Damn… you think if I ran for U.S. Senate, the insurance industry would pay me $4.5 million too?
According to a filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Safeco CEO Mike McGavick will get a sweet $4.5 million package for leaving Safeco and challenging incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell. I guess cutting over 1,200 jobs, pulling out of the hurricane prone Florida market, and dramatically hiking rates really does pay… if you’re the CEO.
Of course, this does raise a bit of hypothetical question… if Safeco pays McGavick $4.5 million to leave the company and run for the Senate, and then McGavick puts, say, $4.5 million of his own money into his campaign… how is this not a clever bit of money laundering designed to get around the campaign finance laws? Hypothetically.
Meanwhile, it looks like McGavick’s going to need all the money the insurance industry can launder give him. A new poll by the GOP pollster Strategic Vision has Cantwell leading McGavick 50% to 39%, and that doesn’t bode so well for the Republicans according to David Johnson, president of Strategic Vision:
“Senator Cantwell has reached the magic 50% mark in match-ups against possible challengers; that shows that Republicans will have a hard job in defeating her if these numbers remain.
That’s okay… McGavick has a lucrative future ahead of (and behind) him as an insurance industry lobbyist.
UPDATE:
Here’s the link to the SEC filing. In addition to the accelerated vesting of $4.5 million in unvested stock, he’s also eligible for a bonus for 2005. Sweet.