June 22, 2022 - Do Campaign Ads Pander?
During the waning days of the campaigns for Governor and U.S. Senator, I received an inordinate amount of correspondence lamenting the outrageous, demagogic, disingenuous, negative ads, especially on television. The frustration can best be summed up by a thoughtful writer’s comments, “Steve, it is sad with all the issues we need to face in Alabama (health, education, infrastructure) we continue to dumb down our elections. I found the Kay Ivey ads revolting and racist.”
The writer went on to say that he was a Democrat, and he knew a Democrat could not win in Alabama and the best they could get is 40%. My response was, “Negative and dumbed down, overt racist ads work. If they didn’t, then these media gurus would not use them.” Over 65% of the ads used were negative, over the top ads that only had a scintilla of truth. Why, again? Because they work. I also told this reader that this vicious, atrocious simpleton advertising is not limited to just Alabama.
We are a right wing conservative Republican state and only conservative Republicans vote in a Republican Primary. This reader stated he is a Democrat. He probably did not plan to vote in the Republican Primary. Therefore, the ads were not designed to appease or attract him or his vote.
Ads are designed to pander to right wing, conservative Alabamians. Therefore, it is pretty clear that ads are going to depict their candidate as being against abortion, illegal immigrants and for having, owning, and shooting guns. The media gurus are obviously going to say that someone’s Republican opponent is for killing babies, letting Mexicans cross the border illegally and being against the Second Amendment.
Furthermore, allow me to take up for the Republican electorate of Alabama, who have consumed these ads. We are a red right wing Republican state. If you think these media gurus or hired guns, as I like to call them, are not moving to a left wing liberal state and doing the same thing to the left wing voters of California and New York, you are mistaken.
If you were to see the television ads in a California Democratic Primary, these hired guns would be revealing to the left wing, liberal base ads that show their candidates advocating that the governor should perform free abortions on demand during the third trimester on the Capitol steps, and every county in California should be made to open and fund transgender schools. The hired guns would further have a picture of their gubernatorial candidate holding a welcome sign and personally embracing all illegal immigrants crossing the border and gifting them a social security card, welfare check and voucher to any school in the Golden State, and of course giving them a democratic voting application regardless of whether they could read, write or speak English. Their gubernatorial candidate would follow up with a statement saying, “We as democrats do not care what this costs us because we do not believe in a balanced budget.” Then they would have their gubernatorial candidate erecting signs all over the state instructing all gun owners to turn over their guns, immediately, because the Second Amendment does not apply in California.
In short, we are a very diverse and very partisan nation. There is a lot of difference in political and social philosophy between California and Alabama. California is definitely a liberal Democratic state and Alabama is definitely a conservative Republican state.
The same hired gun political ad gurus travel from Alabama to California. They do not dwell on philosophy. They are hired to win elections. They design their ads to appeal to the base of the conservative Republican Party in Alabama and they design ads to pander to the left wing, liberal Democratic base in California.
As far as our Alabama GOP Primary, in defense of Kay Ivey, she was going to win reelection regardless of what her eight opponents did or how much they spent. She would have gotten 60% if there had not been $16 million of mostly untruthful negative ads thrown at her. She did not go negative against the eight novices that attacked her. Folks, Kay Ivey, ain’t anymore for abortions on demand than Mother Teresa.
In closing, negative ads work. It they didn’t work they would not use them. You always have and probably always will see negative ads. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist in Huntsville to understand that if you are trying to win a Republican Primary in Alabama, you pander to the conservative base voter. So, you ask, “Do campaign ads pander?” The answer is “Duh, yes.”
See you next week.
June 15, 2022 - Katie Britt Favored to Capture Senate Seat
Katie Britt is headed to a likely victory to fill our U.S. Senate seat in next Tuesday’s June 21 runoff.
The 40 year old, first time candidate garnered an amazing 45% of the vote against two major candidates on May 24. She finished far ahead of second place finisher Mo Brooks at 29% and third placeholder Mike Durant at 23%. She almost beat them without a runoff. Katie Britt carried 62 of the 67 counties in Alabama and barely lost the other five by a slim margin. Katie won overwhelmingly in most of the populous GOP counties in the state. As excepted, she ran very well in her native Wiregrass receiving 63% in her home county of Coffee.
