Insurance lobbyists at the state level are expecting many changes among insurance commissioners after the Nov. 5 election--mainly because the governors and/or the party that put them in place have changed.
"We project up to 23 commissioners could turn over, just based on information we have," said Roger Schmelzer, NAMIC's vice president of regulatory affairs. "I'm told that after the 1994 elections, there was huge turnover."
Illinois, Pennsylvania and South Carolina are among a dozen states where a new governor or new party taking power could "almost guarantee" a new insurance commissioner, Schmelzer said.
Alaska, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming also fall into this category, he said.
