DANIELS' DOI PICK BEGS OFF

The choice of Indiana’s new Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels for insurance commissioner has decided to turn down the job only weeks after accepting it. Evansville, Ind., State Farm agent W. Harold Calloway was announced as Daniels’ choice on Dec. 29 and was scheduled to start the job March 1, but then had second thoughts.

Due to “personal and financial disruption to his business,” Daniels said in a statement, Calloway said he’d be unable to do the job. The Indiana Department of Insurance has a $15 million budget, 75 employees, and has often been criticized in the past for too often siding with insurers against consumers and not having the resources to efficiently do its job.