To the contrary, her opponent in the runoff, second place finisher Mo Brooks, barely carried his home county of Madison by a 39 to 36 margin. In adjacent Limestone, a suburb county of Madison, the vote count was 7,130 for Brooks to 7,100 for Britt – a 30 vote margin. In short, Brooks lost his own congressional district to Katie Britt. It appears that home folks know you best.
Those of us who have followed politics in Alabama and especially in southeast Alabama have watched Katie grow up in Enterprise. We have all said she has had governor or senator written all over her. She has been a leader her entire life. She was the leader of everything at Enterprise High School, she was Governor of Girls State, then she was President of the Student Government Association at Alabama.
Soon after graduating from law school, she went to Washington and served five years as Chief of Staff to Senator Richard Shelby. She is about to take that seat in the U.S. Senate. She is scripted for the role. Katie will hit the ground running and will be an effective, conservative voice, and advocate for Alabama.
One of the primary reasons Katie won so overwhelmingly is that she outworked all of the others. She started over a year ago, and worked all 67 counties in the state – especially the rural counties. She won the endorsement of the Alabama Farmers Federation the old fashioned way. She got out and earned it. She started early and stayed late. She built a grassroots organization throughout the state, and it propelled her to a tremendous lead on May 24, and it will carry her over the line next week.
Katie’s opponent, Mo Brooks, is a colorful character almost comedic. During his almost 40 years in Alabama politics, he has built a legacy as a right-wing, ineffective, ideological gadfly. He has never passed a bill in his 16 years in the legislature or 12 years in Congress. He is unbelievably unashamed of his lack of effectiveness or achievement. He likes the mantle of being a right-wing ineffective nut.
Mo and I served together in the Alabama House of Representatives for 16 years. He was immediately recognized as someone who wanted to accomplish nothing for his Huntsville district but wanted to sit on the back row and keep our voting record and rank as us on how conservative we were based on his criteria. You can only imagine how popular he was in the Alabama House. Mo could not have passed a bill or gotten anything done for Huntsville if he had wanted to. In fact, if we had a bill to pass we would quietly say to Mo, “I’d like for you to vote for my bill, but please don’t speak for it.”
Mo has built on his reputation as an ineffective right wing nut during his tenure in Washington. They have written him off as a crazy gadfly. Both the Republican and Democratic U.S. Senate leadership in Washington would put Mo off in a corner and laugh at him. This would not be good for a state that depends on federal defense dollars to endure. He would be an albatross for our state. When asked about our U.S. Senate race a year ago, when Mo looked like a player, the witty and wise Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy quipped “A U.S. Senate Seat is a terrible thing to waste.”
Folks, under the entrenched Senate Seniority system, Alabama would probably be better served with a 40 year old vibrant, able and conservative senator who can build power and seniority than a 69 year old gadfly relegated to the corner of the Senate, who would continue to vote against Alabama interest like defense and agriculture. Mo’s allegiance would be to the clandestine, right-wing Club for Growth rather than the interests of Alabamians.
See you next week.
June 8, 2022 - Very Impressive High Steppin’ Victory for Governor Ivey
Our popular high steppin’ pistol tottin’ Governor Kay Ivey won a very impressive reelection victory for Governor on May 24.
Ivey turned back eight GOP primary challengers to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination without a runoff. She garnered an amazing 54% of the vote and carried every county in Alabama. That is a feat not often accomplished, especially considering she had eight folks running against her.
However, her popularity is probably the reason she had no serious thoroughbreds challenge her in the gubernatorial derby.
Any knowledgeable political pro could look at the odds of defeating one of the most popular incumbent governors in the nation with plenty of campaign resources and walk away from that uphill battle.
After all she had beaten a more impressive field in 2018, which included Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, without the need for a runoff.
Six of her male opponents were “also ran” unknown and still unknown candidates. The seventh male in the race, Tim James, whose claim to fame is that his daddy was governor, is becoming a perennial candidate. He has run three times and finished third three times. He got a respectable 15%, but he spent $5.7 million to get that amount. If he tries again, he will be considered in the Shorty Price category.
The only female in the race was first time candidate, Lindy Blanchard. She finished second to Kay Ivey with 18%. Therefore, the two females running for governor finished first and second. However, there is a world of difference in getting 54% and 18%. Lindy is a nice lady. If you meet her, you cannot help but like her. She spent an amazing $11 million of her own money. That equates into about $100 per vote. That may be a new record. That should tell her that she just might not be cut out for politics. She nor Tim James never got any traction or resonated.
