First, donate close to $100,000 to a candidate through ‘limit’ donations of $1,200.00 per corporate member, employee, spouse and relative. Do this a year before the election.
Second, donate the same amount again after the primary.
And why, the discerning reader asks, would someone donate this much money in increments of $1,200.00 a pop to a state-wide candidate? Why would numerous out-of-state, non-Delawareans donate 80% of a candidate’s war-chest a year before the election?
Let’s fill in the blanks. The office is Insurance Commissioner. The obvious answer is that the donors are insurance companies hoping, by buying this office, to make up for ground lost under Commissioner Denn. But you’d be wrong!!!
So why would out-of-state people donate almost 80% out of $100,000.00 reported in 2007 to an Insurance Commissioner candidate? Who, outside of insurance companies, would benefit from buying a State office (or, more specifically, buying an elected official)?
Why, that would be Regulatory Insurance Services, Inc. (RIS); a family-friendly corporation that has made millions from auditing Delaware insurance companies for the Department of Insurance. The Insurance Commissioner awards this contract, and what better way to ‘help’ your chances than by paying for an elected official. The well-funded Insurance Commissioner candidate is none other than Gene Reed, Jr. Mr. Reed’s much touted campaign fund is a direct result of the friends and families and related corporations of Regulatory Insurance Services, Inc. in pursuit of the multi-million dollar contract awarded by the Insurance Commissioner. What’s a couple hundred thousand in campaign donations compared to a contract worth millions?
Sounds to me like a recipe ripe for foam-at-the-mouth profit-mongers more interested in installing a candidate who will serve their interests as opposed to those of the citizens of Delaware. But let’s not rely merely on rhetoric and conspiracy theory-like claims. Could Gene Reed be a Donna Lee Williams-lite; the kind of Insurance Commissioner who doesn’t give a damn about the consumer and who lives to serve the corporate behemoths who so richly line his campaign war chest?
Perhaps not. Perhaps the incredible amount of money spent auditing Delaware companies does not affect us tax-paying Delaware citizens. But then again, if I was an insurance company being hit with these million dollar fees from the State contractor, I’d just add the cost to insurance premiums, and BANG, we tax-payers do foot the bill.
Wow. I say it louder.
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth