June 4, 2025 - ACCS Is Just What the Doctor Ordered for Alabama Jobs
The recently completed 2025 Regular Session has concluded successfully. Anytime you record solid balanced budgets, you have succeeded.
Both the Education Budget and General Fund Budget are sound, thanks to the good work of the Budget Chairmen. Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), Representative Danny Garrett (R-Trussville), Senator Greg Albritton (R-Escambia), and Representative Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville) have done yeoman work. Legislative leaders, like Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) and Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman), have provided outstanding leadership.
The Education Budget reflects the respect and knowledge of the importance of our Alabama Community College System. This system is the mainstay of job creation, economic development, and future economic growth for Alabama. The Community College System is the leader when it comes to creating jobs and employment in our state.
Our Community College System is made up of 24 colleges with more than 130 locations and has 155,000 students. This far surpasses and dwarfs our other colleges. The most telling narrative for Alabamians is that 96% of the system’s students live here in Alabama. More than 75% of these students stay here after graduation.
More than 23,000 students have enrolled in dual enrollment, no matter their family’s ability to afford it, thanks to the legislature.Thirty-six percent of ACCS students include transient students,who are able to come to college closer to their home, and they pay less than half the cost of a four-year college.
While most colleges nationwide have lost student numbers, our Alabama Community College System has had over a 5%increase in enrollment in each year since 2020. The ACCS has 10,600 employees all in Alabama.
These figures resonate loudly and clearly illuminate the fact that ACCS is the driving force behind the state’s economic growth.By preparing Alabama students with the skills and training needed for high-demand careers, they are strengthening Alabama workforce and building our economic opportunity for now, and the future. For fiscal year 2023-2024, ACCS added $8.1 billion to Alabama’s economy. This equates to 3% of the state’s gross product.
The ACCS, under the leadership of Chancellor Jimmy Baker, was the cornerstone and lynchpin of the Workforce Development Plan, which is the most important economic development initiative for this gubernatorial and legislative quadrennium. The future of our state is in career and technical education.
In an era where middle-skill jobs are in the highest demand, career and technical education is the key to future employment.The most popular career programs in the ACCS curriculum are computer science, culinary arts, cybersecurity, dental assisting, HVAC, welding, diesel technology, and salon and spa management. The most demand is in nursing and physical therapy.
The nursing and medical fields are the real growth area for the ACCS, with the aging Baby Boomer population. This field is limitless. ACCS will be the leader in this growing need for healthcare professionals and ACCS is poised to prepare Alabama to meet these needs. Their healthcare programs are based on regional demands, ensuring that they meet the unique needs of communities across the state. They are in close collaboration with the Alabama Hospital Association and the Alabama Nursing Home Association to assure Alabama’s healthcare future.
With $18 million in new funding to expand health sciences program into rural areas, and more than 13,000 students currently enrolled, the ACCS will continue to equip the next generations of healthcare workers with cutting edge training.ACCS is just what the doctor ordered for Alabama jobs.
Chancellor Jimmy Baker, a successful financier, educator, and former Finance Director, has been at the helm of achieving this pinnacle of success for the ACCS for the last decade. Baker has his team of college presidents on board. This sterling team of 34 presidents are his people. This group does an excellent job of making local legislators in their respective communities aware of what is going on at their college and how it affects their constituency.
ACCS affects most legislators in Alabama. In many of their districts their community college is the largest employer and economic engine in their area. For that reason, the ACCS is poised to hold its own when it comes to state funding.
Legislators are acutely aware that their community college is where most of their constituents receive their higher education and career training. They also know that 96% of their students are Alabamians and will remain in the state and probably that locale for life.
See you next week.
May 28, 2025 - Republican Legislature Posts Conservative Agenda for 2025 Session
When Republicans finally took control of the AlabamaLegislature in 2010, they put a conservative stamp on Alabama’s legislative process and lawmaking. They have made sure that Alabamians, and for that matter the rest of the country, know that Alabama is a ruby red Republican state, both socially and fiscally.
A good bit of the social posturing has been for show, rather thangoverning. However, the real impact and resonance has been with the conservative approach to budgeting and the fiscally prudent stewardship of Alabamians tax dollars.
Prior to 2010, the Democrats in Alabama spent money just like the Democrats in Washington. They spent like drunken sailorswith no regard for budgets, fiscal restraint, nor adherence to Alabama’s Constitutional mandate to have a balanced budget. Most years, the Democratic Legislature of bygone years would circumvent the constitutional balanced budget mandate, and most years this would result in proration.