The fact that Blanchard and James spent most of their $16 million combined on negative ads, and I might add disingenuous ads against Governor Ivey, is even more of a testament of how popular and resilient Ivey remains.
I said from the get-go that Ivey would win without a runoff and felt that way to the end. I have to admit that the night of the election when it appeared that the turnout was going to be lighter than expected, I wondered privately if she might dip below 50%. However, she outperformed and got about 54%.
Kay and her team ran a flawless campaign. Her TV ads were folksy and effective. She did not take anything for granted. She never said a bad word about any of her opponents. In fact, she never acknowledged them or called their name. Even in her victory speech, she said we have got to keep running hard against our Democratic opponent. Even though winning a statewide gubernatorial race as a Democrat is extremely unlikely. Winning the GOP primary for governor in the Heart of Dixie is tantamount to election.
Kay Ivey’s 2022 reelection victory is almost as remarkable as her mentor and idol and our only other female governor, Lurleen Wallace’s 1966 landslide victory.
There are several other constitutional offices that will be decided on June 21. The Secretary of State runoff race will be the closest to watch. State Representative, Wes Allen, and two-term State Auditor, Jim Ziegler, are notched in a dead heat. Both got about 40%. Ziegler has name identification having run a dozen times statewide. Wes Allen has the qualifications. He has been a Probate Judge for over a decade prior to his House term. This one will be close and interesting.
The State Auditor’s job will be filled by either Florence State Representative Andrew Sorrell or Kimberly Preacher, Stan Cooke. The Reverend Cooke did benefit from having run for this job before, and he also received a significant hometown vote from Jefferson County.
Our two incumbent conservative PSC members, Chip Beeker and Jeremy Oden, have liberal green leaning opponents in the June 21 runoff.
Greg Cook won an impressive 55-45 victory over Anniston Circuit Judge Debra Jones for Place 5 on the Alabama Supreme Court. He will fit in well with our current conservative and well-credentialed state high court.
We will discuss the monumental runoff contest for our open U.S. Senate Seat next week.
June 1, 2022 - TV Still Drives the Vote
After the 1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon classic presidential contest, television became the medium for political campaigns.
TV became the new campaign strategy in Alabama in 1962. George Wallace, Big Jim Folsom, and Ryan DeGraffenried used TV that year for the first time. Unfortunately for Big Jim Folsom, his use of TV was the demise of his storied political career. His appearance on a live 30 minute paid television show was one of the most colorful stories in Alabama politics. He came on TV drunk as Cooter Brown. That’s a story for another day.
Wallace and Folsom were used to campaigning one-on-one and asking folks for their vote. They stumped and had rallies in every county and hamlet in the state. However, in the end, they succumbed to the politics of TV. It has not changed but become more pronounced over the last 60 years. This 2022 campaign for our open senate seat is nothing more than a TV show.
TV has become such an integral part of getting elected to a U.S. Senate Seat that it appears that what you do now is just raise money or if you have a lot of your own money, spend your own money and buy and design effective TV ads. The day of actually campaigning appears to be over. The only candidate who made an effort to campaign in every county, shake hands and meet folks was Katie Britt. By the way, she is the only real Alabamian in the race. Katie Britt’s grassroots campaign organization is what propelled her to an incredible commanding lead heading into the June 21 runoff.
It looked for a while in our U.S. Senate race that a real outsider, Mike Durant, would be in the June 21 runoff with Katie Britt. However, the original frontrunner, Mo Brooks, clawed back to claim second place.
As a lifelong follower of Alabama politics, I long for and yearn for the day when state candidates actually get out and met and talked with Alabamians one on one. Not to sound too provincial or old fashioned, I believe that a person who wants to be Alabama’s U. S. Senator ought to really know Alabama and the people of the state. They ought to at least know what’s important to folks in our state from Mobile to Scottsboro and Dothan to Tuscaloosa. They ought to know the intricacies and nuances of places and what industries and federal dollars mean to their locales. They need to know how important military dollars are to Huntsville, Montgomery and the Wiregrass and also how much agriculture means to rural Alabama. In short, they should know some folks in Alabama if they are going to be their U.S. Senator.
With Katie Britt in the runoff, she has truly campaigned and not just been a phantom TV candidate who flew in from New Hampshire or Colorado and tried to buy our Senate Seat and run as a celebrity POW hero.
If we want to elect someone to our U.S. Senate Seat who is a celebrity and knows nothing about how to be a U.S. Senator for Alabama, then we have some folks that are qualified and are real celebrities and real Alabamians. We have two who come to mind who are a lot more famous and would be better. They are real Alabamians. Allow me to suggest Lionel Richie and Randy Owen.
Lionel Ritchie was born and raised in Tuskegee and spent the first 25 to 30 years of his life in Macon County before he became world famous.
Randy Owen, the legendary lead singer, and founder of the band Alabama has never left his home in Alabama. He is Alabama born and bred. He still lives in DeKalb County, where he was born. He walks his land and takes care of his prized black angus cattle every day.
These two guys are real, sure enough Alabama celebrities and would make a lot better Senator for Alabama than some semi-Alabamian.
See you next week.
May 25, 2022 - We Miss Shorty Price
The governor’s races of bygone years were a lot more fun and colorful than todays. We would have 10 to 15 candidates. There would be three or four favorites, but we would have 10 others that would make an effort to crisscross the state and have fun and cut up a little bit to garner publicity. The “also rans” could not afford the expensive country music stars from Nashville like the George Wallace, Big Jim Folsom, Jimmy Faulkner frontrunners could to draw a crowd.
This year’s gubernatorial race has not been interesting because a popular incumbent governor was running for reelection. Although Kay Ivey did attract eight opponents. However, only two, Lindy Blanchard and Tim James really mounted a campaign. The six others seem to not do anything, and nobody really knew who they were. The six no name candidates were Stacy Lee George, Dean Young, Dean Odle, Donald Trent Jones, Dave Thomas, and Lew Burdette.
When Burdette qualified, he looked like he had the potential to be a viable candidate but he seemed to never get out of the gate. If he was running a getting acquainted race, it was unsuccessful. He would probably have as much name identification as a baseball player from the 1960s, who had the same name. As a boy, I had a baseball card of Lou Burdette, who was a pretty good pitcher for the old Milwaukee Braves.
Donald Trent Jones probably was hoping that folks would think he was the golf course developer for our famous state links. Dave Thomas was maybe hoping that voters would think he was the Wendy’s hamburgers founder.
Today, what we need in the “also ran” category or what I call “run for the fun of it” candidates is another Shorty Price. Most of you do not remember Shorty Price. Ole Shorty was the King of run for the fun of it candidates. He ran for governor every time and really didn’t care how many votes he got. He just ran for the fun of it and boy was he fun to watch and visit with. He brought new meaning to the word colorful.
Shorty was a native of Barbour County, which by the way is George Wallace’s home county. In fact, Wallace and Shorty grew up together as contemporaries around Clio. Shorty would campaign vehemently and viciously against George Wallace, his nemesis, probably because he was jealous of Wallace’s success as a politician. By the way, Barbour County is called the “Home of Governors” because it has had more governors than any other county in our state’s history.
Shorty was maybe the most colorful political clown to ever appear on the Alabama political stage. He not only ran for governor every time, he also ran for numerous offices every time there was an election. That is how he would make his living. He would travel from town-to-town, mostly in southeast Alabama and panhandle for contributions and soon after collecting the few dollars that folks would give him, he would convert his campaign contributions into a purchase of a Budweiser beer. In fact, one of his campaign slogans was “Smoke Tampa Nugget cigars, drink Budweiser beer and vote for Shorty Price.”
In one of Shorty’s campaigns for governor, his campaign speech contained this line, “If elected governor, I will reduce the governor’s tenure from four years to two years. If you can’t steal enough to last you the rest of your life in two years, you ain’t got enough sense to have the office in the first place.” Shorty would use recycled campaign signs to save money. He would just change the name of the office he was running for that year.
Ole Shorty usually got about two percent of the vote and usually finished last. He was really kind of proud of his usual last place finish. Indeed, one time the venerable political columnist, Bob Ingram, mistakenly stated that Shorty finished 13th out of 14th in a particular governor’s race. Shorty blasted Ingram and said, “That’s a blasphemous lie, I finished 14th out of 14.”
As stated, Shorty hated George Wallace. One year he was one of many candidates running against Wallace. Shorty coined the slogan, “Shorty, Shorty he’s our man, George Wallace belongs in a garbage can.”
