November 17, 2021 - Governor John Patterson’s First Lesson
Governor John Patterson, who passed away earlier this year at 99, shared a funny story that occurred during the opening days of his administration.
He entered the Governor’s office in January 1959 as the clean government, strict law enforcement governor. He followed Big Jim Folsom’s second administration, which had been less than perfect when it came to favoritism, nepotism and corruption. Patterson was determined to run a clean ship.
His first day as governor he called his cabinet in for a pep talk and told them to run their departments aboveboard and free of any semblance of favoritism. He dismissed them and told them to get to work running the state. He turned to his new public safety director, Floyd Mann, and asked him to stay behind. Floyd Mann was a well-respected man in Alabama politics. He had been chief of police in Opelika prior to Patterson appointing him head of the highway patrol. Mann and Patterson were lifelong friends. They had grown up and gone to school together in Tallapoosa County.
Patterson looked at his friend and said, “Floyd, under no circumstances are we going to fix any tickets during my administration. Do you understand?”
Mann went on his way to his first day as public safety director and supervisor of the highway patrol. That was about 11:00 a.m. About 2:30 in the afternoon the new governor got a message that he had had a call from senior U.S. Senator Lister Hill. Within 30 minutes he had a message that Senator John Sparkman had called as well as Congressmen George Andrews and Frank Boykin. He assumed that all our distinguished congressional delegates were calling to wish him well on his first day as governor.
When he called these four, very powerful, Washington solons back, he learned that an equally powerful congressman from Missouri had been detained and indeed arrested in south Alabama. The congressman had been vacationing in Florida with his family and had been driving back to Missouri when he was caught speeding in Conecuh County. At that time, an out-of-state driver could not sign his own bond in Alabama, so the good congressman had been detained for more than three hours with his family waiting to locate a justice of the peace. The congressman was upset, to say the least. Hill and Sparkman were somewhat tactful with the new governor. They simply suggested that the speeder was a powerful and important member of Congress and that it would be helpful to them if Patterson could help their colleague get back on his way home to Missouri. Frank Boykin was more direct. He informed Patterson that this congressman chaired the committee that oversaw all the appropriations for waterways. He further explained that he and Senators Hill and Sparkman had been working diligently for years to get funding for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and the project was pending in this congressman’s committee at this time.
Governor Patterson called Colonel Mann and said, “Floyd can you come over here a minute?” When Mann arrived in the governor’s office Patterson told his buddy, “You know, Floyd, when I told you this morning not to fix any tickets? Well, we’ve had a change in policy.” The no ticket fixing policy of the Patterson Administration lasted four hours.
Mann dispatched a trooper to not only release the congressman but to give him a trooper escort out of the state.
Governor Patterson learned a lesson from that experience – never say never. He also should be given some credit for obtaining funding for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
A similar story was told to me by former congressman, Governor Ivey’s Chief of Staff, and recently crowned Chancellor of University of South Alabama, Jo Bonner. He was a new congressman from Mobile-Baldwin. The district has had some illustrious congressmen, including Frank Boykin, Jack Edwards, Sonny Callahan, and Jo Bonner. Edwards, Callahan and Bonner were all good friends and they were headed to the famous annual Frank Boykin gathering in Washington County. It fell to the new congressman, Bonner, to drive. As they were heading back to Mobile, Bonner noticed a blue light in the rearview mirror. Callahan had already told Bonner he was driving too fast.
A deputy sheriff pulled them over and looked in the window and before he asked for Bonner’s driver’s license, he saw Sonny in the backseat and asked, “Sir, aren’t you Congressman Callahan?” Then looked next to Callahan and asked, “Aren’t you Congressman Edwards?” Callahan and Edwards assured the deputy that he was correct. Then they proceeded to tell the deputy that the driver and third member of this trio was a congressman and new one and that the deputy should give him a ticket.
See you next week.
November 10, 2021 - Judge Bobby Aderholt
Alabama has a legacy of great men who have served as judges in our state. Recently, revered, retired, Circuit Judge Bobby Ray Aderholt of Haleyville passed away at 85.
He served the public for more than 50 years. As a judge, he presided over each case with integrity and impartiality. He was the Circuit Judge for the 25th Judicial Circuit for 30-years, 1977-2007. He was first elected Circuit Judge in 1976. He would have continued serving the people of Winston and Marion counties if it were not for an antiquated law in Alabama that judges cannot not run for office after age 70.
