Republican House leader accuses Granholm’s insurance consumer advocate of abusing position

LANSING — Michigan House Republican Leader Kevin Elsenheimer is accusing Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s insurance consumer advocate of bullying GOP House members into supporting insurance reform legislation.

In recent statement, Elsenheimer accused Insurance Consumer Advocate Melvin “Butch” Hollowell of using state resources for political purposes. Elsenheimer, a Republican from Kewadin, alleges several state GOP members have received calls from Hollowell’s office inquiring into such things at the political make-up of the district, margin of victory and the names of political supporters and opponents. Elsenheimer says this is an inappropriate use of state resources.

“Politics is politics, but what the governor’s office of Auto and Home Insurance Consumer Advocate is doing would make Tony Soprano blush. This is nothing but a strong-arm shake down on the part of the Granholm-Cherry administration and Hollowell to intimidate Republicans into backing a planned pay-off to the trial lawyers lobby, ‘or else.’”

It is illegal to use state resources for political purposes.

“I’m not surprised it has gotten heated,” said Hollowell. “At no time have there been, nor will there be, state resources used.”

Hollowell said the controversy surrounds attempts by his office to address out-of-control insurance rates for drivers. He said the goal was to address unaffordable insurance rates which are causing drivers to choose to drive uninsured, even though Michigan law mandates at least no-fault insurance coverage to operate a vehicle on Michigan roads. Michigan has the highest insurance rates in the country.

“We feel there is a very high correlation between unemployment and uninsured drivers. We all knew that it was about 20 percent are uninsured in the state,” Hollowell said. “That alone is just mind blowing. But the Wall Street Journal says you can’t stop there. For everyone 1 percent increase in unemployment rate, there is a 3/4 percent increase in the uninsured rate.”

To address that, Hollowell instructed staff from his office to compile uninsured driver rates for each of the state’s 83 counties going back to February.

Armed with that knowledge, Hollowell said he has met with 61 lawmakers about the proposed legislation and its impact on constituents.

“I met with a state rep the other day, and he wasn’t sure this was applicable to his district,” Hollowell recounted. “I told him, ‘Your counties are No. 2 for uninsured,’ and he about fell out of his chair. Which is what I wanted.”

“It’s clear what the Granholm-Cherry administration’s intentions are. Republicans will not be bullied into supporting bad, job-killing legislation that is nothing more than a political payback to one of its largest campaign contributors,” Elsenheimer said in a statement. “Taxpayers should be outraged that their tax dollars are being used to ‘rally’ support for policy issues. What’s next? A state TV campaign to raise the beer tax? What the Insurance Consumer Advocate is doing is outrageous.”

“I think he had a fundamental misunderstanding,” Hollowell said of Elenheimer’s accusations. “That’s OK, we are in a charged environment. I am a big boy.”

But in the end, he said, “I think we all want the same thing. Fair rates for our families and for ourselves and make sure our consumers are protected and not being taken care. That is not happening today.”