Dinallo’s Bid For New York AG Gets Boost

From The New York Times yesterday comes news that the former New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo won a straw poll from the New York Democratic Rural Conference in his quest to become the state’s next Attorney General.

The poll was announced after candidates submitted answers to a questionnaire from the DRC. Dinallo’s response starts with a description of his public service starting as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office and details his accomplishments through his recent tenure as superintendent.

Dinallo writes that “As Superintendent of Insurance, I ran a state agency of similar size and scope to the Attorney General's office, and became one of the insurance industry’s leading regulators nationwide.

“As Insurance Superintendent, I successfully fought for the people of New York and became a leader in consumer protection, helping to provide access to affordable health insurance coverage to 400,000 New Yorkers, including many children; helping secure the right of families to include their young adult dependents through age 29 on family health insurance coverage; implementing reforms of New York’s workers’ compensation system, including raising benefits for injured workers by 75% and saving businesses $1 billion annually; requiring New York insurance companies to extend benefits to same-sex couples who were married legally in other states; increasing access to surety bonding and, thus, large state construction contracts, for minority and women-owned businesses; ordering the reinstatement of homeowner’s insurance policies for more than 55,000 homeowners whose insurance had been wrongly terminated; saving over $500 million in auto insurance premiums for 130,000 New York policyholders; and resolving the longstanding $2 billion property insurance dispute over the World Trade Center so that we could finally begin to rebuild.”

His work following the financial meltdown that brought down American International Group, New York, also would be helpful experience. In fact, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo noted that effort in several press releases in March of 2009 when the issue of AIG bonuses came to a head.

And, the current Attorney General also noted efforts against fraudulent activity from an insurance agent, workers’ compensation fraud and an insurance fraud ring which infiltrated New York hospitals.