Tennessee insurancecommissioner.

When you are an incumbent, Mr. Dale said, people will alwaysfind fault with the commissioner's relationship with the industry;and when the price of insurance increases, "consumers are buying anintangible product. They get mad about [the increase]."

Mr. Dale also spoke of the changes he has seen in the insuranceindustry since he started in 1976. The issues have become morecomplex, he said. He noted that there is more attention paid tosolvency issues and efforts by the states to become more uniform intheir actions as the federal government looks at insuranceregulation.

Reached by National Underwriter, Mr. Anderson said Mississippihas the third highest insurance rates, according to a report of theNational Association of Insurance Commissioners, based in KansasCity, Mo. Making all insurance more affordable is particularlyimportant to him because Mississippi ranks 50th in per capitaincome, and voters are concerned about the cost of health andproperty-casualty insurance.

"Katrina did expose the weaknesses in depending on theDepartment of Insurance to regulate the industry in our state," hesaid. Rates were high before Katrina, Mr. Anderson noted, and"Katrina is not to blame for the rise in premiums."

Companies need to stand behind their promises to pay claims, hesaid. Mr. Anderson asserted he is not anti-company, adding that hewants companies to do business in Mississippi. For that reason, hestated, he has taken a pledge not to take money from insurers. Hesaid it is a matter of "good business and not cozy relations. It isbusiness, not just nodding and winking and all of that."

Mr. Anderson's candidate report form, filed on July 31, 2007,shows itemized contributions of $131,150 and nonitemizedcontributions of $10,969 for a total of $142,119 in the reportingperiod. Year-to-date contributions totaled $280,312.

Mr. Anderson received $2,000 in campaign funding from Democracyfor America, based in Burlington, Vt., a political action committeeinspired by the presidential campaign of Howard Dean and headed byMr. Dean's brother James. The group "supports fiscally responsible,socially progressive candidates at all levels of government,"according to its Web site.

Mr. Anderson said that everything his campaign ran in his adswas "100 percent factual."

For instance, he said the 29 percent rate increase grantedcompanies referenced in his television ads was actually on the lowend of the spectrum, and some increases granted were 70-to-80percent. He referenced an article he said ran in theClarion-Ledger.

In response to a question about criticism waged at his campaignfor taking contributions from Richard Scruggs, a noted trial lawyerinvolved in much of the Hurricane Katrina litigation, Mr. Andersonsaid Mr. Scruggs "did not give my campaign a dime." He also saidthe industry has funded efforts to stop citizen lawsuits and thathe was outspent in the primary by $3-to-$1.

In Mr. Anderson's 2004 bid for State Treasurer, Mr. Scruggs islisted as contributing $25,000, according to a candidate reportdated Jan. 23, 2004.

Mr. Scruggs announced on July 31 in a statement on the Web site"A.M. in the Morning" that he had contributed $250,000 toMississippians for Fair Elections. The group ran at least onecampaign ad criticizing Mr. Dale.

In his statement, Mr. Scruggs said: "The amount I havecontributed may seem like a lot of money. But it is nothing incomparison to the millions that insurance companies are refusing topay to help Mississippians rebuild their homes and businesses orthe millions big insurance pays to influence politicians at theexpense of homeowners."

(Jim Connolly is senior editor for NU Life & Healthmagazine)