None of these six “also ran” gubernatorial candidates were nearly as good as Shorty. I bet if Shorty were still alive and running today, he would have beaten all six of them. I wish ole Shorty were alive and running in this governor’s race. This governor’s race would have been a lot more fun to watch.
See you next week.
May 18, 2022 - Governor’s Race Down to the Wire
We are down to the last few days in the 2022 Governor’s Race. For the first time in my memory, the governor’s race has been overshadowed by another race. The race to fill the void left by retiring senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby has eclipsed the interest in the governor’s race. It is an obvious fact that our open senate seat is more competitive and interesting than a race with a popular incumbent governor running for reelection.
Kay Ivey has been in control of this race since the get go. National polls have ranked her as one of the most popular incumbent governors in the nation. Alabama’s polls have consistently shown her with a commanding lead. Most polls have her winning without a runoff. She has been bombarded by ads from two well-financed opponents. Lindy Blanchard has spent over $8 million of her own money and Tim James has spent over $4 million. They both have primarily run against transgenders. A recent Cygnal poll indicates that either Blanchard or James could force Ivey into a runoff
Kay Ivey will be reelected governor. The question is whether she beats her eight opponents without a runoff. My guess is that she wins Tuesday without a runoff. However, I disagree with some Ivey naysayers and her opponents that forecast that if she does not win straight out with 50% plus one vote, she is in trouble in a June 21 runoff. My thoughts are that if she dips 45% to 48% that still does not make it a close race in the runoff. She would be at 48% and whoever finishes second will be at about 15%. She can pick up the phone as an incumbent governor and raise $2 million dollars for the six-week runoff in two days.
Polling depicts a picture of the entire Republican electorate in the state. The polling is only skewed if there is a lighter than expected turnout. The turnout Tuesday is going to be large due to the U.S. Senate race and the avalanche of Potomac money being spent in our state. Therefore, my belief is that Ivey’s polling numbers will hold. She will probably win outright Tuesday, if not she will win on June 21.
Most of us thought Kay would not run for reelection when she won overwhelmingly in 2018. However, when she announced she was going to run for another four-year term, early polls revealed that she would be tough to beat. Those of us who follow and pontificate on Alabama politics felt like that the only way she could lose is if she beat herself with a faux paus or misstep.
She has avoided any potholes in this six-month campaign for reelection. Matter of fact, she has run a flawless and almost perfect campaign. Her media firm has done an excellent job with her television ads. The one with her saying, “Bless Joe Biden’s heart” and “No Way Jose” captured the essence of why she is popular. Her best attribute politically is that she comes across as your grandmama. How in the world can someone run negative ads about people’s grandmama? She has also been fortunate to have fielded a much weaker field of opponents than she had in 2018, which by the way, she beat without a runoff.
Kay Ivey has done a good job as Governor and I think people, deep down, know this. They trust her as being honest and straight forward. She is running for the right reason. She has some more things she wants to accomplish for her state. You cannot say that Kay Ivey does not love Alabama.
The only serious opponents that Kay has endured are Tim James and Lindy Blanchard. They have both run valiant campaigns and given it the old college try. It will be a close race to see who finishes second. However, finishing second only counts in horseshoes and it will be a distant second at best.
This will be Tim James third try for the brass ring his father garnered twice. Three strikes and you are probably out.
Lindy Blanchard has really given this race her all. She has spent a lot of her personal money, more than anyone expected. She has also crisscrossed the state campaigning hard every day. If you meet her, you cannot help but like her. However, the hill you must climb to defeat an incumbent governor is steep.
We will see next Tuesday.
See you next week.
May 11, 2022 - Senate Race Down to the Wire
The GOP Primary is less than two weeks away on May 24. It has been an interesting and expensive race to fill the seat of our venerable and powerful senior Senator Richard Shelby.
There are three major primary contestants. Katie Britt, Mike Durant, and Mo Brooks are the horses or as some might say combatants given the nature of the prevalence of negative advertising. Two of these three gladiators will be the recipient of the most votes on that momentous day and will face off in a runoff set for six weeks later on June 21. The winner of that June 21 runoff will be our next U.S. Senator. Winning the GOP Primary is tantamount to election for a statewide office in the Heart of Dixie, especially for a U.S. Senate Race.
