Sun endorses Betty G- "An agent for change..."

From the Charlotte Sun-Comfortably retired from the insurance business, Betty Gissendanner looked at the rising number of foreclosures and bankruptcies and made a decision. She drove to Tallahassee in March and filed to run for the open District 71 seat in the Florida House of Representatives.

The Democrat faces fellow longtime Charlotte County businessman Ken Roberson, who won the Aug. 26 Republican primary, in the Nov. 4 election.

Gissendanner's foray into politics constitutes a third act in her accomplished career. She was a registered nurse, college nursing instructor and director of nursing at a nursing home before launching a State Farm insurance office in Port Charlotte. She also chaired the region's workforce council that implemented President Bill Clinton's welfare-to-work initiative in the 1990s.

"We put hundreds of people to work, many of them for the first time," Gissendanner said.

Gissendanner set a goal of retiring at 55 and did just that. Her experience in the industry, especially after Hurricane Charley impacted many of her 3,300 clients, gives her a front-row perspective on the state's insurance problem.

Gissendanner believes, as do we, that competition is the key to lowering insurance rates. The underfunded state-run Citizen's Property Insurance, which is subsidized by Florida residents, is a symptom of what's wrong with our insurance industry, not a cure. Its premiums can't cover its exposure to storm damage. What was supposed to be the state's insurance of last resort, is the dominant player in the industry. Gissendanner said reversing that situation and restoring competition to the market will be a priority.

With Medicaid spending gobbling up an ever-increasing share of the state budget, Gissendanner said the state must work with hospital administrators on paring costs, including administrative overhead. She said the state must do a better job helping patient's manage their chronic illnesses through the health departments in each county and focus on preventative medicine. We liked her idea of having case workers assigned to Medicaid clients to coordinate their various health care options such as surgery, disease management, rehabilitation, etc.

Gissendanner said a key to lowering Medicaid spending is education because it produces job-ready people who would have insurance coverage in better-paying jobs.

Florida has the second highest number of home foreclosures in the country, but the Legislature has been on the sidelines during the real estate and credit meltdown, Gissendanner said. She would push for stricter screening and oversight of mortgage brokers, pointing to an alarming number of cases where brokers with criminal records defrauded clients. She said the state needs to be more actively involved in keeping people in their homes.

Roberson, who defeated Chris Constance and Richard Santos in the Republican primary, is a formidable opponent in the general election. We were impressed with his grasp of important state issues and his broad base of support.

But as we have written repeatedly, we strongly disagree with the Legislature's current push to micromanage county and city governments while failing to effectively address major issues the state faces, such as Medicaid, education and economic development. We respect Roberson's business experience and public service credentials, but we don't see him as an agent of change Tallahassee desperately needs.

Gissendanner is an intelligent, focused candidate with a clear, well-articulated agenda for transforming the Legislature into a business-minded entity that treats taxpayers as customers not subjects and considers state and local governments as partners servings citizens, not enemies.

The Sun recommends Betty Gissendanner for the District 71 seat in the Florida House of Representatives.