ERNEST LANDANTE, JR.

New Jersey’s auto insurance market was near collapse. Insurers were fleeing the state, escaping a regulatory burden that made doing business unpredictable and unprofitable.

With few auto insurers remaining in New Jersey, drivers needing coverage couldn’t find an insurer willing to sell it.

The Coalition for Auto Insurance Competition sought to educate legislators, opinion leaders, and the public that modernizing the state’s auto insurance regulations would end the crisis. The industry group’s campaign aimed to change how New Jerseyans spoke and thought about auto insurance, shifting the discussion from its perceived high cost to its unavailability.

I recommended and executed a strategy to present the industry’s proposed solution directly to newspaper editorial boards. These meetings allowed the industry to explain the causes behind the crisis, describe proposed reforms, and directly answer editorial board questions.

Favorable editorials about the industry’s proposed reforms appeared in nearly every major daily newspaper in New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. No newspaper opposed the industry’s effort.

The campaign came to a successful conclusion when then-Gov. Jim McGreevey signed into law industry-backed legislation reforming and modernizing the state’s auto insurance system.