The state has not been in proration in any year of the 15-yearRepublican majority reign, neither has there been a year when they did not save money in “rainy day” funds. Republicans have proceeded to govern and budget like most mainstream Alabamians want and expect with prudence. In fact, that is generally why mainline Republicans are Republicans. They want a balanced budget from their government and that is what they are getting from Alabama GOP legislative leaders and budget chairmen.
Our state, and all states, have received a boatload of excess federal funds over the past several years. Our budget chairmen wisely knew not to count on or budget these short-termrevenues. They need it for one-time expenditures and did not blend it into long-term, mandatory regular budget expectations.
This year, many states, primarily Democratic states, are having nightmares balancing their budgets. Not Alabama, we are doing just fine. A lot of credit for our states fiscal soundness goes to a quadrant of four budget chairmen. They are doing a stellar job. State Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) has chaired the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee for over a decade. He is the primary drafter and architect of how education dollarsare spent in Alabama. Education revenues account for two-thirds of our total tax revenues. He is one of the most powerful people in state government.
Orr is ably complemented by Representative Danny Garrett (R-Trussville), who chairs the Education Ways and Means Committee in the House. Garrett is a successful businessman who is a wise steward of Education dollars.
Representative Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville) is in his first term as Chairman of the General Fund Ways and Mean’s Committee. He works closely with his ally, Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, to make sure that dollars are wisely spent. Representative Steve Clouse (R-Ozark) chaired this General Fund Budget Committee for over a decade prior to Reynolds and did an excellent job Budgeting conservatively.
Senator Greg Albritton (R-Escambia) chairs the General Fund Committee in the Senate. He has done a yeoman’s job in this capacity for over a decade. He puts in untold hours toiling on the General Fund Budget which is not as robust or has the growth the Education Budget does inherently.
It should also be noted that former Tuscaloosa Representative Bill Poole did a fantastic job of managing the Education Budget in the House before ascending to State Finance Director.
One of the most conservative and prudent moves made by the Republican-led Legislature was the implementation of the Rolling Reserve Act, which ensured that Alabama could no longer overspend during economic booms. Thanks to this measure the state has had 14 years without proration in education spending. The days of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” came to a screeching halt under Republican leadership.
In many ways our conservative Republican-led Legislature has mimicked the Trump agenda on the issues of immigration and crime during this just completed session. However, when the question arises, “Does Alabama need a Department of Government Efficiency?” We already have one. We can just call it the Alabama Republican Legislative Leadership.
See you next week.
May 21, 2025 - Addressing Metro Crime Problem – Priority for Alabama Legislative Session
You would have to be living under a rock to not be aware that two of our state’s metropolitan areas have a serious problem with violent crime. Montgomery and Birmingham have become crime-ridden war zones that resemble third world countries like Mexico, run by drug cartels.
The rampant, open-ended violence and cavalier murders in Montgomery and Birmingham leapt so high in 2024, that people who still lived there were scared to come out of their homes for fear of being shot. Even their homes were not safe places, agood many small children were reported murdered from stray bullets in Birmingham, while asleep in their beds.
Montgomery had become so bad that legislators were and still are afraid to come to the Capitol. Most of the Supreme Court Judges do not come to the Capital City until necessary. The town of Pike Road and City of Auburn have become the residences of a good many people who must come to Montgomery to work.
When the time comes for BRAC to decide whether to keep the Maxwell/Gunter Complex/War College in Montgomery, it will be a tough sell for the U.S. Defense Department to keep their base in a war zone. The only argument they can make is that, if a foreign country sends their officers to the War College for training, they will get a true simulated war experience. Their odds of getting shot while staying in Montgomery is greater than a true war at home. If they could survive a year in Montgomery,they could survive a year in any war. These young officers are still not going to be able to bring their wives or children with them to Montgomery.
Inner city Birmingham and Montgomery are probably never going to be growth centers for our state but something has to be done because the unbridled crime and rampant murder rates affects the image of the entire state.
Therefore, our super majority Republican Legislature has made solving the Birmingham and Montgomery crime problem a priority. They have come forth with a package of bills and made it the foremost issue of the Session. Governor Kay Ivey advocated for this anti-crime in her State of the State address to legislators at the beginning of the Session. The legislation advanced are common sense and should make a difference.
