An image issue that Oxendine can’t resolve in office
Hundreds of companies with thousands of employees doing billions of dollars in business with millions of Georgians, all under the thumb of one man.
For 15 years, that’s been Georgia’s insurance industry in a nutshell. The one man is John Oxendine, state insurance commissioner since 1995.
It’s a more powerful post than many citizens realize, and Oxendine has become one of Georgia’s leading vote-getters. If you believe opinion polls, he’s the front-runner to replace Sonny Perdue as governor.
With that leading status comes scrutiny. And much of the scrutiny on Oxendine centers on whether he’s spent his time in office seeking — some would say demanding — the help of the people he regulates to build his political career and fill his campaign coffers.
Serious allegations are raised in reports by the AJC and other outlets. While any one incident may strike the casual political observer as inside baseball, a theme emerges when you view them as a whole.
First, there are the campaign contributions totaling $120,000 which were funneled to him from two Georgia-based insurance companies in 2008, as the AJC reported last May.
Oxendine regulates both companies. After the AJC report, and several months after the donations were made, Oxendine returned the money “out of an abundance of caution.”
Yet Oxendine appointed the head of both firms, Delos “Dee” Yancey III, as chairman of an influential insurance association. Even after the men’s ties were questioned, Oxendine went quail hunting on land that Yancey owned. (You may have heard about it when Oxendine’s son accidentally shot a man.)
Yancey is hardly the only insurance exec to fund Oxendine’s campaigns. The AJC reports that employees and owners of firms regulated by Oxendine gave him at least $2.6 million, or 40 percent of his total election funds, over 10 years.
From here the trail gets a little trickier to follow.
Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland accused Oxendine of a “shakedown” attempt. The GOP lawmaker referred to a phone call Oxendine made to him in December about a state investigation of Southeastern U.S. Insurance Co. (SEUS), on whose board Westmoreland once served.
Westmoreland said Oxendine pledged to keep his name out of the media as a favor; he felt Oxendine was sending a message. Westmoreland, popular among Georgia conservatives, supports Nathan Deal for governor.
Then came a strange twist: another phone call to Westmoreland, this time by former state legislator Matt Towery.
Towery, who’s also an attorney, visited Oxendine to discuss the SEUS case; at the time, he represented the company’s former CEO, Clark Fain.
Finding Oxendine “obsessed” with Westmoreland’s “shakedown” comment, Towery agreed to call the congressman — while in Oxendine’s office — and ask him to drop the matter. Towery later admitted it “looked wrong” to intervene in a dispute involving a regulator investigating his client.
Given the money involved in the industry, the insurance commissioner must be squeaky clean — even more so than other officials. Oxendine may have remained in bounds all along.
But voters may conclude that they can’t be sure as long as he’s in office — and retains sway over key figures in the stories.
A spokesman this week said Oxendine “is not a quitter and will not leave a job before it is finished.” That’s his call.
As for how voters view things— well, that’s their call.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
72 comments Add your comment
The Tar and Feathers Party
February 28th, 2010
4:46 pm
Off with the kings head…tar it and feather it….feed it to the pigs….
LA
February 28th, 2010
4:49 pm
“Secondly, Democrats are not all liberals. Some are very conservative. Roy Barnes is general just right of center in my view. The Republicans seem to have a contest going to see who can be the most conservative.’
Barnes betrayed the teachers unions.
That’s great that the GA Republicans have a contest going. I had no clue that there was such a contest for conservatives.
Can you please post this contest for us to see? Thanks
joan1
February 28th, 2010
4:57 pm
There are a lot of negative comments about Oxendine. He shows up for everything, and I have seen him speak a number of times. The word that comes to mind is “slimy”.
Clark Howard for Governor in 2010
February 28th, 2010
5:28 pm
Call Clark and urge him to run in November !