When Judge Aderholt first ran in 1976, he bucked a Democratic tidal wave in the state and was the only Republican elected in North Alabama that year. Our state had been overwhelmingly Democratic from the 1870’s through 1964 because of the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, there was one area of the state that never bought into the Southern Secession from the Union. The folks in Northwest Alabama did not own slaves and figured they did not need to fight a war over slavery for the rich planters of the Black Belt. Therefore, when Alabama seceded from the Union, Winston County seceded from Alabama. Thus, Winston County became the Free State of Winston. During the 1884 to 1964, 80-year period, every statewide elected official in Alabama was a Democrat and also every local and legislative officeholder ran as a Democrat with the exception of one county – Winston had Republican officeholders.
In fact, legendary U.S. Federal Judge, Frank Johnson, Jr. was a Republican from Winston County. When a federal judgeship came open in the Middle District of Alabama in the early 1950’s, President Dwight Eisenhower had a hard time finding a Republican to appoint. He chose young Frank Johnson, Jr.
The Republican party broke the ice in 1964. Alabama voted straight Republican for Barry Goldwater and the wave carried five Republican congressmen with him. Alabama had become a red Republican state. However, we still elected Democrats to local offices like legislator and circuit judge. 1976 was a blip with Jimmy Carter carrying Alabama and the Deep South due to the post-Watergate fallout.
Judge Bobby Aderholt was always a Republican, so he ran as a Republican that year and won. He was on an island with no other Republican winning in North Alabama. He became a pioneer in the Alabama Republican Party and one of the most respected judges in the state. He was known as fair, fiercely independent and not beholden to anyone. He had a brilliant legal mind but most importantly he always had compassion for all individuals and treated everyone in his courtroom with dignity and respect. In conjunction with his judicial duties, he performed countless weddings and funerals in his beloved neck of the woods.
Judge Aderholt was born in December of 1935 and grew up in Winston County. He went to undergraduate school at Birmingham Southern and went to Law School at the University of Alabama. He matriculated back home to Haleyville where he had graduated high school in 1954. He spent his life in Haleyville. He was a dedicated member of the First Baptist Church of Haleyville. However, he pastored Fairview Congregational Church in Hackleburg for 47 years.
Judge Bobby Aderholt was a dedicated family man. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Frances Brown Aderholt, who was his childhood sweetheart.
Judge Aderholt is the father of our senior congressman Robert Aderholt. Robert is the only child of Judge and Mrs. Mary Frances Aderholt. They raised a good one. Robert was elected to Congress in 1996 at the ripe old age of 31. He is in his 25th year of representing the 4th Congressional District of Alabama and is the Dean of our congressional delegation.
Robert and his wife, Caroline McDonald Aderholt, have two children, Mary Elliott and Robert Hayes.
Judge Bobby Aderholt was a good man. We will all miss him. I will miss him as a reader of my column. He read it every week, religiously in the Marion County Journal Record and the Northwest Alabamian.
See you next week.
November 3, 2021 - Jim Preuitt
Jim Preuitt, a legendary House member, State Senator, and Probate Judge of Talladega County passed away in September at age 86. Jim was one of my best legislative buddies. We came to the legislature together in 1982 and became fast friends. We became seat mates in the House, and we were inseparable during our entire first four-year term (1982 -1986).
Our friendship was forged by our relationship with Gov. George Wallace. The legendary governor was in his last term. Wallace let it be known that Jim and I were his favorite first-year legislators. Jim was a successful car dealer in Talladega and had been a big supporter of Wallace in all of his previous campaigns for governor.
I first met Wallace when I was a young teenage Page in the legislature. Ironically, 20 years later, I was Wallace’s representative because I had his home county of Barbour in my district, which placed me in a select category with Wallace, similar to Jim.
Wallace let it be known that Jim Preuitt and I were going to receive deferential treatment. The governor controlled the legislature and even chose the speaker, as well as deciding who served on which committees. Prior to the 1983 organizational session, rumors swirled around Capitol Hill that Wallace had two favorite freshmen legislators. When the committee assignments were released, the rumors were founded. Jim and I were the only freshmen assigned to the powerful Rules Committee. When the House seating arrangements were revealed, we were seated beside each other in prime spots on the floor. We bonded.
