Three weeks after Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman said he was resigning, Gov. John Hoeven hasn't exactly been deluged with applicants to replace him.

Doug Goehring, a Menoken farmer who has run twice for agriculture commissioner in the last three years, has spoken to Hoeven about the appointment. Goehring is president of the board of directors of Nodak Mutual Insurance Co. of Fargo.

Goehring described Hoeven as noncommittal. "He held his cards pretty close," Goehring said of the governor. "The governor has a very good poker face."

Hoeven also has discussed the job with Adam Hamm, a Fargo attorney, former Cass County prosecutor and Republican activist; U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, who was Hoeven's deputy chief of staff for almost a year; and Julie Liffrig Fedorchak, the state Department of Commerce's communications manager. Fedorchak was the press secretary for Hoeven's predecessor, Ed Schafer.

Carrie Lynn Kilene, of West Fargo, a claims supervisor at Nodak Mutual, has applied. "For the past five years I have had an interest in holding political office, specifically that of insurance commissioner," Kilene said in an e-mail message to the governor.

Wrigley said he asked Hoeven not to consider him for the insurance appointment. Wrigley is a presidential appointee, and he said he is concentrating on his present work as a federal prosecutor. "We still have 17, 18 months remaining in the administration," he said.

The two men discussed the job during a recent meeting in Hoeven's office. The governor was "gauging my interest" and did not offer the position, Wrigley said.

"There are going to be plenty of people who are going to be interested in that job," Wrigley said. "I'm sure that there's a real wide swath. He'll have a great group of folks to choose from."

State legislators are not eligible. A provision in the North Dakota Constitution bars them from being chosen for a state appointive office if its salary was increased during their term.

Legislators set the pay for the insurance commissioner, and the job's salary rose from $73,568 to $76,511 last July. It will increase again, to $79,571, on July 1, 2008. The 4 percent annual increases are in line with what the Legislature set aside for state workers for this year and next.

Lawmakers have put a constitutional amendment on the June 2008 primary ballot that would remove the pay-raise provision and make it easier for them to accept appointments to state government jobs.

Of the initial group of applicants, Goehring is the only one with experience in running for statewide office. The Republican lost to incumbent Democrat Roger Johnson in the 2004 race for agriculture commissioner, and was defeated again in a rematch last year.

Nodak Mutual was the target of one of Poolman's most prominent enforcement actions when he was insurance commissioner. He put the company under the Insurance Department's administrative supervision in September 2002 in response to what he described as a "civil war" between the company's board, of which Goehring was president, and its top executives.

The oversight ended in July 2003, after Nodak Mutual agreed to revamp how its directors were elected. Goehring said the dispute should not disqualify him from serving as insurance commissioner.

"It's a political position, and I'm sure there are people who would try to politicize what happened," Goehring said. "But we did fine. The company worked through its issues, and we ended up in a very good place, with a much stronger company."