JOHNSON: ALABAMA HOMEOWNERS GOT BYRNED
Montgomery, AL, Feb 18, 2010 – On Sept. 11, 2009, the Mobile Press Register reported that the Alabama Insurance Commission allowed rate increases to Alabama homeowners’ insurance rates. GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Johnson immediately released statements expressing serious concerns over the averaging double-digit hikes. The statewide increases approved for ALFA Mutual Insurance Company caused insurance rates to spike 14 percent in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan and Dauphin Island, by 16.6 percent in other areas of Mobile and Baldwin Counties and averaged 5.8 percent statewide. Farmers Insurance customers saw their rates rise an average of 25.7% and State Farm homeowners saw their rates rise 19.1 percent on average.
In Sept., Johnson was suspicious of the rate hikes saying ‘We have had an uneventful hurricane season, so reserves have not been depleted through disaster response.’ He urged Insurance Commissioner Jim Ridling to schedule regional town hall meetings and allow people of Alabama to both express their concerns and receive an explanation for this sharp hit to their homeowners’ insurance when the unemployment rate was twice as high as it was the previous August and families were struggling to keep their homes.
These increases came in spite of the fact that only six months earlier, Ridling had assessed ‘the state's insurance market is very healthy, except for two counties - Mobile and Baldwin.’
“With the release of candidate’s campaign contributor reports, we now have the explanation of the double-digit increases: campaign contributions by the Insurance Commissioner and hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance company contributions were funneled through PACs to the campaign of Bradley Byrne.
“On July 23, 2009, our Insurance Commissioner contributed $2,500 toward Bradley Byrne’s gubernatorial campaign,” Johnson explains. “On Sept. 9, just two days prior to the announcement of the approved rate hikes, ALFA contributed $60,000 to five PACs. Within days of the rate increase, ALFA contributed another $180,000 to additional PACs. Over the following days and months, nearly $200,000 of these dollars made their way into Byrne’s campaign account. Insurance Commissioner Ridling never wavered in his support for Byrne, contributing an additional $5,000 donation on Dec. 30, 2009.
“I believe there is a direct and disturbing correlation between the implied endorsement of the Insurance Commissioner’s contribution to a gubernatorial candidate and an approved rate hike that was placed on Alabama’s already struggling homeowners. This is government for sale at its highest level.
”As a cabinet member and as a former contractor for ALFA, I worked alongside both Commissioner Ridling and ALFA leadership. This is a difficult position to take; however, I have promised the citizens of Alabama that as a candidate and as Governor, I will continue to call out unethical practices when I see them—despite former or existing relationships.”
A break-down of all contributions made by Ridling and ALFA to PACs that eventually landed in Byrne’s account can be found at www.billjohnson.org/homeownersgetbyrned.htm. Clicking on the active links will open each of the relevant campaign contributor reports.