Jim and I became allies of Alabama Farmers Federation (Alfa). We would go to supper every night with Milton Parsons, the veteran chief lobbyist for Alfa. We would usually dine at the politically famous Elite Restaurant. Jim smoked a pipe. I love the smell of quality tobacco pipe smoke. He would smoke it all day at his desk then also at the Elite. He was a quiet, dignified, gentleman, who chose his words carefully. He exuded quality and class. Even though he had humble roots, he had the demeanor of someone born into royalty.
Jim Preuitt was born in July 1935 near Moulton in Lawrence County. He was the oldest of seven sons. His father was a sharecropper. Jim was determined to have a better life. Like Bear Bryant, the son of a sharecropper in Moro Bottom Fordyce, Arkansas, would say when asked why he worked so hard to succeed, “I did not want to spend my life plowing someone else’s land behind an old mule.”
As a teenager, Jim met the love of his life, Rona Jane Millsap, on a school bus. They were married soon thereafter. She was truly his love and his best friend. Jim and Rona had been married 66 years when he passed away in September. He was successful as a businessman and politician. However, his greatest and most satisfying aspect of his life was as a family man. He had two beautiful daughters, Lynne Stanford and Leigh Leak. Jim adored his grandchildren.
In 1968, at the age of 33, Jim acquired his first car dealership. The dealership was in Talladega. Jim packed up Rona and his two young daughters and moved to Talladega where he lived the rest of his 50 years on earth. He was one of the most successful businessmen in Talladega County.
If we were in Session in October, I would look over at Jim and kiddingly say to him, “Well, the Special Education Fund is okay now, you have paid your Income and Property taxes.”
Jim served only that one term in the House (1982-1986). He was then elected to the State Senate in 1986 and quickly became a leader in the upper chamber. After eight years in the Senate, he left to run successfully for Probate Judge in 1992. He served his entire 6-year term in this mundane, mostly administrative post then returned to the Senate in 1998, where he became an even more powerful Senator.
Jim was a force in the Senate. He chaired the Senate Rules Committee. If Jim gave you his word, you could take it to the bank. His word was his bond. Jim served 30 years in the legislature.
As I am writing this in my office, I am looking at a picture of Jim and me standing together, arms embraced in the halls of the legislature taken a few years ago. It is front and center on a wall of pictures of past and present Alabama political legends. I will miss my old friend.
See you next week.
October 27, 2021 - Redistricting Session Underway
Every 10 years the nation has a census count. There is a reason for that dissemination of our population. The United States and concurrently the Alabama Constitution require a census to determine how many Congressional Seats each state will have. Then you also have to determine how those districts are designed to reflect that each congressional district is properly and equally apportioned.
On the state level the legislative districts have to be dealt with the same way. The state legislature of each state is given the inherent constitutional power to draw the congressional lines as well as their own legislative lines. This is one of the most important and powerful tools granted legislatures throughout the nation.
There is one prevailing immovable constitutional provision that legislatures have to make paramount – every district must be equal in population. The one man one vote constitutional mandate must be adhered to because after all that is the reason for the census in the first place. Our legislature is poised to tackle the much-anticipated reapportionment issue in the current special session.
The states are late dealing with redistricting because of an inexplicable delay from the U.S. Census Bureau, probably COVID related. The final numbers were just released about a month ago. They are usually available in January, soon after the census count ends.
The Census Bureau is now a large U.S. governmental department which makes and releases census projections throughout the 10-year span of drawing new districts. Their projections are fairly accurate.
We in Alabama were very concerned that we would lose a congressional seat from projections beginning five years ago. The actual figures gave us a reprieve. Alabama learned that our population grew by over five million. Therefore, we will keep our seven seats in Congress. We saved the seat by the skin of our teeth. We were right on the cusp. Many of you will be glad to know that the seat we saved was lost by New York.
This tells me that the Census Bureau figures are unbiased nor affected by politics. If they were, they would have showed the count to give the seat to New York. If given to New York, it would be a blue democratic seat, in Alabama it will be a red republican seat.
However, when it comes to drawing the actual congressional and legislative lines, it is all political and the Courts have consistently said it is a political issue. Those that have the pen can draw the lines they want, as long as they are equal in population. For that reason, the Republican Party has placed a priority on controlling the state legislatures around the country. That is a wise political move given that the legislatures control their own and more importantly the congressional districts in the nation’s capital.