The Tar and Feathers Party
February 28th, 2010
5:48 pm
That’s great that the GA Republicans have a contest going. –Let there be no survivors…
The Tar and Feathers Party
February 28th, 2010
5:48 pm
We want Clark, We Want Clark…..
Atlanta 1
February 28th, 2010
7:29 pm
I’m one of those hated independants. Guess what…. I’ll not be voting for this guy. But would take a long hard look at Clark Howard or Herman Cain – maybe they should run as independants – the WSB ticket…
Atlanta 1
February 28th, 2010
7:30 pm
And before it is posted – I do understand that you can have a Republican Governer and Democratic LT. Governer.
Disgusted
February 28th, 2010
8:34 pm
Geez, you can’t even take a few hundred thousand bucks on the side and be buddy-buddy with the people you’re supposed to regulate without getting raked over the coals by this crowd!
I can guarantee one thing: If it finally proves to be Oxendine vs. Barnes in November, 90% of the people on this blog will vote for Oxendine for one reason: the R after his name. If it’s two crooks going at one another, the Republican crook will always win.
Kyle Wingfield
February 28th, 2010
8:35 pm
To answer Ryan’s question: I stopped short of calling for Oxendine’s resignation outright because that’s not my main concern. He will leave that office no later than January 2011. I am more interested at this point in what happens in the governor’s race.
Resigning could actually help Oxendine in the campaign. For one thing, he could spend all (or at least a lot more of) his time raising money. He could resign, and if no other allegations were to come out, he could say “Ha! See? I was clean all this time, just like I said.”
I’m not trying to play political consultant here; I want to raise issues for voters. And imo, voters have every reason to wonder whether more negative information will come out once Oxendine’s no longer the insurance commissioner, and vote accordingly if he stays in office.
I admit that I’m drawing a fine distinction here, but it’s not an unimportant one imo. I’m definitely not trying to be cute — just laying out the issue for voters as I see it.
Anonymous Jones
February 28th, 2010
8:44 pm
LA: What is the “teacher’s union” in Georgia?? Please tell me how I can contact this “union” so I can join. If there were one, perhaps Georgia’s education would improve to the level of New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, etc. where they have real unions!! It’s hard to believe that Georgians would support Oxendine….well, no it isn’t hard come to think of it. We’re not as bad as Louisiana but close. I don’t think anyone will become governor without the teacher’s vote. They’ll be “Barnes’d” even worse this time since teachers are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
Michael H. Smith
February 28th, 2010
8:58 pm
Atlanta 1, we Independents may be hated but we hold the power over who gets elected or rejected and that is what the Party hacks hate about us the most….
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
And with stunts like this one, if the Republicans don’t stop Perdue, they will soon join the Dirt-bag Democrats now in political exile.
With teachers being furloughed, health programs being slashed and state government in a fiscal free-fall, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s budget plan includes this $9 million priority: Finishing a horse show complex expansion at the state fairgrounds and agricenter in his home county.
http://www.ajc.com/news/extras-in-a-lean-337443.html
LA
February 28th, 2010
9:33 pm
“If there were one, perhaps Georgia’s education would improve to the level of New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, etc. where they have real unions!!”
Yep, and just like those great states you mentioned, businesses move over seas and unions are left screaming bloody murder. Yep, those great unions!!!!
“It’s hard to believe that Georgians would support Oxendine”
Yet, for you, it’s easy to support Jennifer Granholm and Jon Corzine??????? Yep, democrats really know how to run a state or two in the ground.
“We’re not as bad as Louisiana but close.”
Yep, democrats have run that state into the ground for years and years. Bobby Jindal is doing a great job, though.
“I don’t think anyone will become governor without the teacher’s vote. ”
Sure they will. Republicans usually do quite well against teachers unions in the south.
“They’ll be “Barnes’d” even worse this time since teachers are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.”
But you just said the teachers union didn’t exist in Georgia.
Contradict much?
