Insurance Commissioner Lowe Vs. Senn: Incumbent Angered Insurers; Challenger Promises There’ll Be Smoother Sailing

The state insurance commissioner campaign has turned into one of the hottest races in Washington this year.

The once-obscure post is now a lightning rod as incumbent Deborah Senn continues to infuriate the insurance industry.

Republican challenger Anthony Lowe is trying to capitalize on Senn’s clashes, including an ongoing feud with some of her employees.

Lowe claims Senn pushes reckless policies and drives insurance companies out of the state with her abrasive manner.

He bills himself as the candidate who can work smoothly with both the industry and the public, and keep rates down by increasing competition among insurers.

Senn, 47, warns that if Lowe, 35, becomes commissioner, he’ll be an industry puppet, not a consumer champion.

Lowe says he would not be indebted to the industry despite taking more campaign contributions from it than Senn.

A former King County deputy prosecutor and and aide to U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, Lowe says his background is ideal for crafting and enforcing the laws needed to regulate the industry and protect the consumer.

Senn, who jolted a previously sleepy office with her hard-nosed challenges to insurance rate-increase requests, claims she knows how to squeeze the fat out of insurance companies’ books.

Senn has raised about twice as much campaign cash as Lowe and received a solid 55 percent of the vote in the primary election.

But her re-election bid wobbled recently as information surfaced she is the target of a massive complaint filed with the state auditor’s office.

The complaint accuses Senn of bullying employees, hiring unqualified friends and directing the shredding of documents vital to lawsuits against her office.

“The more people learn about Deborah Senn the less they like her,” says Lowe.

Senn says the allegations are the fabrications of a few obsessed enemies who resent the consumer advocacy tact she takes. “They’re from the insurance industry and sympathetic to the industry.”

“It’s a rant, basically,” she says of a complaint summary she has seen. “How am I to respond to things that are simply not true?”

A recent poll for The Spokesman-Review indicates the race is tightening.

, DataTimes MEMO: See individual profiles by name of candidate

This sidebar appeared with the story: THE JOB The state insurance commissioner regulates insurance companies operating in Washington state and provides consumer information to the public. All rate-hike requests must first pass through the commissioner’s office. The commissioner serves a four-year term and is paid $77,200 a year.