3 Way Insurance Battle Becomes 2 With Exit of Rasberry

Jim Rasberry of Laurel's exit from the race for Insurance Commissioner brings the race into clearer focus. We at Cotton Mouth are sad to see him go, but we did predict that this might happen due to his fundraising levels in comparison to his opponents.

His absence makes this a two way race.

The incumbent is George Dale who has given all appearances of being too cosy with the Insurance Industry who make up the majority of his donors and has had Insurance Industry lawyers represent him in court.

The challenger is Gary Anderson who has served as the state's Chief Fiscal Officer and earned the reputation as a fiscal conservative. He is fighting for reform in insurance.

It comes down to Reform vs. the Status Quo.

While all this is going we learn from his press release that Jim Rasberry instead "is looking forward to fishing on the Gulf this summer on the weekends and concentrating and focusing on my practice during the weekdays."

I think he'll enjoy himself more there anyway, though I look forward to seeing him in the future.

3 Way Insurance Battle

Now that Dale has been placed back on the Democratic ballot we are in for a interesting show.

The first angle to this is the angle oft' repeated by the conservative press which is the question of how well Commisioner George Dale can compete now that his partisan leanings have been shown to be less than strongly Democratic. (AKA: Endorsing George Bush doesn't win votes in Democratic Primaries)

The second angle, and the one I am more interested to watch, is the extent at which the Democratic Primary is split between Democrats of such different stripes.

George Dale is the longest siting statewide elected official and longest siting Democrat. His views and politics match up with much of the politics of those who left the Democratic Party as it became gradually acceptable to be a Republican. Unlike many other elected officials, he had the integrity not to switch. Dale is old, conservative and white.

Gary Anderson has worked in state government and is qualified to take this position. His politics are more moderate to conservative and as a black man pulls from the same experience as many other black Mississippians. He ran for Treasurer in 2003 barely losing to the less qualified white, Republican Tate Reeves. His loss can be accounted for by race and to some extent the coattails of Governor Barbour. Anderson is middle-aged, moderate to conservative and black.

Jim Rasberry is an insurance professional. He has some experience in politics, but has no elected experience. His politics are more moderate and represents a new generation in politics at the age of 25. He could have a promising career, though he may not start now as his fundraising has not kept up with his opponents thus far. He is young, moderate, and white.

This race could be interesting to see how parts of the Democratic party function and contest this race including the interesting generational twist.