In June of 2024, Montgomery leaders got serious about their crime problem and yielded to a special Metro Crime Suppression Unit. This Unit has been extremely successful. It has been led by ALEA Director Hal Taylor and Montgomery Sheriff Derek Cunningham. These two brilliant, top-notch law enforcement leaders have taken the bull by the horns in Montgomery.
During the past 10 months, this Special Unit led by ALEA has served 508 arrest warrants, made 202 arrests, seized 157 firearms and 100 machine gun conversion devices, recovered 35 stolen vehicles, initiated 56 vehicle pursuits, and conducted 44 drug seizures – including a fentanyl bust potent enough to kill over 5,000 people.
Seeing the success of this Unit, Rep. Reed Ingram (R-Pike Road) passed legislation to appropriate additional funds to further enhance the Montgomery project. Hopefully, Birmingham will take advantage of these revenues and relinquish jurisdiction for Taylor’s elite Unit to help them. In passage of these Special Unit ALEA appropriations, Rep. Ingram said, “This Unit has been incredibly effective in Alabama’s Capital City and has, without a doubt, led to a decrease in violent crimes across the River Region. The bottom line is that the best way to protect communities is to have a strong law enforcement presence in areas where violent crime is occurring, and I believe making the Alabama Metro Crime Suppression Unit a statewide, full-time task force does just that.”
State Senator Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) spearheaded important legislation, which criminalizes glock switch gun possession a Class C felony under Alabama Law.
One of the most important Legislative Acts of this momentous anti-crime package was the Back the Blue Protection Act sponsored by Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville), who is the former Police Chief of Huntsville. Under this new protection, a law enforcement officer would be shielded from a lawsuit unless he or she was acting recklessly without law enforcement justification, or he or she was violating a person’s clearly established rights.
See you next week.
May 14, 2025 - Attorney General’s Race Will Be a Good One in 2026
Folks, 2026 is shaping up as one of the best political years in memory in Alabama.
The Governor’s, Lt. Governor’s, and Attorney General’s officesand maybe one of our U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs with no incumbent. The jockeying has begun in earnest for all theseposts.
The Attorney General’s position is a powerful job in Alabama government, and it appears to be attracting several competent competitors. Current Attorney General Steve Marshall has served eight years and is term-limited.
The early front-runner is State Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell. He seems to be edging towards running for Attorney General next year, although it is hard to understand why someone would leave a safe seat on the Supreme Court to be Attorney General. Mitchell was just elected to a new six-year term on the high court last year. Being a Supreme Court judge is more important and prestigious than being Attorney General.
Mitchell is a long-time resident of Homewood and lifetime resident of Alabama’s most populous county, Jefferson. He graduated from Birmingham-Southern College where he played basketball. He went on to law school at the University of Virginia. He practiced with a prominent law firm prior to being elected to the Supreme Court in 2018. He is well-respected as a lawyer and jurist. He has $660,000 in his campaign account and would be a favorite of the business community.
Mitchell’s biggest challenge would have come from veteran State Senator Arthur Orr of Decatur. However, Orr has taken his name out of consideration. Senator Orr is generally considered the most powerful State Senator in the Upper Chamber. He chairs the Senate Education Budget Committee. In that post, he oversees Alabama’s $9.3 billion Education Budget. He has immense power as the crafter of this budget and is probably more powerful than the Governor.
As the Senate’s most potent member, he has amassed over a $1 million campaign war chest. For this reason, Orr is looked upon as a player in a statewide race. He more than likely can remain Chairman of Education Finance and Taxation in the next quadrennium. He made a wise move choosing to remain as the state’s most powerful senator rather than moving to Attorney General.
U.S. Attorney Jay Town of the Northern District of Alabama is eyeing the Attorney General race. Town is a proven prosecutor and would be a viable candidate. He was appointed U.S. Attorney by Trump and is well known as a proven conservative. After getting his law degree, Town served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps and was a JAG prior to practicing law. After military service, he worked as a prosecutor in the Madison County District Attorney’s office. He has a reputation as a tough prosecutor, which is what the Attorney General of Alabama is expected to be.
Katherine Robertson, who is current Attorney General Steve Marshall’s long-time General Counsel, is expected to make the race for Attorney General. She will make an attractive candidate and is very well qualified. She knows the office inside and out.Robertson is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama School of Law and is a native of Montgomery.
