Katrina 'backlash' ends Dale's career.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale says he knew he was fighting an uphill battle in his re-election campaign.

Dale, the longest-serving elected insurance regulator in the United States, first was voted into office in 1975. He was defeated in the state's Democratic primary Aug. 7 by Gary Anderson, a former banking executive and one-time state fiscal officer, who highlighted Dale's substantial campaign contributions from the insurance industry.

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Dale's campaign for a ninth four-year term was dogged by criticism of his dealings with the insurers he regulates, his handling of Hurricane Katrina matters, and an attempt by his own Democratic Party to have him thrown off the party's ballot.

In addition, attorney Richard Scruggs, who represents several plaintiffs in Katrina-related lawsuits against the insurance industry, donated at least $250,000 toward efforts to get Dale defeated. Dale said such donations were overwhelming in a race that, in other years, drew relatively little attention or campaign cash.

"We knew it would be close, but we thought there was a possibility we could pull it off," Dale said. "Really, from day one, I was swimming upstream, and it would have been very, very difficult."

Dale also said he was done in by changing demographics, saying that his political base had long ago migrated to the GOP, and so couldn't vote for him in the state's Democratic primary.

"We had a very active lieutenant governor's race in the Republican primary," Dale said. "A lot of the sheriffs and tax collectors and constables ran as Republicans. Those are votes that historically have always been in my camp ... So I probably squeezed as many votes out of that Democratic primary ... as I could."

Dale describes himself as "one of the more conservative Democrats. The Democratic Party has pretty well, over the 32 years I've been in office in Mississippi, evolved into something a little different from my political philosophy. But I'm loyal to the party, I chose to run against a Democrat, and it ended up biting me."

He also said Anderson was a yes-man for "tobacco trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs" and said Anderson has no concrete ideas for keeping rising insurance rates under control. "He says he's going to return this office to the people. That sounds great, that's an excellent idea, but what are you going to do about rates? What are you going to do about markets? That has not been disclosed just yet."

For his part, Anderson denied being in league with Scruggs and said he would attempt to bring rates down by trying to attract more insurers to the state. "I plan to be a stabilizing force," he said. He also denied having a hand in Scruggs' ad campaigns against Dale.

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"Mr. Dale has been in fights with a lot of people in the state. He's had issues with a number of people," Anderson said. "That's not a part of my campaign."

Anderson faces Republican state Sen. Mike Chaney of Vicksburg in the November election.