Wooley Keeps Job As Louisiana Commissioner

Mr. Wooley received 772,853 votes, or 57.69 percent, to 566,758 votes, or 42.31 percent, for Mr. Kyle.

Mr. Wooley benefited from a big Democratic turnout for Kathleen Blanco, the Democrat lieutenant governor who narrowly won the race for governor against the Republican candidate Bobby Jindal with 51.94 percent of the vote to 48.06 percent for Mr. Jindal.

Commenting on the race for commissioner, Joe Woods, Southwest regional manager for the Downers Grove, Ill.-based Alliance of American Insurers, said it had been a "very, very nasty campaign, even under the Louisiana standard. This is really a standout race."

To illustrate how aggressive the campaigning had been, Mr. Woods described how during the last week the race had revolved around Mr. Kyle's charges that Commissioner Wooley was hiding records of convicted felons licensed to do business in Louisiana as agents or other insurance licensees.

Mr. Woods described Mr. Kyle, a former Louisiana legislative auditor, as "a master at getting press coverage. I mean, he showed up at the department records warehouse, with TV cameras, demanding the records of all these felons."

He noted that Commissioner Wooley had produced a number of files–showing that most of the convicted felons were approved prior to his taking office and that he has approved some while disapproving others during his tenure.

"Overall, these allegations have been a very distracting thing," he said.

Mr. Woods said Commissioner Wooley has done "a good job in very trying circumstances," first taking over as the interim commissioner when previous commissioner Jim Brown was sent to federal prison for lying to the FBI. (Mr. Wooley officially became the state's top regulator last April when Mr. Brown resigned after losing a final appeal of his conviction.)

Mr. Brown was the third-consecutive state insurance commissioner to be convicted of crimes in office. He was reelected while under indictment.

Mr. Wooley "stepped into a very tough job and he has done a good job of trying to change the market in Louisiana," Mr. Woods said. Commissioner Wooley, he also commented, made an effort to introduce competition into the market and get control of the FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) Plan in his state.

"The FAIR Plan has grown a tremendous amount of market share in Louisiana. And assessments for the FAIR Plan were driving companies out of the state and keeping other companies from coming in. He recognized that and has been instrumental in trying to get control of it," Mr. Woods said.