A lack of confidence in the field of Republican candidates for state Insurance Commissioner drove Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, to run for the office at &#8220the 11th hour,” the outgoing senator told the Vicksburg Lions Club Wednesday.

The 15-year legislator and two-term state senator, who was originally scheduled to speak there when he was not an announced candidate for office, said he consulted with state party officials in the final days of qualifying leading up to the March 1 deadline.

&#8220We had only a six-year senior at Ole Miss running,” Chaney said, referring to Daniel Smith of Ocean Springs, a human resource major at the university who filed a day before the deadline.

Incumbent George Dale, the nation’s longest serving elected insurance commissioner, will be running for an eighth term. After flirting with a switch from Democrat to independent, Dale stuck with the D label, but faces challenges from former state fiscal officer Gary Anderson of Jackson, financial planner Jim Rasberry of Laurel and Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg.

Since Chaney made his candidacy official, another Republican, Brian Lucas, dropped out of the race. Another candidate, Ronnie English of Vancleave entered, filed late as a Republican.

A Tupelo native, Chaney, 63, attended Mississippi State University and operated various business interests before being elected state representative for District 54 in 1993. In 1999, he was elected to the senate to fill the seat occupied by Sen. Grey Ferris, who vacated the post to run for lieutenant governor.

Protecting the future of the Gulf Coast during its recovery from Hurricane Katrina is Chaney’s primary focus in the campaign, he said.

&#8220They’re in for a long haul,” Chaney said, adding the state’s overall economic picture could go either way in the next three years if the six coastal counties don’t recover fast enough.

&#8220There aren’t enough Toyota plants we can bring to Mississippi to make up for the Gulf Coast,” he said.

Chaney said he wasn’t going to &#8220bash” Dale on the campaign trail, but added the challenges on the coast relating to keeping insurance companies writing policies in Mississippi.

&#8220We feel like he hasn’t done what he needs to do on the coast,” he said.

In February, State Farm Insurance announced it would stop writing new homeowner insurance policies in the state.

An insurer of about 31 percent of Mississippi homeowners, the company made the decision after lawsuits were settled for $80 million with 640 policyholders on the coast whose claims were denied after Katrina. Separate litigation involving State Farm and Katrina is pending.

The outgoing Senate Education Committee chairman also commented on education funding in the state.

With the state funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program for elementary and secondary education for the first time since 2003, the last election year, Chaney said the state’s universities are next in line for heightened funding.

Responding to a question about any future moves to consolidate the state’s university system, Chaney said the Institutions of Higher Learning system’s commissioner, Dr. Thomas C. Meredith, has attempted to do so, but doubted it would come to pass anytime soon.

&#8220It would be political suicide,” he said.