JD
February 28th, 2010
9:39 pm
Who cares whether a Retardican or a Democrap wins the gubernatorial race? The bottom line is that the hard-working citizens of Georgia LOSE. There is no true conservative (read: anarcho-capitalist) running on the Republican side, and no progressive running on the Democrat side. I’ll be voting Libertarian just to piss the establishment off.
Johnny Dodds
March 1st, 2010
1:42 am
Oxenswine is nothing but a fire waiting to be put out. I don’t care who wins the governor’s race, as long as it’s not this corrupt career politician. I’m an independent, fiscal conservative and have yet to make up my mind yet as to who I’ll vote for, but can assure you it won’t be this crooked crooked crooked crooked crooked man. All those crookeds were no accident either. Georgia could do a lot better than electing an insurance regulator (oxymoron?) as it’s governor. Kyle spelled out many reasons supporting this notion. If Oxendine really wants to serve the public, he should do the public a service now and resign from the race. Please John, return to your home in Gwinnett County. Your version of crooked politics and policy fits right in there with the good ol’ boys network of the county commission. Figures one of those commissioners works in your state office.
kitty
March 1st, 2010
8:10 am
Frankly I think anyone running for an office they aren’t already in should resign. I respect Karen Handel for doing just that. I don’t care what party they are in. Why should the taxpayers pay someone to campaign for another office?
gatorman770
March 1st, 2010
8:42 am
It’s funny that the AJC as well as national media don’t find fault or investigate the hundreds of millions of dollars funneled to liberal democratic candidates campaigns by unions such as UAW, SEIC, ABA, etc. Now the democratic controlled congress and presidency is paying the unions back by using taxpayer money to bail out the unions pension funds and exorbitant benefits by “saving” GovtM and Crysler, providing for the unionization of all healthcare workers and paying the lawyers back by preventing reasonable tort reform in the healthcare bills!
jconservative
March 1st, 2010
9:22 am
So Nathan Deal resigns his House seat to run for Governor. Quote: ““This is not a time for untested leadership in the governor’s office,” Deal said.
Untested leadership? Does that mean he wants me to vote for Roy Barnes?
Naw, he can’t mean that. Probably just a poor choice of words.
LA
March 1st, 2010
9:34 am
Yet another reason why unions suck.
Vale sues striking union, alleging ‘unlawful thuggery’
United Steelworkers Local 6500 and some of its members have posted personal information about people who are continuing to work during the strike, which has led to intimidation, threats and an assault, the mining giant alleges in its more than $1-million lawsuit.
People on the picket lines have set large fires so trucks carrying explosives and fuel can’t cross, hydro wires have been cut, rail equipment has been damaged and roads have been littered with nail spikes to puncture truck tires, the statement of claim alleges.
Those singled out have had their property and homes vandalized, received anonymous phone threats at home and one employee was assaulted while jogging, the statement of claim says.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/vale-sues-striking-union-alleging-unlawful-thuggery/article1484049/
LA
March 1st, 2010
9:35 am
George Bush laugh: heh heh heh
Obama Signs One-Year Extension of Patriot Act – on a Saturday Night Of Course
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/anthony-kang/2010/02/27/obama-signs-one-year-extension-patriot-act-saturday-night-course#ixzz0gw6Ii8SD
Anonymous Jones
March 1st, 2010
9:23 pm
LA: You still can’t figure out what the teachers’ union in Georgia is can you?? Maybe that’s because there is no teachers’ union. Let me know what it is…and check out SAT scores and ITBS scores in the states where there are teachers’unions. We already know that Georgia is 48th in SAT scores without teacher’s unions. You will find ALL the state’s with teachers’ unions in the top 20. Let us know what the union is called in Georgia. Thanks.
JBee
March 2nd, 2010
12:42 pm
If the GOP nominates the OX the party can hang it up in November. Ox is a very scary guy. BTW does anyone think he looks like Joe Piscopo? With out the muscles….