Like most legislation, the real work and decision making is done in Committee. Therefore, the redistricting lines are being designed in a large part by members of the Reapportionment Committee. In fact, the members of this committee have been working on the lines the entire quadrennium. It is a plum and powerful, although tedious assignment. The Chairmen of the committees are Senator Jim McClendon (R-St. Clair) and Representative Chris Pringle (R-Mobile). The upcoming session will result in new lines for Alabama’s seven congressional districts, 105 House districts, 35 Senate districts, and eight State Board of Education districts.
Since it is a political process, you will see the Alabama Republican super majority House and Senate remain a super two-to-one Republican majority. In fact, it will be difficult to not add more Republican districts because the population growth has been in the Republican enclaves of our fastest growing counties. The growth counties of Baldwin, Madison, Lee, Shelby and Limestone may indeed get new seats in the legislature.
Currently there are 77 Republicans in the House and only 28 Democrats. In the Senate the numbers are even more amazingly favorable to Republicans. There are 27 Republicans and only 8 Democrats. These super majority numbers could be easily drawn to add three more House seats and one more Republican Senate seat. However, they are reluctant to add more Republican seats because the U.S. Justice Department looks leerily at regressing in the number of majority – minority districts.
It will be an interesting political process. It only happens every 10 years.
We will keep you posted.
October 20, 2021 - Defense Spending Important for Alabama
During the Great Depression and coming out of World War II, the deep south had immense power in Washington. We were fortunate to have a cadre of southern senators, who were seniority laden and knew how to bring home the bacon. This group of deep south southern democrats controlled most of the prominent and consequential major committees in the United States Senate.
In that era, all the jobs in the United States Capitol, as well as our state capitol, were patronage jobs or really could be called political jobs. Every clerk, stenographer, research analyst, secretary and even elevator attendants were granted their jobs based on who you knew, not what you knew. Most people in Washington were working there because they were southerners who had connections to our southern senators. If you got in an elevator in the nation’s capital, you often-times would hear southern accents. That is not true now, today you would hear a foreign accent or foreign language.
Our southern senior senators knew how to bring home the bacon like nobody’s business. The roll call included Stennis and Eastland from Mississippi, the southern lion Richard Russell from Georgia, Strom Thurmond from South Carolina, Russell Long from Louisiana, and last but not least our, our dynamic duo of distinguished, erudite powers, Lister Hill and John Sparkman. For this reason, a good many of our nation’s military bases are in the south.
Ft. Benning in Georgia is there because of Richard Russell, and probably its location on Alabama’s eastern border of Columbus/Phenix City is no accident. Russell was granting deference to Hill and Sparkman, who really did not need any help. Eastland and Stennis did pretty well for Mississippi’s Gulf Coast when it comes to military and ship building facilities. Eglin and Tyndall Air Force Bases in the Florida panhandle are there thanks to one Bob Sikes “The He-Coon.”
However, no state has benefitted more from military defense related locations than us in the good ole Heart of Dixie, thanks in large part to Lister Hill and John Sparkman. If you took the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, the Maxwell/Gunter Air Bases in Montgomery and Ft. Rucker in the Wiregrass out of Alabama, we would be more than wiped out.
Our senior senator, Richard Shelby, has been the salvation for sustaining and saving our sacred military facilities. Shelby has not only been Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, but he also retained the Chairmanship of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee. He has made the difference for Redstone, Maxwell and Rucker for the last decade. Folks, Shelby is retiring at the end of next year and Alabama is going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
I am here to tell you that national defense spending is very important to Alabama, but more importantly, it is vitally important to our nation’s security and future. Senator Shelby is sounding the alarm as the senate is crafting the next fiscal year’s budget. He is saying you cannot adhere to the Biden Democratic calls to cut defense spending.
The national defense strategy provides a roadmap for our Department of Defense. The Democrats efforts to undermine the importance of strategic, long-term defense readiness plays into the hands our competitors China and Russia. The Democratic Biden Administration budget proposal would allow Russia and China to overmatch our investments in readiness, state of the art equipment, and technology.
China seeks hegemony militarily, technologically, financially and is making unprecedented investments to see that come to fruition. Russia is also quietly building a massive military modernization program that saw its defense spending increase 30% over the last 10 years. We must outpace Russia and China in defense spending. Our state, and more importantly our nation, must adhere to Senator Shelby’s admonition that we as a nation cannot afford to cut military spending as President Biden and liberal Democratic Senators in Washington are advocating.