Katherine would be the darling of the far right. She would be a clone of her boss and mentor Marshall. She would not be a far right-wing extremist just for political purposes. She is a true believer. Katherine has the inside route to garnering the important Alfa endorsement. Her great grandfather was president of the powerful Alfa organization several decades ago. Jimmy Parnell and some of the powers that be still remember him. She has deep Black Belt roots.
Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey is the only announced candidate for Attorney General. She officially announced on January 15. She certainly has the experience. Pamela has been the DA of Blount County for 15 years. She has been a working DA. Being a practicing DA is the right experience to be Attorney General. This is the exact background that current Attorney General Steve Marshall came from.
If Pamela Casey or Katherine Robertson win, they would be the first female Attorney General of Alabama.
See you next week.
May 7, 2025 - Remembering George McMillan
Former Lt. Governor and State Leader George McMillan passed away Easter weekend in Birmingham. George was 81.
McMillan had a meteoric career in Alabama politics. He grew up in Greenville where he had extensive family connections. He was a young, superstar politico coming out of high school. He went to Auburn University, where he was a sensational student leader. He was President of the SGA. He met and became good friends with another student leader at Auburn, our current Governor Kay Ivey.
Kay and George are the same age and were political allies, remaining good friends through the years. George must have been an outstanding student at Auburn because he went to the prestigious Virginia Law School after college. After graduating from UVA Law School, George came back home and settled in Birmingham and began the practice of Law.
He married Ann Roper Dial, whose father was a prominent Birmingham businessman. He and 40-year veteran State Senator Gerald Dial of Lineville were close. Gerald was George’s chief legislative ally during George’s tenure as Lt. Governor.
Shortly after beginning his law practice, a State House seat came open in Jefferson County. George won that seat. In the next election, young Mr. McMillan slayed a giant. The most powerful State Senator in the state, George Lewis Bailes, hailed from Jefferson County. George McMillan took him on in what most folks thought was a David vs. Goliath match. George McMillan won and made a statewide name for himself. He went to Montgomery and became a very effective and respected State Senator.
McMillan only served one term in the Senate, 1974-1978, because he was on a fast track. He was elected Lt. Governor in 1978. After one term as Lt. Governor, he again revealed that he had no reluctance to take on a challenge or a giant. He ran against George Wallace for Governor in 1982 and came within an eyelash of beating him in the Democratic primary that year.
In 1982, Governor Fob James decided not to run for re-election. Former Gov. George Wallace was attempting to be elected to a fourth term as Governor, after having waited out four years due to being term limited. McMillan and Wallace wound up in a run-off. Wallace ironically won the Democratic run-off because he received the bulk of the Black vote – a political irony that is still difficult for national political historians to fathom and understand. Wallace went on to win the General Election in a landslide, defeating Republican Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar. Winning the Democratic Primary at that time was tantamount to election.
McMillan was often compared to another former Lt. Governor and short-term Governor, Albert Brewer. Similar to McMillan, Brewer had all but beaten Wallace in a titanic Governor’s race a decade earlier in 1970. Both Brewer and McMillan were heralded as having the potential to give Alabama a “New South” Governor.
McMillan made a second attempt for the governorship in 1986, but he failed to gain traction. He was beaten out of the two run-off spots by Lt. Governor Bill Baxley and Attorney General Charlie Graddick. Neither Baxley nor Graddick would become Governor. Guy Hunt, the unknown Republican candidate from Holly Pond in Cullman County, won the Governor’s office.
Hunt became the first GOP Governor of Alabama since Reconstruction. That 1986 election ended the Democratic Party reign in Alabama politics. The days of electing a Democratic Governor in the Heart of Dixie ended that year and probably forever. That year also marked the end of George McMillan’s political career.
In 1989, McMillan founded City Stages, a large musical festival in downtown Birmingham. It became one of the largest and most renowned musical festivals in the nation. George ran City Stages for a decade during its prime years.
George McMillan was a vivacious person with a gregarious, warm, genuinely friendly demeanor. He was a friend, and I always enjoyed visiting with him and talking politics. In fact, it can be said and is seldom said about someone who spent their life in politics, I never heard anyone say, “I do not like George McMillan.”
See you next week.
April 30, 2025 - The New Second Congressional District
The partisan complexion of Alabama’s Congressional delegation has changed from six Republicans and one lone Democrat to five Republicans and two Democrats.