This race will probably wind up being the most expensive race in Alabama political history, especially when you add up the third party expenditures. In modern day national politics, a candidate’s individual war chest is not the telling story. We live in a world of third party political action committees (PACs). These third party PACs, based out of Washington, have spent more on their preferred candidate than has been spent directly by the candidates’ campaigns. These PACs are not supposed to coordinate with their preferred candidate, but they do. They share all information and polling, and script their attack ads based on what they think you want to hear. These innocuous PACs have the meanest hired guns, who relish negative ads and seek to destroy their opposition. Why? Because negative ads work.
The other political adage that has never changed is that money is the mother’s milk of politics. These three candidates possess or have received plenty of campaign resources, mostly from out of state. Allow me to summarize the top three U.S. Senate candidates, as well as their benefactors, their positions and potential.
Mo Brooks is backed by the Club for Growth. This group of very rich folks want less government and free trade with China. They and Mo Brooks are made for each other. They have been tied to the hip during Mo’s entire 11-year career in Congress. They want a senator who will have total disregard for their state or district and have total allegiance to their laissez-faire pro-China trade agenda. That is why Mo has voted against the needs of his district and Alabama. He has actually voted against agriculture and military defense spending, which are the mainstays of Alabama.
Mo has dropped dramatically in the polls since the race began this time last year. He will now probably finish a distant third. When the race first began and it looked like Brooks might be a player, the popular, wise and witty Republican Senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, quipped, “A senate seat is a terrible thing to waste.” The runoff will probably be a Mike Durant and Katie Britt contest.
Mike Durant has been the wild card in this race, who nobody saw coming but he is a perfect prototype for winning an open U.S. Senate Seat, especially in a pro-military state like Alabama. Durant is a war hero, a POW, and started his own military defense business. He has spent some of his own money, but has been extensively backed by a national liberal group called the “More Perfect Union PAC.” The founder and major benefactor, Jake Harriman, is striving to elect more moderates, including Democrats and Republicans. This PAC wants “Republicans in Name Only” (RINOs). Therefore, RINO probably is the more accurate description of Durant.
Durant is a phantom candidate, who has run primarily a media campaign revealing he was shot down as a helicopter pilot over 40 years ago. If the term carpetbagger ever applied in modern day Alabama politics, it applies to Durant. He has barely campaigned in Alabama and he probably knows very few Alabamians. He hails from New Hampshire, but prefers his palatial home in Colorado. A vote for Durant is like a pig in a poke, you do not know what you will be getting. However, you would be getting a person who decided he wanted to be a United States Senator, but does not care what state you put behind his name: New Hampshire, Colorado or Alabama.
With Durant running a slick television only campaign and not discussing issues, nobody knows where he stands on important issues. The one group that is extremely skeptical and apprehensive of him are the second amendment gun owning NRA members of our state.
Katie Britt is the mainstream conservative, pro-business candidate that understands Alabama and our needs. Most of her campaign contributions have come from Alabamians. In fact, she is the only real Alabamian in the race.
May 4, 2022 - Richard Shelby – Alabama’s Greatest U.S. Senator
Our iconic senior United States Senator, Richard Shelby, turns 88 this week. Shelby is in the waning months of his monumental career in the Senate. He will end his tenure at the end of this year after 36 years in the U.S. Senate.
Shelby is one of the most influential senators in Washington. His prowess at bringing federal dollars to our state from Washington is unparalleled in the annals of Alabama history. Indeed, Shelby may go down in American history as one of the greatest procurers of federal dollars funded to their state from the U.S. Treasury. He may only be surpassed by the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
There is not a city or county in Alabama that has not benefitted from Senator Shelby’s seniority and power. Every major university has received additional federal dollars for development and new buildings. He has literally transformed the University of Alabama. An entire section of the massive campus has a cadre of buildings, mostly science, technology and engineering that are or should be named for him, because he brought the money from Washington to pay for them.
UAB is one of the premier research and medical institutions in America because of Richard Shelby. Huntsville is one of the fastest growing and most prosperous high technology cities in America due to the influence of one Richard Shelby. The largest FBI facility in America has been moved from Washington D.C. to Huntsville, Alabama under the direction of Senator Shelby. In his last hurrah Shelby essentially has brought immense federal funding to completely rebuild and deepen Alabama’s port in Mobile.
His last years have been spent chairing the United States Senate Appropriations Committee. However, during his illustrious career he has also been Chairman of the Banking Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Rules Committee.
