SC would elect insurance director under new bill

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A legislative panel has given initial approval to a bill to make the director of state insurance agency an elected position.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the bill that would put South Carolina in line with 11 states that elect insurance chiefs.

Myrtle Beach Sen. Luke Rankin says the bill is needed to prevent insurance directors from feeling beholden to the governors who appoint them — and to protect the directors from decisions that governors may not like.

Gov. Mark Sanford’s pick as insurance director, Eleanor Kitzman, resigned in 2007 over a disagreement with the governor. Sanford said he would not go along with Kitzman’s plans to expand a hurricane coverage program that covered a strip of land on the coast to property further inland.

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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP