Received the following announcement via email:
Maria Sheffield launches statewide campaign for Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner via Facebook and Twitter.
Maria Sheffield, a Ronald Reagan conservative, believes in reducing the size of state government, supports the Fair Tax, private property rights, tort reform, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and is pro-life. She will oppose any new taxes at any level of government.
Maria is counsel with the law firm of Burr & Forman where she specializes in insurance regulatory and compliance matters. Prior to going into private practice, Maria worked at the Georgia Department of Insurance for six years, where she served as Legislative Liaison and Legal Counsel.
Maria is a Georgia native and was raised in the town of Ivey in Wilkinson County, Georgia and is a graduate of Wilkinson County High School. She earned her BA in Political Science and Master of Publication Administration degree from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville and earned her Master of Business Administration and Juris Doctor from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Maria Sheffield is proud to announce the following appointments to her campaign:
Campaign Chairman:
Oscar Persons
Oscar served as General Counsel for the Georgia GOP for over twenty years, Chair of the Coverdell for Senat e Committee in 1992 and Chair of the Dole campaign for President in Georgia in 1996. Oscar has held leadership positions in many other Georgia Republican presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, legislative and local campaigns over the past forty years. President George W. Bush appointed Oscar to the President’s Advisory Committee for the Arts (Kennedy Center).
Campaign Treasurer:
Dr. F.C. Smalley
Dr. Smalley, a retired veterinarian, is a lifelong Republican from Toomsboro, Georgia who worked for Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign and is a past 8th District GOP Chairman. He has served in numerous leadership roles within the Republican Party over the course of his fifty plus years as a Republican advocate and has been to every national convention since Nixon.General Consultant
Kathryn Ballou
Kathryn has recently served as campaign manager for John Oxendine’s campaign for Governor and has worked on other Congressional and statewide races across the country. In Georgia, she has worked on campaigns for Congressman Jack Kingston and former Congressman Bob Barr. She has also worked in the Washington, DC office of Congressman Nathan Deal. Kathryn has served as an officer in the Cobb County Republican Party as well as numerous other Republican volunteer positions.
As Georgia’s next Commissioner of Insurance, Maria will work for Georgia taxpayers on the following:
Consum er Protection
Maria Sheffield will be a strong advocate for Georgia consumers and will work to maintain a vigorous competitive environment for Georgia insurance companies, which will expand consumer choice and drive down premiums.
Affordable Property and Health Insurance Products
Georgia taxpayers deserve an Insurance Commissioner who is committed to keeping property and health insurance coverage affordable and available to everyone. Maria Sheffield will oppose any regulatory action which would limit any person’s healthcare insurance options and choice.
The Rural Georgia Healthcare Initiative
Maria Sheffield will support and pledges to continue and expand the Rural Georgia Healthcare Initiative. This important program for rural Georgia allows Georgians living in rural areas of the state convenient local access to specialty medical care usually found only in Georgia’s largest metropolitan areas.
Consumer Services Division
Maria Sheffield will work to secure more funding from the General Assembly for your Consumer Services Division. This important division is dedicated to helping Georgians resolve insurance disputes with their insurance companies and agents.
Strong Defender of State Regulation
Maria Sheffield opposes any effort to nationalize or dismantle the state insurance regulatory system. A Georgia Insurance Commissioner is better able to protect you than some bureaucracy in the federa l government. She also understands that Georgia’s insurance agents and brokers are in touch with the citizens of Georgia everyday and they understand how to respond to their insurance needs. Maria Sheffield will work with Georgia’s insurance agents and brokers to help them adequately serve and protect their customers.
Establish a Dedicated Investigative Lab for Arson & Insurance Fraud
The current economic crisis has forced state government to make very hard choices. One of those has been to cut back on state investigative labs. Maria Sheffield will work with the next Governor and General Assembly to establish a dedicated lab for arson and insurance fraud. It is vital to Georgia taxpayers that highly trained investigators focus on these very serious investigations.
Portability of Health Insurance Policies
There are many changes being proposed in health care and insurance. Maria Sheffield will maintain portability for Georgia policyholders – a job change should never cause a Georgia taxpayer to lose his or her health care coverage.
Stand Against Pay Day Lending Legislation
Maria Sheffield will oppose any attempt to pass Pay Day lending legislation to ensure that Georgians are not subject to unfair lending practices including triple-digit interest rates, unaffordable repayment terms, and coercive collection tactics. It is important that working Georgians unde rstand their public servants are protecting them from predatory actions.
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Well, let’s see here:
“Maria Sheffield, a Ronald Reagan conservative, believes in reducing the size of state government, supports the Fair Tax, private property rights, tort reform, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and is pro-life. She will oppose any new taxes at any level of government.”
So she can pander like and Ox, and
“Kathryn has recently served as campaign manager for John Oxendine’s campaign for Governor ”
And she can blame the Lib’ral AJC like an Ox.
It’s a shame. She seems to have the qualifications, but the first paragraph in her presser is what she feels is most important for me to know about her, and most of it is designed to pander to interests well outside the scope of the insurance commissioner.
She seems to be an Ox Clone – up to and including hiring the sterile bull’s former campaign manager as a consultant.
Not looking good, particularly with most of the values she presents.
I’ll have more on her actual positions later.
Anyone got a website/twitter ID for her?
Okay, let’s see if you’re right Icarus:
1. Is a Ronald Reagan conservative – The tells me that she thinks that government is a burden to free markets. Less likely to issue overreaching and intrusive regulations.
2. believes in reducing the size of state government – definitely applies to running a state government agency.
3. supports the Fair Tax – okay, maybe not within the perview of the Commissioner of Insurance. But the Commissioner is also the State Treasurer. That is a position that could have a say on the tax revenue and how it is collected. I’ll give you this one, but with that provision.
4. private property rights – Insurance deals with protecting property. Limited scope for the office, but a scope nonetheless.
5. tort reform – Tort reform, when it comes down to it, is supposed to reduce insurance rates by limiting jury awards. Very much something of interest for the office.
6. The Second Amendment – Insurance companies will from time to time try to charge gun owners more than non-gun owners. Oxendine prohibited this in GA. Sheffield seems like she would keep that prohibition in effect.
7. The Tenth Amendment – There has been a move for a number of years to create a national commissioner of insurance and end insurance regulation at the state level. The big insurance companies favor this. This is a 10th Amendment arguement.
8. And is pro-life – Healthcare and therefore health insurance issue.
9. She will oppose any new taxes at any level of government – State treasurer and the premium tax is a big issue in the insurance industry.
So we agree that I’m right, right?
If she thinks government regulation will be a burden to free markets, why does she state on 5 separate occassions that she supports either MORE government regulation or keeping the already excessive level of regulation we currently have?
Hey Icky & Jeff. Who do you like for insurance commissioner? Good post Shep.
I’m wide open on that race. I know Harold Logsden fairly well, and am pretty familiar with Seth Harp. Have heard pretty good things about Gerry Purcell. I’ve also heard good things about Sheffield, but this press release looks to me like she wants to be an Ox clone, and one Ox is more than enough.
Honestly no opinion in that particular race just yet. I met Hudgens at a local fundraiser over the summer, and I’m scheduled to interview Stephen Northington next week, but I’ve also talked to Purcell a few times unofficially via twitter and FB. All have their strengths and weaknesses.
The thing that makes me most wary of Sheffield with just a casual glance is that she appears to be trying to portray herself as the Second Coming of the Ox – and my feelings about him are pretty well known. Maybe I’m wrong here though, and I look forward to the discussion. Like I said, just a first impression there.
“Maria Sheffield, a Ronald Reagan conservative, believes in reducing the size of state government, supports the Fair Tax, private property rights, tort reform, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and is pro-life. She will oppose any new taxes at any level of government.”
Well that pretty much covers everything….
That kind of reminds me of when the weatherperson on TV’s forecast is:
“Seasonal temperatures, sunny, with a chance of showers.”
So, I know I’m in the minority here, but she lost me with the words “Ronald Reagan conservative.” Too often, I’ve found that people proclaiming those words are anything but. In the rare case that Ms. Sheffield might be one of the true “Ronald Reagan conservatives,” she should prove it by actions rather than using the term to score political points from an electorate so annoyed with the past decade that they’ll fall for anyone proclaiming to mold themselves in the image of a president from 30 years ago (regardless of the accuracy of the words).
Good luck to her, though. I have no idea who I’m supporting for Insurance Commissioner. Maybe she can still win me over.
It’s hard for someone who hasn’t been in an elected position to do that. As with any politician, after the term is up, you look and see how they have lived up to their promises, regardless of who they are and what they are running for.
At least I can say Jim Wooten called me a Reagan Republican so I don’t have to put that moniker on myself.
Fair point. But you didn’t call yourself that. . . Just saying.
“So she can pander like and Ox.” So she puts out her beliefs and instantly she is compared to Oxendine. So maybe it’s “well outside the scope” of insurance commissioner, but come on Icky….If she didn’t sya where she stands, you’d accuse her of being non-commital. A candidate has no chance against the wrath of the winged one.
I hardly think that with Sheffield’s extensive and impressive record in insurance matters that she will be an Ox clone. I would bet Maria would run the insurance department independently from Oxendine and bring her own ideas into the department.
For those of you who have not chosen a candidate yet, check Sheffield out as you would any of the other candidates. I think you will find that she has the best credentials of any of the candidates. I also think it was a very smart thing for her to go ahead and state UPFRONT where she stands on Conservative issues.
As for Jeff, did you ever think that maybe Sheffield and Kathryn are friends and that maybe Kathryn has agreed to help her because she knows the territory. But I’m sure that never entered into your limited way of thinking.
Jeff and Charlie, what are your main beefs with the way Oxendine has managed the DOI over the past 15 1/2 years? Most agents and consumers would tend to say that Oxendine has done a very good job. Northington in one of his more recent campaign email, he said, “For the last sixteen years we have had an Insurance Commissioner who has restored the confidence of both the insurance industry, and the insurance consumers.”
Obviously, if you don’t like how Oxendine has managed the DOI, then Northington would have to be counted out as well.
I have to agree with you here. Although I’m not impressed with Ox the Gov candidate (Too much pandering, will say anything for a vote, inept staff, etc.), I think Ox the commissioner maintained a well-run department. I would suspect that his recent loss of influence due to the deregulation of auto insurance rates helped influence him to move on and run for governor.
If we wanted status quo politics at the Insurance Commissioner’s office, folks have plenty of choices – Ralph, Seth, Tom… I suppose you can add this Maria to that list — except she may be worse, she’s a spawn of Oxendine. I suppose all those years of seeing him eating, drinking, and living high on the hog of lobbyists made her yearn for the office…
Thank God there is a new day dawning in Georgia finally not dominated by the status quo do nothing politics of all talk and no action brought to you by a real conservative Republican named Gerry Purcell.
“all those years of seeing him eating, drinking, and living high on the hog of lobbyists ”
He must have very good genes and mitrochondria otherwise he would be overweight and just plain fat, instead of atheletic looking. Look at all the fat cat politicans around Georgia and correlate that with the slop trough.
I agree there does appear to be a strong connection between the Ox and Ms. Sheffield. But, there are other concerns too. She has an excellent resume if you need an attorney, but it is not an executive leadership resume. I can’t see anything that suggests she has ever lead any group of people or been responsible for a budget of any proportion close to the job she is pursuing. It appears that she has been an attorney defending insurance companies – not sure that is what we need either.
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