Patrick doesn't reappoint insurance commissioner

The Patrick administration late yesterday sacked state Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler, signaling that the new governor may be moving in a different direction on insurance issues.

Nicole St. Peter, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the Division of Insurance and a host of other regulatory agencies, said Bowler had not been reappointed and deputy director Joseph Murphy would become acting insurance commissioner.

"She's the only one that has not been reappointed at this time at Consumer Affairs and its agencies," St. Peter said. "That's all the information I have."

Efforts to reach Bowler were unsuccessful.

Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Governor Deval L. Patrick, would say only: "Replacement of commissioners and directors at the start of a new administration is standard and expected."

The state insurance commissioner is one of relatively few government officials with the power to affect consumers directly by setting rates for auto insurance and regulating them for homeowner's and health insurance. Automobile insurers have been lobbying behind the scenes over Bowler, with some companies urging Patrick to keep her and others telling him to get rid of her.

Bowler and former Governor Mitt Romney had aggressively pushed for deregulation of the auto insurance business in Massachusetts and, last month, ordered the phased-in implementation of a new system for assigning to companies those drivers no insurer wants to cover.

Bowler's decision to move ahead with an assigned risk plan, in which as many as 1 million of the state's drivers would be randomly assigned to carriers based on market share, was strongly opposed by several lawmakers and insurers, who argued that such a radical change should have been put off until Patrick came into office and had time to evaluate it.

Patrick officials have been vague about their plans for insurance regulation, with the governor at one point last year saying he hoped to spur more competition within the existing systemsystem. Massachusetts is currently the only state in which regulators set all auto insurance rates. Bowler last month approved a major rate cut that will lower the statewide average auto insurance premium from $1,019 to $899 on April 1.

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.