There has never been nor will there probably ever be an Alabama U.S. Senator to reach the pinnacle of power of Richard Shelby. It should be noted that Shelby served with distinction and effectiveness in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years prior to being first elected to the Senate in 1986.
In my 2015 book Of Goats and Governors, Six Decades of Colorful Alabama Political Stories, I have a chapter entitled “Alabama’s Three Greatest Senators.” The Chapter includes Lister Hill, John Sparkman and Richard Shelby. If I were writing that book today, Shelby would be alone as the greatest. Folks, that is saying a lot.
Senator Lister Hill and Senator John Sparkman were giants in Washington and tremendous ambassadors for Alabama. Both Sparkman and Hill served for 32 and 30 years, respectively, in the Senate with austere distinction. They served in tandem for more than 20 years and were respected giants on Capitol Hill. Our Hill-Sparkman team was unsurpassed in power and prestige from 1946 to 1970. They were admired not only in Alabama but throughout the nation.
Lister Hill was considered one of the greatest U.S. Senators. He was a statesman and the ultimate southern gentleman. He was chairman of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, as well as a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. He was known as the father of most of Americas rural hospitals through his authorship and stewardship of the Hill-Burton Act. He also was the father of our crown jewel, UAB Medical Center.
John Sparkman was a U.S. Senator from Alabama for 32 years. He like Hill served a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives prior to his Senate career. Sparkman was chairman of the Banking Committee, which also oversaw housing. He was the author of all housing legislation, including creating HUD. Sparkman is also the father of the space and rocket development in Huntsville. In fact, Huntsville would probably be more appropriately named “Sparkmanville”. Senator Sparkman was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1952.
Shelby has continued Sparkman’s and Hill’s legacy sustaining our crown jewels of Huntsville Space and Rocket Center and the UAB Medical Complex in Birmingham.
Senator Shelby has left an indelible mark on our state that will be felt by Alabamians for generations.
See you next week.
April 27, 2022 - A Mo Brooks Story
Over the years I have shared a lot of stories about Alabama’s colorful political figures. We have had some characters like Big Jim Folsom and George Wallace. Big Jim was gregarious and fun loving. Wallace was a political genius and without question the most prolific politician in Alabama history. Both Wallace and Folsom used theatrics to get elected governor, but both were effective once elected to office.
Ole Mo Brooks will make the history books as a colorful Alabama political character. However, unlike Wallace and Folsom, Mo will never be considered effective or important but Mo Brooks is no fool. He knows what he is doing. He is a graduate of Duke and Alabama Law School. He has always been a right-wing ideologue. He truly believes in less government even if that means cutting your district’s or state’s throat. He does not want to be an effective emissary for his people. He is proud of the title of being the least effective congressman in Alabama history. He believes his role is to be the most conservative person in the halls of the Capitol.
Mo and I were freshman legislators together in 1982. Mo served one four-year term in the Alabama House and left in 1986. He was immediately recognized as a right-wing nut, who was driven by an ideological agenda rather than being an effective legislator for his constituents. He was laughed at and ridiculed by the entire House and placed on the back row by the Speaker. They would recognize him, occasionally, his first year to make a reactionary speech on an issue. However, after a while, the Speaker would not recognize him to talk. Prior to that, if we had a bill we wanted to pass and we knew Mo might be for it, we would quietly go back to Mo’s desk in the far-right corner and say, “Mo, I would like for you to vote for my bill. However, please do not speak for it.” We knew his speaking for it would be detrimental to the bill’s passage.
Having been relegated to not having any power, which he preferred, he decided to become the Czar of conservatism in the House. He made himself the appointed keeper of all the House members voting records and would rank us on our conservatism based on how we voted on legislative issues. Mo got a computer, which was a rare device in those days, and sat at his desk keeping track of our daily voting record and ranking us. You can imagine how that upset some of the old crusty legislators, some of whom had been around since the early George Wallace segregationist days. They figured that the word conservative meant voting against Civil Rights and integration. I was one of the few who would visit with Mo. I would go back to his desk and ask how he was doing with his list. Some of the old timers would ask me what Mo and I talked about. You can only imagine the indignation they had towards the young nut from north Alabama when I told them he was keeping their voting record and ranking them on their conservatism.
Ole Mo moved on to the Madison County Commission for a decade or so. They say that every vote during that time was five yes and one no. Guess who the “no” vote was.