This change was orchestrated by federal court decree. The federal courts plowed new ground when they ruled that Alabama’s Legislature did not have the right to draw their own congressional lines.
The U.S. Supreme Court has adamantly decreed, for the entire duration of U.S. history, that the state legislatures have the omnipotent political power to draw their own state congressional districts. In opinion after opinion, SCOTUS has acknowledged that this is an inherently political process and that you cannot take the politics out of redistricting. It is a political process and “to the victor goes the spoils.”
What that means is that if the Democratic Party is in the majority in New York state, the Democrats in the New York legislature get to control the pencil that draws their state congressional lines, and they can draw the congressional districts in their state to favor Democrats. That is the way it is all over the country.
In Alabama, a Republican-appointed federal judge ruled that Alabama’s super majority, Republican legislature does not have the same political right to draw their lines for partisan reasons.The Northern District of Alabama federal judge’s reason was that Alabama does not have the same rights as other states because of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That Act carved out a handful of southern states and placed us under the scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department when any voting procedures are involved, because of past racial discrimination. Therefore, Alabama Republicans of today do not have the same constitutional precedence rights to political redistricting as Democrats in New York do today, because of the sins of Alabama Democrats of bygone days.
The die may not be cast totally on this ruling. The Alabama Republicans may make another run at overturning this new precedent. They will hang their hat on a North Carolina case where SCOTUS ruled that North Carolina could draw their districts politically. That case is not exactly on point. However, there is a new Trump Justice Department and that may shed a new light on it.
The courts drew the new Second Congressional District in South Alabama as a seat that should vote 60% for a Democrat. They overtly ruled that this district is drawn to be a Democratic seat. The race for this gerrymandered seat was the only good, contested race on the Alabama ballot last year. It featured two stellar youthful candidates, Democrat Shomari Figures and Republican Caroleene Dobson. She made it a close race. Figures, the Democrat, won with 55% of the vote. He will represent this new district for at least two years.
Our five incumbent Republican Congressmen, Robert Aderholt, Mike Rogers, Gary Palmer, Dale Strong, and Barry Moore, were all overwhelmingly re-elected in 2024 with no or token opposition, as was Democrat Terri Sewell. Figures joined Sewell in the House Democratic Caucus.
The real loser in this new Second District are the white Republican voters and business community in Mobile. They have no pro-business resident Republican Congressman for the first time in at least six decades. These Mobile/Baldwin business and civic leaders are distraught and up in arms. The old First District of Alabama has been a mainstay for the economic growth and prosperity of the Gulf Coast Mobile/Baldwin metropolitan area. The region has had a mainstream effective Republican resident congressman since 1964, beginning with Jack Edwards and continuing with Sonny Callahan, Jo Bonner, Bradley Byrne, and then, Jerry Carl.
This gerrymandered new Second District merges the Mobile/Baldwin Republicans with the Wiregrass Republicans. Therefore, one of the regions was due to get the short end of the stick. The two regions have completely different economic needs from Washington. You actually have to drive through Florida to get from Dothan to Mobile. The Wiregrass Congressman Barry Moore bested the Mobile Congressman Jerry Carl in the GOP Primary. Jerry Carl summed it up well,recently, “It’s just about impossible for anyone in District One to do the District justice. You can’t serve two masters…Dothan is so much different than Mobile and vice versa.” We will see.
See you next week.
April 23, 2025 - Greg Shaw Steady Mainstay Conservative Senior Judge on State Supreme Court
Our Alabama Supreme Court is a stellar group. All nine of our Alabama justices are Republicans. They are conservative Republicans and that is not bad. It is actually proper and appropriate given that we are one of the most conservative Republican states in America. Not only are all of the Supreme Court Jurists Republicans, every statewide elected official and constitutional officeholder in Alabama are GOP stalwarts, as well as both of our U.S. Senators.
Speaking of which, all of our constitutional offices are up for election in 2026. On the ballot next year, are all 140 State Legislative seats, Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, State Treasurer, Secretary of State, Auditor, as well as the seat of our Senior U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville.
We also have two of our State Supreme Court seats up for election next year. Justices Greg Shaw and Brad Mendheim are up for re-election. Both men are immensely qualified, proven conservative pro-business Republican Jurists. They are both running for re-election and should be re-elected and probably neither will or should receive any opposition.
