Thursday, October 28, 2010
Re-Run Time! From 25 SEPT 10, Stirrin' the Pot at the AJC's Political Insider
Holy Crap! An actual news story about the Insurance Commissioner's Race!
Check it out folks, the AJC's Political Insider has a story up about the Insurance Commissioner race and I even got a name mention! What else was there to do but respond with a pithy post promising prompt participation pertaining to this ponderous problem.
Here's what I wrote:
Greetings All,
Stunning news about the Industrial Loan Licenses and some contradictions that really need to be resolved. On one hand the AJC is inferring that the Industrial Loan license is difficult to obtain but Commissioner Oxendine insists that anyone in Atlanta can get one anytime they wish, he even admits that the issuance of said permits is so routine that his staff handles them on their own. Astonishing.
Equally astonishing is the fact that the heir apparent, republican Ralph Hudgens is quite concerned about this flurry of soon to be Shylocks working over the expected surge of new customers our current economy is cranking out. My question is why? Is Ralph Hudgens truly concerned about down on their luck Georgians or are some of his campaign contributors starting to grumble about increased competition in "Industrial Loan" marketplace? Rent seeking corporations and republicans do a lot of business together and this looks like a classic example in action.
I can promise the citizens of Georgia
Shane Bruce
Libertarian Candidate for Commissioner of Insurance
Re-Run Time! From 15 SEPT 10, What are the Top Three Insurance Issues in Georgia?
What are the top three issues for Libertarians on the topic of Insurance? Most of us have insurance of some sort, usually at the behest of the state as a condition for driving on the oh so pleasant highways and byway of our great state. So what are the three things about Insurance in Georgia that really grind your gears?
Some suggested topics:
-Health Insurance Mandates the state insists you need. We have 45 already, why not an even hundred?
-The use of Credit Bureau scores to determine your auto insurance rates? Good credit = low insurance, bad credit = high insurance. Who cares how you drive?
-The continuing saga of Georgia's unfunded High Risk Pool, or how the feds are gonna run that shop in Georgia with out any input from you or me.
-The incredible shrinking pool of Insurance companies willing to write policies for children due to ramifications from this years ObamaCare bill. We are down to two providers in Georgia.
This is a short starting list of suggested topics. During my travels around the state as the Libertarian candidate for Insurance Commissioner the only unity I've seen so far is that every single Georgian that has had to use the policy he or she contracted for is exceedingly pissed off at their insurance company. Not a good sign in my opinion.
So think about it and toss in your own suggestion here at the Blog or over at the FaceBook page. I really want to know what the top three Libertarian Insurance Issues are.
Re-Run Time! From 8 SEPT 10, The Insurance Commissioner Race in Georgia is dead as a Doornail
I'm stuck in the dullest race in the state of Georgia this year. It seems that all of the oxygen is being sucked out by the ongoing snipery between Nathan "Stinky" Deal and good ol' King Roy with hardly a molecule to spare for those of us in the down ballot races.
I just concluded an exhaustive internet search of my two opponents and they have even less press to talk about than I do. Granted most of my stuff is self generated, but don't Ralph Hudgens and Mary Squires have websites and FaceBook pages and stuff? I'm assuming that Ralph has a staff of some description and Mary should have at least two people volunteering so I think it's time for them to get in the game and start saying something. Anything.
With that in mind, I'm issuing a challenge to my opponents. I double dog dare you to show up at the Famous Pub in the Toco Hills Shopping Center for the next DeKalb LP meeting and talk about the following items:
Georgia's unfunded High Risk Pool
The use of Credit Scores to determine Auto insurance rates
The hidden costs of Georgia's insurance premium tax
Just to let you know, the topic of accepting campaign donations from people who work in Georgia's insurance industries or small loan industries won't be discussed. There's nothing to discuss because it's just plain wrong. There's still time for the both of you to do the right thing and return those donations to their source or flip them to some worthy charity. If you keep that money you're just telling every citizen in Georgia that you're bought and paid for by the people you're supposed to be regulating.
I await your response.
Re-Run Time! From 11 AUG 10, It's Settled, the Race for Insurance Commissioner is On!
