The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE - Republican candidate for insurance commissioner Dan Kyle took his public records dispute with the state Insurance Department to court Thursday, accusing his Democratic rival of dragging his feet in assembling the documents. A hearing is set for Nov. 6.

Kyle filed the lawsuit against incumbent Insurance Commissioner Robert Wooley, saying Wooley hasn't released public records about convicted felons with insurance licenses and a stack of documents to determine if Insurance Department staff members have helped Wooley's campaign on state time.

Wooley said Kyle's public records request was turned over to the department's attorneys, who are following the same procedures they use for any similar request. Wooley has called Kyle's request a "fishing expedition" to shift the campaign from a discussion of real insurance issues.

Kyle's lawsuit says he hasn't received any of the documents he requested or any timeline for when he would receive them. "We simply want the information. He's in violation of the public records law. This is information that any citizen should be able to go out and get," the former state legislative auditor said.

Virginia Benoist, an attorney who handles public records requests in the Insurance Department, said the staff immediately began gathering records after receiving Kyle's requests and still was pulling together all the papers. She said she couldn't estimate how long it would take to retrieve all the information.

The lawsuit "is not going to speed it up or delay it. We are going to continue on pulling the records. It's taking as long as it would take for any request of this size."

Kyle filed two public records requests with the Insurance Department, the first seeking "a copy of all letters or other documents authorizing convicted felons to engage in the business of insurance," according to the lawsuit.

Kyle said it's legal for the insurance commissioner to give back insurance licenses to convicted felons if the commissioner authorizes a waiver. The Republican candidate in the Nov. 15 runoff said he wants to see if Wooley has given out an "unusually high number" of waivers.

"Is he just, after they walk out of prison, giving them their licenses back?" Kyle said, adding if he was elected commissioner, he would want to set up some criteria to ensure the felons are suitable to be in the insurance industry.

The second public records request asked for nine types of documents, including leave slips for certain employees, time sheets, logs and records of department vehicles, lists of calls made from department telephones and videotapes and other types of surveillance.

"We've had allegations that department employees and equipment are being used in their campaign," Kyle said. "We just want to see that there is a level playing field for the two candidates in the runoff."

Wooley said the public records requests are purely political. And he denied using any Insurance Department staff members to help with his campaign on state time or any of the equipment and other assets of the department.

"The answer to every question is in my campaign finance report. I've had a campaign office open since February or March. I've been paying phone bills. I am running my campaign out of my campaign office."

The convicted felons request already received a response, a copy of the law and procedures for obtaining a waiver, but Kyle's lawsuit says those were not the items requested.

"We gave him what he asked for, and his view is that he asked for something else. We look at the face of the request," Benoist said, adding that if a new, more specific request is made, the Insurance Department will answer it.