Judge Brad Mendheim will be pursuing his second, full six-year term. He was born to be a judge. He was born and raised in Dothan. His father was a local pharmacist. He became a Circuit Judge for Houston and Henry Counties at a young age. He served as Wiregrass Circuit Judge for a decade. He is very well respected in his hometown. Home folks know you best. He is a pillar of the First Baptist Church of Dothan. He is only 56 years old and should be a mainstay of the Supreme Court for several more decades.
Speaking of mainstays, the senior member of the Supreme Court, Justice Greg Shaw, will be running for his fourth term on the Supreme Court. Greg Shaw has been doing appellate work for the State of Alabama for 40 years now – 16 years as a StaffAttorney of the Supreme Court, eight years as a Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, and 16 years as a Justice on the Supreme Court. So, he has been an Appellate Judge or Justice for 24 years.
Greg is married to another outstanding Alabamian, Samantha “Sam” Shaw. Sam Shaw was elected to two consecutive, four-year terms as State Auditor. She served with distinction without a lot of fanfare. Greg’s 24 years on the Bench is of the same recipe. He has been diligent, quiet and steady. The Shaws, Greg and Sam, are reflective of what is the best of Alabama.
Sam and Greg have been married for 45 years. They met while they were students at Auburn University from which they graduated. Greg went on to law school at Cumberland School of Law and graduated in 1982 and went to work at the Supreme Court soon thereafter. Sam and Greg are life-long Methodists.
They have two sons, Gregory William Shaw, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, with a major in mechanical engineering. Their second son is also an engineer having graduated from Georgia Tech.
Greg and Sam were both born and raised in Jefferson County. Sam grew up in Homewood. Greg grew up in the Roebuck area of Birmingham. Sam and Greg live on a farm in Tallapoosa County. They have also gotten a second residence in Cullman to be near their grandchildren.
Greg is a master beekeeper. He loves it. Sam and Greg are happily enjoying their grandbabies, beekeeping, and taking care of their farm.
Greg Shaw is 67. Under State Law, a Judge cannot run for election after they turn 70. Therefore, Shaw will be running for his final six-year term on the Court.
Thankfully, Alabama will have the steady, mainstay conservative Judge, Greg Shaw, on the Supreme Court for the next seven and a half years.
See you next week.
April 16, 2025- Political Speculation and Happenings
April 15 is traditionally known as the deadline to file your tax return. This time last year, Alabama political insiders had marked their calendars as that being the date that our 2026 political season would begin. It was thought that all of the thoroughbred horses would be at the gate to begin their races for the state’s four top political posts by April 15, 2025. Our Republican primary is our election in Alabama. Therefore, the election for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and one of our U.S. Senate seats will be on the ballot next year. It will be a very big year as the three top constitutional offices of Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General are incumbent-free. The big question is whether the U.S. Senate Race will be incumbent-free.
The horses are late getting to the gate. However, we will have a probable starting gate date of Memorial Day, May 26, for the horses to be in their chutes. This is the date for fundraising tobegin for the May 2026 Primary Election.
The looming question is, what does our senior U.S. Senator,Tommy Tuberville, run for in the 2026 election cycle? Will he run for re-election to his Senate Seat, or does he run for Governor next year? That question will more than likely be answered in the next four to six weeks.
Coach Tuberville has flirted with the idea of running for Governor for the last six months. It has been the dominant question in Alabama politics over the past year. “Will he or won’t he?” is asked by politicos of each other on a daily basis. Well, it is getting late in the day and it is getting close to time to fish or cut bait.
Having grown up in and around Alabama politics, my answer would be simple. If I were 72 years old like Tuberville, and had one, six-year term of seniority under my belt, was in the Republican majority, and was best friends with the Republican President, Donald J. Trump, it would be a no-brainer. I would run for another six-year term as a U.S. Senator. In most states,being Governor is a steppingstone to moving up to the U.S. Senate.
Being Governor of Alabama is not all it is cracked up to be. You have to really want to govern and have an agenda. You have to also have a good working relationship with the Alabama Legislature. Our Alabama Constitution inherently places the bulk of the power with the legislature. A lot of folks think the ultimate authority rests with the Governor. It does not. That perception, to a large degree, was derived from the influence that Governor George Wallace had during his four term reign as governor. He, in essence, became a king. He controlled the legislature. In his heyday, he made the legislature an appendage of the Governor’s office. That day is gone. Over the past two or three decades, the legislature has taken that power back. Today, the adage the Governor proposes, and the legislature disposes, prevails.
