Once Eliot Spitzer is elected governor of New York, who do you think he will pick to be insurance superintendent? What qualifications should this individual have? What will their mandate be? What will the impact be on the industry?
These are just some of the questions carriers and their intermediaries are asking themselves as Election Day approaches.
One name being floated in the market is Mark Green, who was beaten by Michael Bloomberg when he ran for mayor of New York, and then lost the Democratic primary for state attorney general earlier this year to Andrew Cuomo–the person likely to replace the man insurers love to hate, Eliot Spitzer himself!
Mr. Green has a history in consumer affairs, and while rather dull as a public speaker–no doubt his lack of charisma played a part in his two recent electoral losses–he has a reputation as a strong public advocate who would take the insurance gig quite seriously.
No matter who Governor-to-be Spitzer picks for the job, the insurance industry, I believe, will be in for quite a rough time. Mr. Spitzer helped make his reputation exposing bid-rigging and contingency fee abuse in some commercial insurance markets, and he has changed the way the big brokerage industry does business, leaving them to scramble to make up for revenue lost when they surrendered the controversial bonus payments.
The last thing Mr. Spitzer will want is for the incoming attorney general to grab the headlines on insurance wrongdoing. I imagine that whoever is chosen as insurance superintendent, it won't be a backwater job–the individual will likely have the governor's ear, and in fact might have the governor looking over his shoulder and demanding a close watch on this "untrustworthy" industry.
How do you folks see this playing out? Have you heard of anyone else in the running for insurance superintendent of New York??? Is there anyone you would like to see get the job???
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