The Senate Committee on Director Nominations rejected Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominee to lead the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions on a party-line vote April 10.

Barbara Richardson originally appeared before Senate DINO on March 27. During that hearing, she was questioned extensively by Republican lawmakers on her involvement in working groups focused on climate and race issues in the insurance industry and how she communicates policy stances with the regulated industry.

Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, the Republican chair of DINO, instructed Richardson to take two weeks to prepare a response to those questions. However, during the April 10 hearing, he said his concerns were not assuaged. He and Republican Sens. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, and TJ Shope, R-Coolidge, voted to reject her nomination.

“I appreciate her time and willingness to come and answer questions, hard questions, before this committee,” Hoffman said.

But he said he could not confirm Richardson’s nomination “due to what I see emerging as a pattern of administrative overreach, a breakdown in stakeholder communication, and, as I mentioned, troubling judgments on key regulatory matters.”

Several members of the public testified against Richardson’s nomination focusing on her involvement in two committees of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which they say made her a “DEI activist.” However, many of those who spoke have ties to the Republican Party, like activists Elijah Norton, Shelby Busch and Allen Skillicorn.

Richardson served on two committees at the NAIC: the Climate and Resiliency Task Force and the Special Committee on Race and Insurance. On April 10, she told lawmakers that she had cut all ties with those committees after several questions were raised about them during her first hearing.

Hoffman said those committees were not his main reason for voting against Richardson’s nomination. He said he voted no because of both testimony indicating that the insurance department is harder to work with under her leadership and her use of the Systems for Electronic Rates and Forms Filing (SERFF).

SERFF, a website that allows the public to view forms and rules filed by insurance companies with the department, also came up at Richardson’s first hearing. Hoffman said he believes she has issued notices on the site to create new department policies to circumvent the process for issuing a substantive policy statement.

Richardson denied using SERFF to create new policies and told lawmakers on March 31 she had used it to provide clarifications on existing policies. During her latest response to the committee, Richardson pledged to stop using SERFF and instead use policy statements to communicate with the insurance industry.

She also said she did not use any recommendations from the NAIC committees at the department and said DEI initiatives have not been implemented under her tenure.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Hobbs’ spokesperson Christian Slater called Hoffman “a liar and a clown” and said he is “engaged in a partisan witch hunt.”

“Today’s failure by the Senate Committee on Director Nominations to recommend Barbara Richardson of the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DIFI) to the full Senate for confirmation is a dereliction of duty, shows blatant disregard for the people of Arizona, and represents a new low in the extreme partisan weaponization of basic government functions by an out of control Republican majority,” Slater said in the statement.

Richardson declined to comment on the outcome of the hearing after the vote. Sens. Flavio Bravo, D-Phoenix, and Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, voted to confirm her nomination and defended her from allegations made by lawmakers and members of the public.

“Somehow this got devolved into a political hit job with political party operatives who are here answering a call from a tweet that went out,” Ortiz said, likely referencing a post on X from Republican activist Merissa Hamilton.

Ortiz continued, “I know from seeing your experience and from hearing from those on the regulated side that you are running the department with the best interests of Arizona and Arizonans at heart.”

Richardson has a long history in the insurance industry and state government. She worked in state insurance departments in Nevada and New Hampshire before taking the director Arizona position. Hobbs appointed her in 2023, but she was part of a group of appointees who had their nominations pulled from consideration that year after the governor accused Hoffman of obstructing the confirmation process.

Those nominees are now appearing before the Senate this session after Hobbs and Senate President Warren Petersen agreed to restart the director confirmation process in August 2024. Richardson is not the first nominee to face tough questions from Republicans on the DINO committee, but she was the first to be rejected by the panel this session.