Coach Tuberville would enjoy wearing the title of “Governor” and like the trappings and glamour of being governor but, at the end of the day, he has got a much better job as a U.S. Senator.
Speaking of our Washington delegation, our Senior Congressman, Robert Aderholt, and his outstanding wife, Caroline, put on one whale of a wedding for their daughter, Mary Elliott, a few weeks ago. It was the closest thing to a regal wedding in Alabama history.
Robert Aderholt has indeed made the Alabama history books. He went to Congress in 1996 at the ripe age of 30. He is close to closing in on 30 years in the U.S. House always representing the fourth district. Caroline is from a prominent North Alabama political family.
I remember being in Washington 25 to 30 years ago and seeing a young Congressman Aderholt and Caroline pushing their young baby girl around the capital in a baby buggy. That young baby has grown into a beautiful, successful young lady. Mary Elliott Aderholt married Grant Whitt, who is the son of Huntsville State Representative Andy Whitt and his beautiful wife, Jennifer, on March 29. Andy Whitt is a powerful North Alabama Legislator and successful banker.
The wedding was one for the record books. It took place at the majestic First Methodist Church of Huntsville. The wedding was magnificent. However, the reception at the elegant Ledges Country Club of Huntsville was something to behold.
Mingling for hours was truly a “Who’s Who” of Alabama politics. Every major, statewide political figure in Washington or Montgomery politics from past and present were there. I have never seen such an assemblage of Alabama political royalty gathered at a wedding or any event. It was truly a royal Alabama wedding.
See you next week.
April 9, 2025 - The State Auditor Office Will Be Open in 2026
The 2026 election season has begun. It is our big election year in Alabama politics. All our Constitutional offices, including Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and State Auditor are up for election. You will also have two seats on the State Supreme Court up for electionas well as two seats on the Public Service Commission. In addition, and probably more importantly, all 140 seats in the Alabama State Legislature are up for election and one of our coveted two U.S. Senate seats will be up for election. The seat currently held by Coach Tommy Tuberville will be on the ballot for a six-year term.
It will be an even bigger year because it will not be an incumbent re-election year for most of our State Constitutionaloffices. The Brass Ring, the Governor’s office, is wide open. Kay Ivey is term limited. Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth is term limited, and Attorney General Steve Marshall is term limited. These three offices election will be marquee events.
All our constitutional and statewide offices are held by a Republican. Democrats cannot win a statewide race in the Heart of Dixie, only token or irrelevant candidates run as a Democrat.Therefore, winning the Republican Primary is tantamount to election. That is why the races are beginning. The Republican Primary is May 26, 2026. That will be election day. The November General Election will be a quiet coronation. Qualifying will begin and end for the May election in January.Candidates can begin raising money for the 2026 election in May. Therefore, that is why you will see the horses begin to mount and the announcements cavalcading in the upcoming next two months of April and May.
There is a domino musical chairs scenario occurring in the secondary Constitutional offices. Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth is term limited, so Secretary of State Wes Allen is running for that post, leaving Secretary of State open. Current State Auditor Andrew Sorrell is leaving Auditor to run for Secretary of State, which leaves the State Auditor’s race wide open. Young Vestavia lawyer and conservative Republican stalwart, Derek Chen, is poised to fill the Auditor’s office. He is announcing his candidacy this week and will enter as the prohibitive favorite.
Derek Chen is a successful businessman and lawyer. His success affords him the luxury and advantage never before seen in a candidate for this low level position. He would be able to self-fund his campaign and would be able to do so generously. He will have the money to get out his message and the ability to campaign full time.
Derek has done his homework and spade work in Republican circles. He is the largest individual contributor to Republican candidates in the state. He is by far, the largest contributor to Republican State Senate and House members. They are, in turn, working their districts fervently on Derek’s behalf. He is one ofthe largest contributors to the state Republican Party. He was an early supporter of President Donald Trump since his start in 2015. He has been a frequent guest of President Trump in Washington D.C. and Mar-a-Lago, the Trump home in South Florida. It would not be a surprise if Trump endorses Derek Chen in his Alabama Auditor’s race.