The race for Commissioner of Insurance is finally on. The players have been selected and we now all know who's on first. All of us have our responses up over at the League of Women Voters website and Ralph's got a very solid lead in the fundraising department. It was nice to see the fair Maria issue her statement and dutifully line up with all the other republicans behind their finalized ticket. I voted for her!
I guess I better spend some time and effort to look into Mary Squires as an opponent and see if I can predict where her and Ralph are gonna be at odds. I figure the high risk pool issue and insurance companies using credit scores to quote car insurance are certain flash points for those two. I know they're flash points for me.
I also think that the captive insurance exclusion from the premium tax is a solid issue for this campaign. Why are company owned insurance operations excluded from the hidden tax that every regular Joe in Georgia has to pay? If captive insurance companies don't have to shell out 4.5% in taxes, why do we have to? Since Ralph's been sitting on the Insurance Committee all these years, I figure he ought to know who wrote the bill that gave the captive insurance industry such sweet perk. I wonder if he voted for it?
Re-Run Time! From 28 AUG 10, What in Hell is Going on with Mary Squires Videos?
Democrat candidate for Insurance Commissioner Mary Squires gave a pretty good stump speech at the democrat convention in Athens and it's had 13 views since 20 AUG 10? What's wrong with that picture? It was a pretty good speech by democrat standards, that bit about being qualified for the State Fire Inpector because she went to NBC school was a stretch, but since I went to NBC school during my service career, I'm gonna have to give her a by on that.
All I remember about the course was counting rentgens and using field expedient methods to measure the size of the mushroom cloud to see if it was time to BOAKYAG or not. There wasn't a whole lot of info on fire sprinklers or building codes and stuff, but maybe she went to a longer course. Maybe not.
It's the 13 views I'm concerned about. Of the the 13 views, 3 of them came from the post I put up here on Bludgeon & Skewer on the 20th when Georgia Politico first released the video. It took me a while to find the copy because Georgia Politico used to be Georgia Liberal and must have changed the name to grab some extra hits on search phrases like that Paulding Pundit guy. Jeeze Louise, I put up a flippy of Libertarian Kevin Cherry's son, Andrew, endorsing his dad and it's got 44 downloads since the 22nd.
You democrats need to step up and support your candidate and watch her damn stump speech. It's the polite thing to do. If you don't, then Ralphie is gonna win clean even after I take 15% out of his hide in the general and you don't want that. I don't want that either but I'm sure that Ralphie wouldn't mind.
I know she can't win, it's republican year in a republican state and Ralph's got all the money insurance industry lobbyists and owners can legally shovel into his war chest not to mention $8 million bucks of his own, but how about giving it the old college try democrats. It's not like it's costing you aything except 6:43 of your life you'll never get back.
So watch Mary's video and be quick about it.
Re-Run Time! From 10 JUL 10 Libertarian candidate for Insurance Commissioner Shane Bruce gets a mention over at the Gainesville Times
Earned Media Time folks, I got a name mention over at the Gainesville Times in reporter Melissa Weinman's article on the republican primary for the Insurance Commissioner gig. Granted, you have to look under the continually scrolling pix of the current herd of republican candidates to find my name, but hey, it's there. It's my major media score of the week.
I was surprised to see the Insurance Commissioner post being touted as a launching pad to higher office in the article. Just because the Ox finally cornered enough cash to make a play for the Governorship doesn't mean it's the magic springboard to future fame and political glory. If you're a glass half full kind of guy, it could be looked at as an inescapable trap, sheesh, it took the Ox 16 years to get out of there.
My own meager research into the in's and out's of the post just don't paint the Commissioner's office as party central USA. You have to smile and tell a whole bunch of Georgian's that there's just no way for them to get any form of health insurance. You have to collect that pesky insurance premium tax and hand it over to the general fund so the current Gov can get a few more boat ramps built. You have to play nice with Georgia's "Industrial Loan" operators because that's a big chunk of campaign cash, they're well connected politically and they swing a big bat. And somewhere in there you have to do a little racetrack regulatin'.
The good news is I still have a couple of weeks to brainstorm up some solutions to these intractable problems and offer a clear vision and a sound plan to the voters of Georgia as a reason to elect me as the next Commissioner of Insurance.
