Miss. candidates spar over public service records

The two men running for Mississippi insurance commissioner say encouraging competition is the key to reducing consumer’ costs as the state continues its recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

But that’s about where the candidates’ similarities end.

During a recent luncheon in Jackson, Democrat Gary Anderson of Jackson and Republican Mike Chaney of Vicksburg criticized each others records of service in government.

The winner of the Nov. 6 general election will succeed George Dale as Mississippi’s top insurance regulator. Dale is the longest-serving insurance commissioner in the nation, but Anderson defeated him in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary.

Anderson said Chaney, a state senator, has flip-flopped on issues such as taxes.

Chaney told a retirees’ group at the Capitol on March 8 that he would vote for a bill to reduce the 7 percent grocery tax and increase the tax on cigarettes. On March 20, when the bill was dead, Chaney voted against a resolution that would’ve revived the legislation.

Anderson said: “This whole race will boil down to who can you really trust in this office of insurance (commissioner). My opponent has been prone to saying one thing but doing something else. And I think that’s so – that’s a character flaw that he has.”

Chaney responded that he does what he believes to be best for citizens. “Only crazy folks would carve something in stone and not change their mind if the facts change,” Chaney said.

Chaney also said Anderson was part of an administration that left Mississippi in a financial mess but he later acknowledged he had voted for most of the bills that led to the budget shortfall.