Life Insurance

TALLAHASSEE - The state's insurance commissioner sent a letter to his bosses, the Florida Cabinet, on Friday apologizing for his involvement in the political campaign of a staffer's wife.

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is under investigation both by his own inspector general and the state's chief financial officer for asking insurance lobbyists to support the wife of his communications director, Bob Lotane. Robin Lotane is a chief assistant state attorney running for judge in Tallahassee.

"I agree being involved in an effort to advance a personal or political cause may be misperceived and problematic regardless of its legality," said Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty in a letter sent to each of the four Cabinet officers.

Sunday night, three days before a scheduled fundraiser for Robin Lotane, McCarty borrowed an insurance lobbyist's cell phone to solicit campaign contributions from other insurance lobbyists he regulates.

Insurance lobbyist Lisa Miller and McCarty went to the Lotanes' home in northeast Tallahassee the evening of April 15. Miller called the event a meeting in support of Robin Lotane's campaign.

"We had a meeting of people who support her campaign," said Miller, who allowed McCarty to use her mobile phone. She said she did not give the commissioner contacts or phone numbers. Miller, a former coordinator for the troubled My Safe Florida Homes program, said she didn't pay attention to whom McCarty called, but she didn't see any problem with it. "There were no state resources used," she said.

Through his chief of staff Dave Foy, McCarty denied the event was a campaign meeting. Foy said McCarty was just going to the Lotanes' home to see them, and he decided to make some fundraising calls while there.

"There's a difference between a campaign meeting and going to a colleague or co-worker's house on a weekend," Foy said. "An event to one person may not be an event to another."

Bob Lotane declined to talk with the St. Petersburg Times on Friday, except to say that he did not show McCarty the invitation for the fundraiser before he distributed them. The invitation proclaimed McCarty as the host of the event.

Robin Lotane is still running for judge but has been suspended from her job, with pay, in case she violated elections codes, the state attorney said.

CFO Alex Sink questioned him about his involvement with the fundraiser a few hours before it started. McCarty maintains that he was "not involved in the campaign portion" of the fundraiser, Foy said.

The controversy comes at a particularly crucial time for McCarty's office. In coming weeks, property insurance companies will make amended rate filings in the wake of the reforms passed during January's special session.

McCarty proclaimed in March that homeowner rates would drop a statewide average 24 percent. But as the filings came in, most large insurers showed numbers that were a third of that.

Another area of concern is state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. McCarty's office is now charged with setting rates for Citizens, a company some estimate will grow to more than 2 million residential and commercial policyholders by the end of the year.

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