Amid crisis, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says he won't seek a fifth term [The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.]
Mar. 14—Amid a historic crisis in
The surprise announcement comes as Donelon, a Republican from
The result has been that the number of policyholders covered by
In hopes of reducing Citizens' rolls, Donelon has revived a plan he implemented after Hurricane Katrina to offer state grants to incentivize insurance companies to begin writing business in the state. He was updating the public on that plan when he announced his impending retirement Tuesday.
Donelon said his age and the demands of responding to the insurance crisis in anticipation of the upcoming session were the two factors in his decision not to run.
At 78, Donelon is the longest-serving commissioner to hold the position that has been tainted by scandal; three of his predecessors were convicted and served time in federal prison.
"One thing that did play a factor is a state campaign takes a lot of time, and I haven't had any time since late last year to put toward my re-election effort," Donelon said Tuesday.
Donelon said he last held a fundraiser before the holidays in
"And since then I haven't been able to lift a finger toward my re-election campaign because of the time that this crisis has demanded of me and my staff," he said.
After Gov.
Donelon's announcement will likely drum up additional interest in the race for insurance commissioner — which, though often a sleepy affair, was bound to attract more voter attention this year because of the grim state of
So far, only one candidate has announced a challenge to Donelon:
State Sen.
Donelon's exit will end a political career that spanned five decades. It was marked by periodic upsets as he sought to become a district attorney, lieutenant governor and congressman.
He entered politics as executive counsel in the administration of former Gov.
In 1982, Donelon won a special election to the state House where he served for nearly two decades. His rise to become the state's top insurance regulator came in the aftermath of another crisis: Hurricane Katrina.
Donelon often talks about the extraordinary effort it took to pull the state's property insurance market back from the brink after the costliest disaster in
Donelon credited the insurance incentive program rolled out after Katrina with helping to resuscitate interest in the state's market. Following a playbook deployed in
But the relative calm was short-lived. The four hurricanes that made landfall in the state in 2020 and 2021 thrust the insurance market into another crisis and revealed shortcomings in Donelon's oversight of the industry.
Over more than a decade, the state-operated a takeout program that allowed insurance companies to assume risky policies held by Citizens. Many of the insurers that took the most policies over a 13-year period did not have the minimum rating required by state law but were allowed to participate anyhow. Four of the companies that took on the most policies wound up collapsing.
Donelon has blamed the managers of the failed insurance companies for not buying enough reinsurance to backstop any catastrophic losses. But the insurance department, under his leadership, did not detect those problems until it was too late.
In announcing his decision, Donelon seemed to acknowledge that his record was likely to make him a target in the upcoming regular session of the Legislature, which begins
"I really thought I could make a contribution by stepping out of the political arena," Donelon said, "as we go into the legislative session where there will be debate and disagreement on many of the vital issues that are necessary to improve our market on a go-forward basis."
Staff writer
Collapsed: An insurance market in crisis
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