Former Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine faced multiple controversies in his long and successful political career, before announcing a bid for governor in 2009.
When Oxendine left office in January of 2011, he reported having more than $500,000 left in his gubernatorial campaign account.
That money sat in his account for five years, despite the fact that he was legally supposed to return it to donors because it had been raised for run-off and general election campaigns he never ran, an AJC investigation has found.
This January the money suddenly disappeared from his annual campaign reports, going from a balance of $550,000 one year to a deficit of $300, despite no sign that money had been returned or spent.
Oxendine blamed a reporting error for the discrepancy and filed amended campaign reports after the AJC asked him about the missing money.
Below is a timeline of Oxendine's career since 1994, including his highs (re-election) and lows.
1994: Oxendine, a former Democrat, runs as a longshot candidate against Democratic Insurance Commissioner Tim Ryles. The year is a tidal wave for Republicans across the country, and Oxendine upsets Ryles.
1995: Oxendine vows to defy Attorney General Michael J. Bowers and stop collecting "premium" taxes from companies that provide insurance coverage to churches. He is quickly accused of using the office as a stepping stone for higher office.
1995: Oxendine denies two insurers' requests to extend health insurance coverage to domestic partners. Oxendine says that he based his ruling on Georgia's not recognizing "same-sex marriages." An approval of the Prudential and Cigna applications, he said, would let domestic partners "enjoy the advantages of being married for health insurance purposes without complying with the marriage laws of the state."
Mid-1990s: Creates a roundtable, made up of donors, most of whom work for companies Oxendine regulates. They gather about four times a year, usually for breakfast.
1998: Oxendine fined $750 by the ethics commission, in part for accepting an improper $7,500 contribution from Southern General Underwriters Life Insurance Co. in 1994.
1998: Wins re-election.
2001: Oxendine, who serves as fire marshal as well as insurance commissioner, is accused by state investigators of routinely using the emergency equipment on his state-issued car – blue lights and a siren – to avoid traffic and keep from being late to functions, including a dinner engagement with his son. Following the complaints, he removes the blue lights and sirens from his car.
2002: Wins re-election.
2003: Oxendine marries a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia executive.
2004: Announces he will run for lieutenant governor in 2006.
2005: Pulls out of the race and decides to run for re-election.
2006: Wins re-election.
2009: The AJC reports that Oxendine's gubernatorial campaign gets $120,000 funneled through two Georgia insurance companies through 10 Alabama political action committees. Oxendine's campaign returns the money, but it results in an ongoing ethics case.
2010: Oxendine's 13-year-old son shoots and wounds a 59-year-old man while hunting on a North Georgia preserve owned by a prominent insurance executive with close political ties to Oxendine.
2011: The AJC reports that the day before he leaves office, he grants himself licenses to sell insurance even though he hasn't taken the insurance tests or education required. Oxendine argues it would have been too much of a distraction for other test-takers to have him take the tests at a testing center.
2015: He sues Georgia's biggest health insurer.
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