Re-Run Time! From 2 JUL 10, The Insurance Commissioner Gig Job Description Just Keeps Growing
The Peach Pundit call for articles by candidates for the Insurance Commissioner race came and went and the respondee's have their responses up for public view. And it's pretty damn interesting for newly born insurance junkies like me. I tried and tried to come with 750 words for my contribution but was unable to get it done by the deadline and so passed on the opportunity.
The readership should head over and review my opponents statements as well cast a vote in the nifty online poll that currently has Gerry Purcell running neck and neck with Seth Harp. That's a major surprize to me because I've been forecasting with the "Who's got da Money?" model which predicts the runoff will be between Ralph Hudgens and Maria Sheffield. At the moment, Gerry and Seth have the most active polldaddy base but that could change radically tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see.
One cool aspect of this exercise is the opportunity for each candidate to differentiate themselves from the rest of the herd in republican land. I was also keen to see if the only other candidate that will definitely be on the ballot this fall, Mary Squires, wanted to venture out of the safe confines of democratland and brave the lion pit. She did and she intends to put all sorts Crisis Command Centers and Conviction Teams and Enforcement Squads and such into action if elected.
Here are some thumbnail reviews of the candidates ideas that were presented that I'll have to research to see if they are a good fit for my campaign this fall.
Ralph Hudgens didn't really address anything concrete about specific programs or problem areas. The Dude has a lot experience with the industry but I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Gerry Purcell came out hard on the ethics thing and that's good. The Ox was legendary for abusing the office for political gain. He's one of the most vocal opponents out there on Obamacare and the High Risk Pool controversy. As a Libertarian, I also oppose the impending federal healthcare mandates but I think we have to find some mechanism that will allow Georgia citizens that are not viable customers for insurance companies to gain coverage. He's got quite a list of other ideas I'd like to pluck if he doesn't make the run off.
Seth Harp talked a lot about his qualifications like Ralph did. At the tailend of his spiel he got into specific ideas and you gotta like them. Crack down on fraud, fight to reduce the mandates and bring in more insurance companies. As far as I know, the only item he might be able to achieve is fraud crackdown. The mandates and the premium tax will have to addressed in the legislature.
That's enough for this particular post, the readership is encouraged to head over and review the statements themselves as one of those rascally republicans will be on the ballot this fall. And be sure to vote in the online poll for Maria Sheffield! She's the one I want to compete with this fall!
Re-Run Time! From 29 SEPT 10, Libertarian Shane Bruce discusses the concept of Cancer Survivor Co Ops
I hope the established readership doesn't flip out over the re-run schedule I'll be posting over the next few days as it is intended to give the new readership an opportunity to see some of the work I've done on this campaign so far. Our readership here at Bludgeon & Skewer is experiencing an order of magnitude increase and that, coupled with our new RSS feeds, is a good thing. So if you've seen a particular post before and don't want to see it again don't worry. We'll get back to the regular publishing schedule on 2 NOV 10.
This video is one that I hope Ralph Hudgens and Mary Squires watch. We as Georgian's have to get something going for our fellow citizens who've had the audacity to survive cancer. Since we have no problem with giving special dispensations to selected insurance companies, why not apply that generosity to our citizens consigned to the pre-existing conditions gulag?
Topix Online Poll Update
The Topix online poll is still running and there are still several surprizes in it. The recently expanded readership is encouraged to head over and vote for your favorite Libertarian Candidate and then vote for the rest of the Libertarian candidates on this years ticket.
I really like the way my race is playing out due to the fact that I'm currently winning clean. Talk about a system shock.
Here are the current stats:
Who do you support for the Commissioner of Insurance race ?
| Mary Squires | 25 | |
| Shane Bruce | 58 | |
| Ralph T. Hudgens | 30 |
Who do you support for the Commissioner of Labor race ?
| Mark Butler | 22 | |
| Darryl Hicks | 10 | |
| Will Costa | 50 |
Who do you support for the Secretary of State race ?
| Brian Kemp | 34 | |
| David Chastain | 42 | |
| Georganna Sinkfield | 7 |
Who do you support for State Superintendent of Schools in Georgia in 2010?
| John D. Barge | 19 | |
| Joe Martin | 10 | |
| Kira Willis | 52 |
| Gary Black | 51 | |
| J. B. Powell | 24 | |
| Kevin Cherry | 40 |
| Ken Hodges | 32 | |
| Don Smart | 56 | |
| Sam Olens | 101 |
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