The two things that our country still does best and indeed the two most important things we need to do best are having the most superior military in the world and the ability to grow our own food and fiber. Military and Agriculture are America’s salvation and, by the way, defense dollars and agriculture are Alabama’s salvation.
We as Alabamians can and should look closely as to who can and will work the hardest to protect defense and agriculture when we vote for the person to succeed Senator Richard Shelby in Washington in the U.S. Senate. That person would not be Mo Brooks.
See you next week.
October 13, 2021 - Seniority vs. Senility
Our senior senator, Richard Shelby, will be remembered as Alabama’s most prominent senator when he retires next December. Folks, that’s saying a lot because we have had a host of prominent men serve Alabama in the United States Senate, such as giants like Lister Hill, John Sparkman and John Bankhead. However, history will record that none of these above senators brought the federal dollars back home to Alabama that Shelby has procured.
Seniority is omnipotent in Washington. It is everything, and Senator Shelby has it. He is in his 35th year in the U.S. Senate. He has already broken Senator Sparkman’s 32-year record of longevity in Alabama history and at the end of his term next year he will have served a record 36 years in the Senate. In addition, Shelby was the U.S. Congressman for the old 7th Congressional district for eight years.
Shelby has not only been the most prolific funneler of federal dollars to Alabama in our state’s history, but he could also be considered one of the most profound movers and shakers of federal funds to their state in American history. His only rival was the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Senator Byrd, who was in his ninth term as a senator when he died at 92, funneled an estimated $10 billion to his constituents during his 51 years in the Senate.
The obvious question asked by observers of Washington politics is, “Are some of our most powerful senators too old to function cognitively?” I can attest to you that I know Senator Richard Shelby personally and he is the most cognitively alert and healthy 87-year-old man I have ever seen. He works out daily and has the memory of an elephant. In fact, his mental and cognitive abilities are similar to someone 30 years his junior. He very well could run and serve another 6-year term. However, he will be 88 at the end of his term.
Shelby is one of five octogenarians serving in the Senate. California’s Dianne Feinstein is the oldest sitting senator at 88. She is followed by Iowa’s Charles “Chuck” Grassley who turns 88 next month. Shelby is the third at 87. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont are 81. By the way, Grassley and Leahy are Shelby’s closest allies in the Senate.
The question becomes, “How old is too old to be a U.S. senator?” According to the Congressional Research Service, the average age of senators at the beginning of this year is 64-years. At some point voters have to weigh, “Is my senator too old to perform the duties of the office or does the weight and power of their seniority and the benefit of their influence to the state outweigh their energy and cognizance?” Voters tend to go with experience and seniority over youth.
Senator Feinstein has been the most widely discussed current senator for decline in health. Liberals believe she was too conciliatory during Supreme Court nominee Amy Comey Barrett’s confirmation hearing. There is a pervasive whispering campaign about Feinstein’s alleged cognitive decline and the Democratic senior leadership has indeed quietly removed her as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It was common knowledge and apparent that Senator Shelby’s predecessor as Chairman of Appropriations, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, was not very cognitive in his last years in the Senate although he was younger, chronically. The most notable example of possibly staying too long is probably the story of legendary Senator Strom Thurman of South Carolina. In 2003 Strom Thurman retired at the age of 100 after 48 years in the Senate. It was no secret that his staff did everything for him during his last six-year-term.
Our founding fathers created a minimum age for serving in the U.S. House or Senate but did not address a maximum. The owner of Grub’s Pharmacy used by many on Capitol Hill in Washington raised eyebrows in 2017 when he revealed he routinely sent Alzheimer’s medication to Capitol Hill. There are continuing attempts to pass a Constitutional Amendment to limit terms of Congressmen and Senators. Republicans run on the issue of term limits. It was part of their contract with America Agenda in 1994.
Alabamians need to consider being for term limits in 2022, because it comes down to the old adage of whose ox is being gourd. We in Alabama are going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle after Shelby. He is our power in Washington. We need to all jump on the term limit bandwagon beginning next year.
See you next week.
October 6, 2021 - Prison Issue Tackled, New Prisons on the Way
The problem of overcrowded prisons is a dilemma that has been facing Alabama for close to a decade. It was not something that Kay Ivey created. She simply inherited the situation and the chickens have some home to roost during her tenure. To her credit, she did not hide from the issue. She has tackled it head on and with gusto and resolve. She and the legislature were and are under the gun because the U.S. Justice Department is breathing down their necks to resolve the inequities and unconstitutional conditions in our prisons.
