Insurance director gets state board seat

COLUMBUS (AP) -- State Insurance Director and former lawmaker Ann Womer Benjamin will join the State Board of Education on Jan. 1, Gov. Bob Taft announced Friday.
Womer Benjamin, of Aurora, will take the at-large seat held by Richard Baker, whose term expires. The governor appoints eight board members; the other 11 are elected. Womer Benjamin's term expires at the end of 2010.
Taft, who leaves office Jan. 7, appointed Womer Benjamin, 53, as the state's insurance chief in 2002 after her loss to Democrat Tim Ryan of Niles in a Northeast Ohio congressional race. She served in the Ohio House from 1995-2003.