Veteran Mississippi Commissioner Loses Primary

Dale says television campaign ads incorrectly indicated that he had been indicted for bribery.

Anderson took a pledge not to accept campaign money from insurers mainly because he could not get company contributions, Dale says.

Dale says he himself probably received more than $200,000 in support from the insurance industry including contributions from individual agents who were exercising their constitutional right to make campaign donations.

Anderson says he wants insurers to do business in Mississippi and is not anti-company.

The pledge not to take money from insurers is a matter of “good business and not cozy relations,” Anderson says. “It is business, not just nodding and winking and all of that.”

Although Katrina may have hurt insurers in Mississippi, “Katrina is not to blame for the rise in premiums,” Anderson says, arguing that rates were high before Katrina.

“Katrina did expose the weaknesses in depending on the department of insurance to regulate the industry in our state,” Anderson says.

He says everything in his campaign ads was “100% factual.”

Dick Scruggs, a lawyer who has organized litigation against insurers on behalf of Katrina victims, has contributed $250,000 to Mississippians for Fair Elections, a group that has campaigned against Dale.

Scruggs “did not give my campaign a dime,” Anderson says.

The insurance industry has funded efforts to stop citizen lawsuits, and Dale outspent Anderson in the primary by a ratio of 3 to 1, Anderson says.