Ga. Regulator Oxendine To Seek Reelection
NU Online News Service, March 23, 1:48 p.m. EST?John Oxendine will seek a fourth term as Georgia insurance Commissioner rather than run for lieutenant governor, his office confirmed.[@@]
Mr. Oxendine had planned on campaigning for the number two spot in the state on the Republican ticket but faced considerable primary opposition from national GOP strategist Ralph Reed and Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville.
Last year, Sonny Perdue was the first Republican elected governor in Georgia since Reconstruction. Mark Taylor, a Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor.
Ray Farmer, of the Atlanta office of the American Insurance Association, said that with the GOP governor serving with a lieutenant governor of a different party, Mr. Perdue had been delegating some of the powers of the office on Senate leaders.
"And they might be reluctant to give them up, even if a Republican was elected," he said.
Thus, Mr. Oxendine may have more influence on state affairs in his current posts of not only insurance commissioner but also fire marshal and industrial loan commissioner.
"I'm sure that in those three posts Mr. Oxendine will touch more citizens in the state than he would have if he was lieutenant governor," Mr. Farmer said.
Mr. Oxendine stepped down last year as head of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Reinsurance Task Force where he was active in the debate over what collateral is necessary for alien reinsurers to operate in this country.
He also served as the NAIC representative at a conference in The Hague seeking to establish a treaty on enforceability of foreign judgments throughout the world.
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