July 27, 2022 - 1962 Governor’s Race
It is hard to believe it has been 60 years since George Wallace’s first victorious race for governor. Let’s go down memory lane and reminisce about the 1962 Governor’s race and Wallace’s classic inaugural victory.
The 1962 Governor’s Race really began in 1958. The Governor’s chair and the race for it was the big show in Alabama politics in that era. Being a U.S. Senator was secondary in Alabama politics.
Governor is still probably the most important and glamorous political position, but it certainly was at that time. Television had not come into its own. Most Alabamians did not own a TV. There were no southern major league baseball teams to follow, such as the Atlanta Braves, who were still in Milwaukee at that time. The closest team was the St. Louis Cardinals, and they were miles away and not really in the south. The Grand Ole Opry was only on the radio on Saturday night. So, southerners had to include politics as a prime source of entertainment. That is why we had such colorful political characters. They were really our entertainers and, in some cases, real clowns. Thus, we had more entertaining politicians than the rest of the country. We had a legacy of Jimmy Davis and Huey Long in Louisiana, Bilbo in Mississippi, the Talmadges in Georgia, and the most colorful of all time was our very own 6’9” Big Jim Folsom.
Big Jim was the most uninhibited, gregarious, fun loving of them all. He traveled the state with his country band the “Strawberry Pickers.” Alabamians thought Big Jim’s barefoot musical antics and down home soaking the rich speeches spiced with country humor were better than the circus coming to town. Big Jim was first elected Governor in 1946. He upset the Big Mules of Birmingham and the Big Planters of the Black Belt to become the first people’s Governor in 50 years.
All twelve Governors before him had been picked in the closed door board rooms of Birmingham and had been well heeled Big Mules or Big Planters and had gone out and given dull speeches and simply bought the election with corporate and large agricultural money. Big Jim went directly to the country people all over the state and most people in Alabama at that time were rural or lived in small towns. He convinced them that he was their friend. He won their hearts. He became the youngest and most progressive Alabama Governor in history. He was the little man’s big friend. However, the Governor could not succeed himself. It was one four year-term, and you were out. So Big Jim left after four years, 1946-1950.
A quaint aristocrat named Gordon Persons became Governor from 1950-1954, but Big Jim came storming back to win a landslide victory in 1954. He won without a runoff, despite the fact that most of the State’s big daily newspapers endorsed other people and predicted he would lose. He became only the second person to be elected to two terms. Bibb Graves had done it earlier in the century. Big Jim served his second term from 1954-1958, then waited out another four years and was running for his third term in 1962. He was legendary by this time and had almost unanimous name identification as simply “Big Jim,” but he was up against another populist and maybe even better politician, George Wallace.
George Wallace had run his first race for Governor in 1958 and lost to John Patterson. Patterson had beaten Wallace for two reasons. First was sympathy for Patterson resulting from his daddy’s assassination at the hands of the Phenix City mafia, but primarily because Patterson was the most ardent racist and segregationist. Patterson was the candidate of the Klan and race was the issue in 1958. Wallace was considered the moderate, but Wallace woke up the day after the defeat and swore he would never be out-segged again.
After George Wallace’s loss to John Patterson in 1958, Wallace worked tirelessly for the next four years, 1958-1962, while Patterson served his only term as Governor. Wallace made sure he was the racist segregationist candidate in 1962.
Race was the only issue in the 1962 Governor’s race. Wallace rode the race issue to his first victory as governor, defeating Big Jim Folsom and State Senator Ryan DeGraffenreid of Tuscaloosa. That 1962 race had an interesting, entertaining, and historical twist to it that I will share with you next week.
July 20, 2022 - State Legislature will Remain Super Majority Republican
The Alabama Legislature will remain super majority Republican for the next quadrennium. As the dust settles from the May/June party primaries, there have been negligible if any party changes. There has been some shuffling on the deck of the GOP boat, but it has all been intraparty struggles.
By and large, both the House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate have remained safe havens for incumbents.
The Senate especially returns essentially intact. The entire leadership of the Republican led Senate will stay the same. The leaders of the State Senate, including Greg Reed, Jabo Waggoner, Clay Scofield, Arthur Orr, Greg Albritton, Clyde Chambliss and Steve Livingston, will all be back in their same leadership posts. The sterling freshman class of Senators will be Sophomores. This class of leaders includes Dan Roberts, Tom Butler, Sam Givhan, Will Barfoot, Garlan Gudger, April Weaver, Donnie Chesteen, Andrew Jones, Chris Elliott, Jack Williams and David Sessions. The Democratic leaders also return in entirety, including powers Bobby Singleton, Rodger Smitherman, Vivian Figures and Billy Beasley.
