Insurance Commissioner Jim Long's trademark red tie has not quite reached the iconic status of the bow tie of the late Thad Eure, North Carolina's legendary secretary of state.

But Long has been in office -- no pun intended -- for a very long time.

First elected in 1984, Long has been signing insurance refund checks for Tar Heel residents for more than two decades.

That makes him the dean of statewide elected officials in North Carolina.

And yet nearly nine of 10 Tar Heel voters could not pick him out of a police lineup.

Nearly twice as many people could identify Jack Bauer, the central character of the television drama "24," than could identify Long.

And Long is a celebrity compared to Les Merritt, the state auditor, and June Atkinson, the state superintendent of public instruction. Only about 1 percent of voters could identify them.

I know that because the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a nonprofit group pushing for governmental reform, asked the question on a statewide poll.

Most people would not elect officers for their civic club, church board or homeowners association on such scant information.

North Carolina is democracy run amok. North Carolina elects more statewide officials than any state other than Michigan. In most states, officials such as labor commissioner and agriculture commissioner are appointees of the governor, not statewide elected officials.

It is often people with a vested interest who care about who is elected to these offices. Many of the political contributions are given by people who are regulated by the state agencies run by the elected officials. The contributors want to do business with the agencies or work for the agencies.

This is one reason why former Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps went to prison as the result of a fund-raising scandal. State Treasurer Richard Moore has been raising political contributions from Wall Street companies who are investing -- or who want to invest -- in the state's pension fund.

How many people regulated by the labor department give to Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry? Or educators to Atkinson? Or lawyers to Attorney General Roy Cooper?

There are at least two remedies. The state constitution could be changed so that more statewide elected officials are appointed by the governor.

Or we could experiment with public financing.

Rep. Grier Martin, a Raleigh Democrat, has sponsored a bill to allow candidates for insurance commissioner, schools superintendent and auditor to participate in public financing rather than rely on private contributions. The program would cost $4 million.

The idea has the support of more than two-thirds of the public, according to the poll.

Public financing has its flaws, as we saw last fall when an independent group spent money at the last moment on behalf of Democratic judicial candidates in North Carolina.

But unless the system is changed, there almost certainly will be more scandals ahead.