The Facts Be Darned, Mike Causey Strangely Says Goodwin Hasn't Saved NC $1.4 Billion

It is certainly the silly season as Election Day 2012 draws near.

Here's the latest evidence: Mike Causey, the four-time challenger for the office of North Carolina Insurance Commissioner and a former paid lobbyist, has told news media that incumbent Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin has saved Tar Heel residents no money during his term in office.

Causey said: "... there's no savings there."

Goodwin has actually ordered $1.4 Billion in refunds, rate cuts, and rebates. (Listen to the WUNC-Radio interview here at this link.)

Causey also said:

" ... insurance rates have been going up for too long, partly because Goodwin's policies have kept more private insurers from offering property policies in the state,..."

Apparently, the Republican candidate Causey doesn't know that a public information request will verify that forty-one (41) new property companies have begun writing in North Carolina just on Goodwin's watch. It's even been in newspapers.

Also, what "policies" and "private insurers" is Causey referring to? Only insurance companies that are insolvent or have major legal problems are prohibited from coming here. Is it that Causey wants North Carolina to open the door to insurance companies that have had their licenses revoked in other states, or is it he just wants to raise rates so more insurance companies come here?

Facts be darned, Causey does not realize that if Insurance Commissioner Goodwin had not taken action and ordered rate cuts, refunds and rebates then billions of dollars of additional insurance expenses would have been on the backs of individuals, families and small businesses.

And what about the actual checks that millions of citizens and policyholders have received as a result of orders by Insurance Commissioner Goodwin?

For example:

One million drivers received a total of $50 million in 2009-10.

Over 215,000 families received $156 million in health insurance rebates in 2010.

Hundreds of thousands more North Carolina residents and businesses received many millions of dollars in refunds (example here) as a result of Insurance Commissioner Goodwin.

Were those checks a figment of everyone's imagination, as Mike Causey would have people believe?

Republican Mike Causey, who wants to take North Carolina back to the 1830s, apparently believes so. What's next -- Mike Causey denying the world is round and denying that men landed on the moon? It's tinfoil hat time.

This state cannot afford to have potential leaders who will deny basic facts just to get elected, and adopt policies that will take us back to the Stone Age. There's just too much at stake.

North Carolina needs an Insurance Commissioner who fights for the people, has bipartisan support, has an actual proven record of savings, and knows both facts and law.

Let's pray that the voters know the true choice they have here.

Vote to re-elect Wayne Goodwin as North Carolina's Insurance Commissioner.

UPDATE, 2 Nov 2012: Read even more recent bouts with truthfulness by the Mike Causey campaign here at this link.

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