There seems to be a more harmonious working relationship among the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate that has not existed in past years. This body is poised to provide leadership for the state for the next four years.
The State House of Representatives will remain essentially the same, also. However, there has been more reshuffling in this Chamber, especially in the GOP ranks. The super majority Republican control will definitely continue to exist with at least 78 of the 105 seats remaining in the grasp of the Republicans. The House is probably more conservative than the Senate, although they are both pretty right wing.
The leadership of the House of Representatives will change. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Madison) and Speaker Pro Tem Victor Gaston (R-Mobile) are not seeking reelection. There has been an internal jockeying for Speaker between Steve Clouse (R-Ozark) and Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Dekalb) going on for almost a year. It will continue until November when the Republican caucus makes their choice. The contest between Ledbetter and Clouse has been gentlemanly without discord or acrimony. Most House members hate to make a choice because both men are so well liked and respected. There will be harmony when it is decided, they will work together, and both will remain in a leadership position.
There is a cadre of Republican leadership returning to the House, including Clouse and Ledbetter. Republican leaders returning are Danny Garrett, Terri Collins, Ginny Shaver, Jim Hill, Paul Lee, Randall Shedd, Kyle South, Tracey Estes, David Standridge, Steve Hurst, Randy Wood, Jim Carns, David Faulkner, Reed Ingram, Rhett Marquis, Jeff Sorrells, Chris Sells, Chris Blackshear, Joe Lovvorn, Chip Brown and Chris Pringle.
House Democratic leaders returning are Chris England, Anthony Daniels, Peb Warren, Laura Hill, John Rogers, Mary Moore, Thomas Jackson, Sam Jones, Berry Forte, Dexter Grimsley and Barbara Boyd.
Incumbency is a potent, powerful, inherent advantage, especially in legislative races. There were a couple of incumbents taken out in the House within the Republican ranks. They were beaten by female future superstars. Indeed, this was a very good year for female Republican legislative candidates all over the state.
There are several new female legislators that are superstars and worth watching as leaders. Cynthia Almond of Tuscaloosa leads the list although she actually has a session under her belt. She won her seat without opposition last year. Almost every list includes Susan Dubose of Shelby County. She beat an incumbent even though her district was distorted to help him win. She won the old fashioned way. She worked hard. She started early and stayed late.
Ultra-Republican Baldwin County elected all females to represent them in the House of Representatives. Jennifer Fidler, Frances Holk-Jones and Carla Knight Maddox will make up the Baldwin delegation.
Lee Hulsey of Helena from District 15 in Jefferson/Shelby will be a quick study in the House.
It was not just the year of the woman in statewide races, the ladies have made a significant move in the Alabama House of Representatives.
See you next week.
July 13, 2022 - Women and Young Folks Prevail in 2022
In my observations of Alabama politics, every election year brings an underlying election year surprise or two. The underlying prevailing theme emerging from the Alabama political arena this year is that women have arrived politically in the Heart of Dixie.
Governor Kay Ivey is only the second female elected Governor of Alabama, Lurleen Wallace being the first in 1966. Governor Ivey won a decisive second-term nomination as the Republican nominee in May. She will face another female Democratic nominee, Yolanda Flowers, in the November General Election. This is the first time two women will face each other for governor.
In fact, the first and second place finishers in both the Republican and Democratic primaries were women. Governor Ivey was followed by Lindy Blanchard, who finished second in the GOP primary. Dr. Yolanda Flowers, a retired Birmingham educator, was in a runoff with second place Democratic female State Senator Malika Sanders Fortier in the Democratic primary.
Katie Britt emerged victoriously from the Republican U.S. Senate contest and if elected in November, as is expected, she will be the first female elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama. Katie Britt is the brightest young star in Alabama politics. She is the new rock star of the state. Not only will she be the first female senator, but she is also the headliner for the second theme of 2022. That is, we have a pair of new youthful stars arriving on the scene as the dust settles from the June 21 runoffs. Wes Allen and Andrew Sorrell have become the new stars on the scene.
Wes Allen defeated veteran politico, Jim Ziegler, in the Secretary of State race. Andrew Sorrell bested Stan Cooke and Rusty Glover to become State Auditor. Both Sorrell and Allen were about to become freshmen members of the Alabama House this time four years ago. Now, they are the new stars on the statewide political block. They will be joining Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth as young constitutional officeholders with a future.
You have four young stars on the horizon in the state. Rockstar Katie Britt is 40, superstar Will Ainsworth is 41, star Wes Allen is 46 and star Andrew Sorrell is 36.
Another young superstar has arrived on the behind the scenes political consulting arena in Alabama politics. Twenty-seven year old Sean Ross ran the Katie Britt campaign masterfully. He is absolutely brilliant. He ran one of Twinkle Cavanaugh’s campaigns four years ago, when he was just graduating from the University of Alabama. Katie did a goods day’s work when she acquired his services with a recommendation from Twinkle. He is the hottest item in Alabama political consulting.