He has continued that same consistency of longing to be a loud voice in the wilderness of ineffectiveness during his 11 years in Congress.
Recently a respected fellow member of our 1982 Freshman Legislative Class and I were visiting and the subject of Mo’s race for the Senate came up. He said, “You know, I have never known anyone besides Mo Brooks who has served nearly two decades in a legislative-congressional capacity and never passed a bill nor ever accomplished anything.”
However, my 1982 colleague and I were from the old school that believed you should look after your district first. My perception of today’s Republican primary voters is that there are a good many who prefer a total less government conservative senator. If you are looking for a true long term proven conservative, then Mo Brooks is your man.
See you next week.
April 20, 2022 - Who is Mike Durant?
Many of you have asked the question, “Have you ever seen anyone simply run a media only campaign and avoid campaigning like Mike Durant has done in this year’s U.S. Senate campaign.” Surprisingly my answer for many of you is, “yes, I have.”
Ironically, the man that Richard Shelby beat for this U.S. Senate seat 36 years ago, Jeremiah Denton, was almost a carbon copy of Mike Durant. Denton was a POW/national war hero of the Vietnam era.
Like Durant, Denton had very distant ties to and knowledge of Alabama. They were both National War/POW celebrities who wanted to be a United States Senator from whichever state was convenient.
Alabama had an open seat for the Senate in 1980. Denton called Mobile home but had not lived there since he was a boy. His father was a Naval officer and Jeremiah followed suit and went to the Naval Academy and became a navy officer and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral.
When the race began, Denton was basically living in the Washington D.C. area. Alabama had not had a Republican senator since Reconstruction over 100 years earlier. The Republicans recruited Denton to break the barrier. Denton really did no personal campaigning in Alabama. He was a short-tempered military man whose personality had been even more exacerbated by seven years and seven months of captivity by barbaric Vietnamese.
Denton was swept into office in 1980 in the Ronald Reagan Republican landslide. He never aspired to go into politics. He only wanted to be a good soldier. After his release from captivity, he came back to a hero’s welcome. Denton became Alabama’s first Republican and Catholic Senator and never really campaigned.
Denton became Alabama’s least effective and insignificant senator in our state’s history. He only served one six-year term, 1980-1986. During that one term, he never came to Alabama, never returned a phone call, and never responded to any letters. He began his career by announcing he was a United States Senator and not the Junior Senator from Alabama. He said his role was bigger than just taking care of mundane, senatorial duties and “kissing babies’ butts.” Thus, he immediately forewarned Alabamian’s that for the next six years, we would only have one U.S. Senator – the country would be blessed with our other senate seat.
Mike Durant is amazingly similar, almost a clone to Jeremiah Benton. Unlike Denton who was born in Mobile, Durant was born and spent his entire formulative years in New Hampshire. Like Denton, Durant’s father was a military man. Mike Durant followed his father. As is well known, Durant was shot down and captured and made a prisoner of war for 11 days.
Durant’s life is really a mystery after that point. He calls Huntsville his home and he has had a military defense company in Huntsville, which made him very wealthy through federal defense dollars. Durant’s being an Alabamian or Huntsvillian has come into question. Nobody seems to know him in Huntsville, much less the rest of the state. Speculation is that he lives in Maryland, and he also has a very expensive home in Colorado. If he were to be elected to Alabama’s Senate Seat, he would probably go home to Maryland. Durant would not only be a phantom senate candidate, but he would also be our phantom senator.
Durant has only voted in a Republican primary in Alabama one time in his life and that was in 2008. That means one of three things about him: (1) he is not a Republican, (2) he is not an Alabamian, or (3) he is not a Republican or an Alabamian. The only thing we do know about Durant is that he was born and raised in New Hampshire. Where I come from in Alabama, that would make him what we call a carpetbagger. A carpetbagger, who refuses to meet or ask any Alabamians for their vote. The only thing we know about him is that he can fly around in a helicopter and he can afford to buy a lot of television ads. Guess he thinks we are dumb enough to fall for that pig in a poke or he might find that after a while we will wake up and realize that Emperor has no clothes.
Durant makes no pretense about the fact that he will not personally campaign in Alabama or even do interviews. You can bet your bottom dollar that wherever you live in Alabama, Durant has not been to your town or city and probably could not even tell you where it is located. You can rest assured that he does not know the difference between the Wiregrass and Sand Mountain.
See you next week.