By ROBERT TRIGAUX, Times Business Columnist
Published August 24, 2006
Democratic contenders for governor Rod Smith and Jim Davis tried their best in Wednesday night's debate to offer solutions to Florida's complex property insurance crisis and other economic challenges. The result: Nice try, but the keep-it-simple sound bites and the sheer task of finding viable fixes hampered their efforts.
To their credit, Smith, a state senator from Alachua, and Davis, a congressman from Tampa, tried harder than their Republican counterparts in an earlier debate Tuesday debate to offer an insurance remedy.
Both Democratic candidates proved tougher on the insurance industry.
But neither addressed the core issue - how Florida can attract fresh capital and a regulatory spine to deal with an insurance industry grown comfortable dropping higher-risk Floridians as policyholders and raising rates to remaining customers at an astronomical pace.
Smith outlined a plan that would do away with the state-run Citizens Property insurance pool, but declined to say where more than a million Florida homeowners in the pool would go.
Davis ignored his support for a national catastrophe fund. But he called for closing a loophole that lets insurers separate wind and water damage and permits them to avoid paying for one by blaming the other.
Both Smith and Davis endorsed tougher oversight of insurance companies. Smith asked for an "independent insurance commission" while Davis backed a "consumer watchdog."
Neither explained why current state consumer safeguards have largely failed. The primary will be held Sept. 5.
