By Sid Salter
Columnist
Kudos to Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance Mike Chaney for advocating for the
elimination of his elective office by changing it to an appointive one in the interest of
“taking the politics out” of the regulation of the insurance industry in the state.
He’s right. Mississippi is one of only 11 states that elected insurance commissioners,
while the position is appointed in the other 39 states. Insurance regulators who have to
campaign will find one reliable group of campaign contributors – the very industry they
are supposed to regulate.
Neighboring states Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Tennessee appoint their
commissioners, while Georgia and Louisiana elect theirs. Mississippi lawmakers seem
to think well of Chaney’s efforts, and prospects for the change to become law this
session seem good.
This isn’t the first time cooler heads prevailed in a state that just loves to elect as many
offices as possible. Mississippi voters like electing their political leaders and that’s all
the way down the ballot from governor to justice court judges.
Since the state’s first constitution was drafted in 1817, Mississippians argued over
elections. In 1832, a constitutional convention fight erupted between three groups — the
“aristocrats” who favored the appointment of all judges, the “half hogs” who wanted to
elect some judges and have others appointed, and the “whole hogs” who wanted all
judges elected.
History shows that the “whole hogs” won in 1832, and Mississippi has been electing
judges ever since.
However, several previously statewide elective offices have been eliminated or
combined over the last century. Most of those instances involved an exercise of
leadership and sacrifice by previously elected leaders.
The late William Winter was first appointed in 1956 and then elected to a full term as
state tax collector in 1959. He held that post until the office was abolished on his
recommendation in 1964.

Winter also had a hand in the elimination of the elected post of the State Superintendent
of Education. Prior to July 1, 1984, the office had been one of the statewide elected
posts. But on the heels of the adoption of Winter’s landmark Education Reform Act of
1982, the post and the State Board of Education were made appointive.
Hearing Mike Chaney talk about eliminating his Commissioner of Insurance post, I could
not help but remember one of Mississippi’s most colorful and interesting politicos and
the last elected State Land Commissioner, the late John Ed Ainsworth. Ainsworth
helped countless children he helped across Mississippi who would never know his
name.
But along with Dick Molpus, Eric Clark, Joe Talley, Mack Cameron and later Delbert
Hosemann, Ainsworth was among a handful of Mississippi public officials with the
political courage and personal integrity to demand that Mississippi schoolchildren get
their fair share of school trust lands in Mississippi.
Ainsworth actively campaigned for office on the political platform of 16th Section lease
reform and abolishing the office if he was elected. In 1975, Ainsworth ran for land
commissioner and defeated Roy W. Miller by some 90,000 votes in the Democratic
primary.
School trust lands or 16th Section school lands were set aside by the federal
government in 1787 for education purposes. The 16th Section leases were a source of
corruption, abuse and squandering by counties for almost two centuries until Ainsworth
and a few other brave souls took on the power structure.
Once elected, Ainsworth worked with the Mississippi Legislature to pass the 16th
Section Reform Act of 1978. Ainsworth asked lawmakers to abolish his job as land
commissioner and roll the duties into the Secretary of State office. They complied.
Chaney could join Winter, Ainsworth and a few others who left legacies in reducing the
size of state government.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.