There were four vacancies in the Alabama State Senate. State Representative Merika Coleman, a Bessemer attorney, won a very impressive victory for the seat of retiring Priscilla Dunn. She is young and brilliant and is going to be a star in the Alabama State Senate.
Lance Bell won the seat of retiring state Senator Jim McClendon. Bell beat his opponent 73% to 27% in this Republican seat.
Keith Kelley emerged victorious over Wendy Ghee Draper in the Anniston based Republican seat of retiring veteran state Senator Del Marsh.
In probably the biggest upset surprise of the 2022 primary season was the victory of Josh Carnley to fill the Republican Southeast Alabama Senate Seat held for decades by the powerful and popular Jimmy Holley. This district is comprised of Coffee, Covington, Pike and part of Dale counties. Twelve-year veteran, State House member, Mike Jones of Andalusia was expected to waltz to victory having every business groups endorsement. Carnley carried his home county of Coffee, overwhelmingly, and veteran political consultant David Mowery did a masterful job with Carnley’s ads.
Popular first term state senator, Dan Roberts, was challenged by a self-financed urologist in Roberts’ silk stocking Jefferson/Shelby district but Roberts won handily.
For the first time in 40 years, there will not be a Sanders representing the Black Belt in the Alabama Senate. Veteran Senator Hank Sanders failed in his bid to take back his seat he loaned to his daughter, the aforementioned Malika Sanders Fortier. Hank Sanders had served nine terms as the Black Belt’s senator. He was defeated by Robert Stewart of Selma.
Jay Hovey won the coveted Lee/Tallapoosa/Russell County State Senate seat, prevailing over incumbent Tom Whatley by one vote.
For the most part, the powerful 35-member State Senate will return intact with only few new faces.
See you next week.
July 6, 2022 - Katie Britt won the Senate Race the Old Fashioned Way
Katie Britt won the Republican Senate Primary the old fashioned way. She got out and worked for it and earned it and, folks, she won big. She beat Mo Brooks 63% to 37% in the GOP runoff. Katie carried an amazing 66 out of 67 counties.
Katie Boyd Britt was born to win this Senate Seat at the youthful age of 40. Those of us around Alabama politics recognized early on that she had unique, God given leadership abilities and integrity. We watched her grow up in Enterprise. She won everything in the Wiregrass from Debate to Dance. When I saw her become Governor of Girls’ State as a junior in high school, I looked at Jack Hawkins, the Chancellor of Troy University, and said that young lady has governor or senator written all over her.
Katie went on to the University of Alabama and was elected Student Government President, then she graduated from Law School at Alabama. She practiced law briefly then became Senator Richard Shelby’s Chief of Staff for five years. She then headed the Business Council of Alabama for three years before beginning her journey to follow her mentor, Richard Shelby, in the U.S. Senate seat he has held for 36 years.
Some of us who have known Shelby and been his friends and confidantes for over three decades were told soon after his sixth reelection victory in 2016 that these last six years would be his last hurrah. He told us he was going to encourage and support Katie Boyd Britt to succeed him. He wisely knew because of her age and acumen she has the potential to be one of Alabama’s greatest senators.
The seniority system in the United States Senate is so enshrined and entrenched that in order to be great you have to serve awhile. In fact, in order to reach pinnacles of power in the senate you have to be there at least 20 to 25 years. We have had three great senators in Alabama history. Senator Shelby is the most powerful and accomplished. The other two are Lister Hill and John Sparkman, who served Alabama in the U.S. Senate for 30 and 32 years, respectively. They were both powers. By the way, both Hill and Sparkman were SGA Presidents at the University of Alabama like Katie Boyd Britt.
Katie is younger than Shelby, Hill and Sparkman were when they arrived in the U.S. Senate. She will have the distinction of being the first female elected to the Senate from Alabama as well as the first female Republican Senator from the Heart of Dixie.
There are several adages in politics that definitely apply to Katie’s overwhelming landslide victory. First of all, you do not ever want to get into a race where you are going to be outworked and outspent. She checked both boxes. She outspent her opponents significantly. Shelby made sure of that. Money is the mother’s milk of politics. More importantly, she worked this state like nobody’s business. She campaigned thoroughly in all 67 counties several times. It would be safe to say she outworked Mo Brooks and Mike Durant combined three to one. Katie built a statewide grassroots organization and it paid off with her carrying 66 of our 67 counties. She started early and stayed late.
Winning the GOP Primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama is tantamount to election. However, Katie Boyd Britt will take nothing for granted. She will run hard and outwork her Democratic opponent, Will Boyd, and will prevail as expected in November.