When you get into a scenario where the Justice Department adamantly demands some concrete resolutions, you have to act. Otherwise, they will take over the state’s prison system, mandate the resolutions, and hand you the bill. Just ask California. The Justice Department is not only building new prisons at the Golden State’s expense, but also releasing a good many of their prisoners. The bottom line is if the Justice Department will mandate and take over the California Prison System, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will do the same to Alabama.
We have been down this path before. Years ago, in the 1960s during all the segregation and civil rights wars raging in the Heart of Dixie the federal courts took over Alabama’s prison system. Governor George Wallace and Justice Frank Johnson were law school classmates and friends. Johnson was married to his lovely wife, Ruth Jenkins while in law school. Ruth was an excellent cook, and they would have George over for dinner. Their friendship ended when they clashed over civil rights and integration. Johnson handed down most of the rulings that integrated schools and other institutions throughout the state, while Wallace lambasted Johnson daily as a scalawaging, carpet bagging, integrating liberal.
Wallace won the demagogic battle and rode it to being governor for eternity. However, Johnson and the federal courts won the war. Judge Johnson took over the state prisons and the bill was so costly that it took the State of Alabama 25 years to dig out of the financial hole.
Kay Ivey is old enough to remember this disastrous solution for Alabama. That is probably why she took the bull by the horns and declared boldly in her State of the State address over two years ago that this is an Alabama problem and we need to find an Alabama solution.
Governor Kay Ivey and probably more importantly the state legislature has worked to resolve this imminent and pressing problem. This current Special Session called by Governor Ivey to address the need for new prisons will more than likely resolve the issue for at least the next 25 to 30 years.
The legislative leadership and governor have worked prudently and harmoniously to implement a solution to this prison overcrowding issue. This joint success follows months of negotiations between Ivey and legislative leaders in determining the scope and scale of the project. The two General Fund Budget Chairmen, Representative Steve Clouse and Senator Greg Albritton, deserve a lot of credit and accolades for orchestrating the pieces of the puzzle. Ivey and legislators knew that the gravity of the situation required the governor calling a Special Session.
The solution will be to build two new men’s prisons with at least 4,000 beds, one in Elmore County and one in Escambia County, in addition to a new 1,000 bed women’s correctional facility in Elmore County. The new Elmore men’s facility will provide enhanced medical and mental health, substance abuse and educational programming as suggested by the Justice Department.
The two new men’s prisons will cost an estimated $1.2 billion and the women’s prison and renovations of existing prisons will cost between $600 to $700 million. The prisons will be paid for by a $785 million bond issue. The salvation for the plan was the state receiving $400 million from the federal American Recovery Plan ACT (“ARPA”), which was like manna from heaven.
The heroes for their area and constituents were Senator Greg Albritton of Escambia and Senator Clyde Chambliss of Elmore, who won the new prisons for their people. These prisons are an economic bonanza for Elmore and Escambia. Chambliss got two.
Hopefully, this will resolve this issue for at least a few decades. We will see.
See you next week.
September 29, 2021 - We Now Have a Very Youthful Federal Judiciary in Alabama
Our senior senator, Richard Shelby, has left an indelible legacy and imprint on our state. Every corner of the state has been the recipient of his prowess at bringing home the bacon to the Heart of Dixie. Every university has enjoyed a largesse of federal dollars. He has made the Huntsville Redstone Arsenal one of the most renowned high technology regions in the nation, not to mention placing the FBI’s second home in Huntsville.
Shelby’s accomplishments for Alabama would take a book to enumerate. However, what is not universally known is that Senator Richard Shelby has transformed the federal judiciary in Alabama for years to come.
During the entire eight-year presidency of Barack Obama, by nature we had some attrition in our federal judiciary in all three regions, Northern, Middle and Southern Districts. Even though President Obama sought to appoint Democratic judges throughout the state, Senator Shelby and Senator Jeff Sessions thwarted all Democratic appointees and held these cherished and powerful judgeships vacant.
Shelby and Sessions were hopeful that one day there would be a Republican president coupled with a Republican senate majority and they would be able to appoint Republican jurists to the federal bench in Alabama. That happened when Trump became president. Senator Sessions had parted with his senate seat to become attorney general, so that left Senator Shelby to select and get confirmed a host of new, young federal judges in Alabama.
