New York Insurance Regulator Clashes With Spitzer

Partisan politics "was Mills' background when he came into office, and we wondered whether or not he could put that aside and concentrate on his responsibilities of office," Dopp says. "We would like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, and we don't think you really need some in-depth experience to do a good job."

But Dopp says the bottom line is that scandals happened on the insurance department's watch.

"You have to accept responsibility when something like that occurs," Dopp says. "Having said that, we always understood that they were lied to and duped."

Dopp points to 3 settlements with insurance brokerage firms that Spitzer's office already has negotiated as evidence of the value of the investigations.

"We think we are at a critical juncture where we are turning the corner and bringing reform to the industry," Dopp says.

Gregory Serio, the Pataki appointee who preceded Mills as superintendent, was someone "who when the problem was revealed was eager to get to the bottom of it and had an aggressive response," Dopp says. "Serio throughout the process said that, 'We have to be aggressive not only for the customers but for the honest corporations out there.'"

But Dopp minimizes the effects a split with the New York insurance department would have on ongoing attorney general's office investigations. "We always carried a tagline thanking the insurance department for their contributions, minimal though they were," Dopp says.