The last minute Trump endorsement had no effect on behalf of Katie Boyd Britt. She was leading in all polls by 20 points with momentum and money on her side. She was going to win, overwhelmingly, on her own. It helped Trump a lot more than it did Katie. All he did was see a candidate who was going to win and jumped on the train. Thus, Trump used the old sayings, “I bet on a sure thing,” and “find a parade and act like you are leading it.” Katie knew Trump’s endorsement was not necessary. However, she graciously and quietly accepted and continued unabated to an impressive victory, which she earned on her own merits.
Katie Boyd Britt will hit the ground running when she takes office as our first female elected Senator in January. She could be in the Senate for 40 to 50 years and will become one of Alabama’s greatest U.S. Senators.
See you next week.
June 29, 2022 - Bill Baxley
The 1970 Governor’s Race between George Wallace and Albert Brewer overshadowed every other political race in the state that year. However, one of Alabama’s legendary political figures burst on the scene in 1970, when Bill Baxley was elected Attorney General of Alabama. The Attorney General’s race was below the radar screen of the titanic war waged by Brewer and Wallace.
Bill Baxley’s victory was a major upset. Baxley was a 28-year-old district attorney from the Wiregrass. He beat a veteran Attorney General MacDonald Gallion in a close race. Baxley became the youngest Attorney General in the nation when he was sworn in at the January Inauguration. He had just turned 29. His historic rise at such a young age made him fodder for national publications like Time Magazine, who featured him as one of the brightest rising stars in the nation. His brilliance gave new meaning to the word prodigy.
It was not immediately apparent to the voters of Alabama that they had elected a true progressive liberal as their Attorney General. They soon did when Baxley began aggressively attacking the Big Mules in Birmingham and throughout the state and consistently fought for the downtrodden in the state. He sued every Big Mule in sight, including U.S. Steel, for pollution and other environmental concerns during his 20-year career in state politics. Baxley never deviated or backed down from his progressive Democratic ideology, even when it might have been politically expedient to do so. He could not be bought. He was his own man and a true Alabama political statesman.
When Baxley won the 1970 Attorney General’s race over MacDonald Gallion, he openly and unashamedly courted liberals, labor and blacks to win the race. He did not do it for expediency, but because his heart was in it. Baxley was a true progressive Southern Democrat. He openly courted, embraced and built an overt friendship with labor leaders and black leaders such as Joe Reed.
Baxley was certainly a contrast to our race-baiting Governor George Wallace. Ironically, Wallace loved Baxley. Deep down Wallace was a hardcore, progressive who had lived through the Depression. He cut his teeth as a New Deal Democrat. Baxley forged a political career with epic historical milestones in Alabama politics. He was elected Attorney General in 1970 and again in 1974. He ran second for Governor in 1978 when Fob James came out of the blue to upset the “Three B’s” – Bill Baxley, Albert Brewer, and Jere Beasley in the governor’s race.
Bill Baxley came back in 1982 and was elected Lt. Governor. He served closely with George Wallace, who was serving his fourth and final term as Governor. They had a special friendship and spoke on the phone constantly. I think Wallace admired Baxley for being true to his principles. He also respected Baxley’s understanding of some of the golden rules of politics and that is “your word is your bond” and also “you dance with the ones who brung you.”
Bill Baxley was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1986. He was upset by Guy Hunt, who became the first Republican governor since Reconstruction that year. Bill Baxley left politics after that race and did what he really loved. He became one of the most prominent trial lawyers in Alabama. He loves the practice of law. He was born for it. For the last 36 years, he has been one of Alabama’s top lawyers and probably one of the most expensive. Baxley now resides in Birmingham and takes prominent cases all over the state.
Baxley was born and raised in Dothan. His daddy, Keener Baxley, was a well-respected Circuit Judge in Dothan. The Baxley’s were a prominent family and among the earliest settlers of Houston County. Young Bill Baxley grew up loving the law, politics and baseball. He grew up in his Daddy’s courtroom in Dothan and learned to love the law. There was never any doubt in his mind that he would be a lawyer by profession because he probably was not going to be a major league baseball player, which was every young boy’s dream at that time.
He was always brilliant, academically, and was gifted with a photographic memory. He skipped a grade in school and finished high school at age 15. He entered the University of Alabama at age 16. He graduated from college at age 19 and the University of Alabama Law School at age 22. After law school, he returned to Dothan to practice law. He was elected District Attorney for Houston and Henry Counties at the ripe old age of 25. Three years later he was elected Attorney General of Alabama. The rest is history.
Bill Baxley has a place in Alabama history. It is hard to believe that young Bill Baxley turns 81 this month.
See you next week.
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.