If you have been to a Republican event in Alabama over the past few years, you have probably seen Chen. He has been making the rounds all over the state, speaking with and meeting local folks. He has made extensive connections and developed a network of conservatives across the state. He will more than likely receive the endorsements of most of the conservative business groups and conservative social issue groups in the state,such as the Business Council of Alabama, the Alabama ForestryAssociation, the Alabama Policy Institute, and Eagle Forum, to name a few. He belongs to most of them and has for years.
He is currently working the state, courting the Alabama Farmers leadership. If he gets the ALFA endorsement, it will be the coup de grâce and lights out for any token opposition to keep himfrom capturing the State Auditor’s job.
The Auditor has limited duties. Essentially, they just keep an inventory of the state’s property. Given that Derek Chen is youthful and gregarious and holds both a law degree from Cumberland Law School at Samford and an MBA from the University of Alabama, he probably can keep an accurate account of the state’s desks, chairs, pencils, and computers.
It should be a fun year.
See you next week.
April 2, 2025 - Hoover Continues to Grow and Flourish Under Leadership of Mayor Frank Brocato
The City of Hoover was founded in 1968 as a suburban bedroom community of the Over the Mountain area. In 57 years, it has grown into one of the most prominent and prosperous cities in the Jefferson/Shelby metro area.
It is now the fifth largest city in Alabama in real population following only Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery and its neighbor, Birmingham. About two decades ago, Hoover’s population had grown so significantly that the Census Bureau changed the label of Alabama’s largest metropolitan area from the Birmingham metro area to the Birmingham/Hoover metropolitan area. If current trends continue, Hoover will surpass Birmingham in population within 20 years. At that time, the Census Bureau will probably refer to the state’s largest metro center as the Hoover/Birmingham metropolitan area.
Hoover, with its large available sprawling land mass, will continue to grow and prosper as the center and heart of the state.Hoover’s per capita residential income among the top ten cities is surpassed by only Huntsville.
Hoover has been led by Mayor Frank Brocato since 2016. He is running for his third term this August. Mayor Brocato is Hoover through and through. He has a long history of service with the City of Hoover. Brocato began his career with the Hoover Fire Department in 1973, only five years after the city’s incorporation. He was the city’s first paramedic and rose to be the Fire Marshall for Hoover in 1979. After 42 years of service with the Fire Department, he retired in 2015 as the Chief of Operations and the Fire Marshall. The next year, in 2016, he was elected Mayor of Hoover.
Frank Brocato and his wife Frances have been married for 50 years. They have three children and nine grandchildren. Frank and Frances are both natives of Jefferson County and have called Hoover home for five decades. He loves his city, and it is obvious when he talks about Hoover’s amazing growth and success.
Mayor Frank Brocato realized that the key to success for a prosperous and robust city are good schools, a good police department and a good fire department. From his first year in office, Mayor Brocato demonstrated a deep commitment to the Hoover City Schools. Recognizing the critical role education plays in the community’s success, he took bold actions to support students, teachers, and administrators. He doubled the city’s annual contribution to the Hoover City Schools. He made sure that school resource officers were assigned to all 17 schools.
Mayor Brocato is a frequent visitor to all of the city schools. He looks forward to these visits. Under Brocato’s leadership, Hoover schools remain among the top school systems in the state with two of the premier high schools – Hoover High School and Spain Park High School.
Hoover has long been considered one of the safest cities in the state. The city has consistently been rated as the number one police/public safety department in the state, as well as the highest paid. The Hoover Police Department has achieved CALEA accreditation, a distinction held by only five% of police departments nationwide. Under Brocato’s leadership, the City of Hoover opened a $4 million state-of-the-art training facility that trains not only their officers, but other departments throughout the state. The Hoover Fire Department is also considered the best in the state. Hoover’s Fire Department maintains an ISO Class 1 rating, the highest possible ranking.
Hoover, under Brocato, continues to be a mecca for sports tourism. The Hoover Met Complex hosts numerous events, including the SEC Baseball Tournament. This event, alone, drew 180,000 fans in 2023 and 200,000 in 2024 to the Hoover Met.
Under Frank Brocato’s leadership Hoover remains one of Alabama’s most vibrant and thriving communities. It is celebrated for its excellent schools, premier and robust public safety, and family friendly amenities. The city has seen substantial but measured and well-planned growth. Under Frank Brocato’s mayorship, the city has grown in population from 85,000 in 2016 to 93,000 today.
See you next week.