Shelby assigned his loyal and brilliant Chief of Staff, Katie Boyd Britt, the job of vetting potential federal judgeships. She and Shelby chose an outstanding cadre of young, well-educated, extremely qualified, moderately conservative men and women to sit on the federal bench in Alabama. This group is stellar and will be the majority of federal judges for the next 25 to 30 years. This coup of appointing young, conservative, extremely capable judges to the federal bench in Alabama may be one of Senator Richard Shelby’s greatest legacies.
Shelby had Andrew Brasher first appointed to the Middle District of Alabama. However, soon thereafter an opening occurred on the Eleventh Circuit and so Shelby had President Trump appoint Brasher to the higher appeals court. Prior to Brasher’s appointment to the Middle District, he practiced law with Bradley Arant in Birmingham. He was solicitor general and a law clerk for Judge Bill Pryor. Judge Brasher is a graduate of Samford University and Harvard Law School.
Senator Shelby had President Trump appoint Anna Manasco as a federal judge in the Northern District of Alabama. Judge Manasco, like Judge Brasher, practiced law in Birmingham with Bradley Arant prior to her federal appointment. She graduated with honors from Emory University, prior to earning her law degree from Yale Law School.
Shelby aligned with President Trump to appoint Corey Maze for a seat on the federal bench in the Northern District. Judge Maze was a prosecutor for the State of Alabama Attorney General’s office. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Auburn University and a graduate of Georgetown Law.
Senator Shelby had President Trump appoint Liles Burke to a federal judgeship in the Northern District. Burke was an Associate Judge of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals prior to his federal appointment. He obtained his undergraduate and law degree from the University of Alabama.
Annemarie Axon is another Trump and Shelby anointed appointee for the Northern District of Alabama. Judge Axon practiced law in Birmingham prior to her appointment. She, like all of the other Northern District appointees, is extremely well qualified. Axon also obtained her undergraduate and law degree from the University of Alabama.
Austin Huffaker, Jr. of Montgomery was chosen by Shelby and Trump for a federal judgeship in the Middle District. He practiced law in Montgomery prior to his appointment. He has an engineering degree from Vanderbilt and earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law.
Also appointed by Shelby and Trump to the Middle District is Emily Marks of Montgomery. Judge Marks practiced law in Montgomery prior to her appointment. She is a graduate of Spring Hill College in Mobile and the University of Alabama School of Law.
Jeffrey Beaverstock was appointed to a federal judgeship in the Southern District. He practiced law in Mobile and is a graduate of the Citadel and the University of Alabama School of Law.
Terry Moorer was appointed by President Trump and confirmed by the senate for the Southern District. He was previously an assistant U.S. Attorney and is a graduate of Huntington College and the University of Alabama School of Law.
This host of federal jurists in Alabama will be one of Senator Richard Shelby’s lasting legacies.
See you next week.
September 22, 2021 - Huntsville is Alabama’s Largest City
Huntsville has rocketed past Birmingham as Alabama’s largest city. It is not named the Rocket City for nothing. The Census Bureau had been predicting this amazing boom in population in the Madison (Huntsville)/Limestone area, but the actual figures recently released reveal a bigger growth than expected. Huntsville grew by 20% or 35,000 people and is now a little over 215,000.
On the other hand, Birmingham shrank by 12,000 or 5% to 201,000 people. Montgomery held its own and Montgomery and Birmingham are actually in a virtual tie for second at around 200,000. Mobile shrank to 187,000 and is now the smallest of the “big four” cities in the state.
Our big four cities of Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile are all led by sterling mayors. Birmingham’s mayor, Randall Woodfin, and Mobile’s mayor, Sandy Stimpson, both won overwhelming reelection victories in late August elections.
Mayor Randall Woodfin won a very impressive reelection landslide victory on August 24. Woodfin garnered an amazing 65% of the vote against seven opponents. He won his first race for mayor four years ago, the old-fashioned way. He went door-to-door and knocked on an estimated 50,000 doors. He followed up this year by running one of the most picture-perfect campaigns in modern times. He again had a stellar grassroots campaign with a host of volunteers that knocked on an estimated 80,000 doors.
Mayor Woodfin and his team are brilliantly adapting to the modern politics of using social media, yet he adroitly employs the old-school politics of mainstream television, traditional media, and getting out the vote. The initial polling on the mayoral race indicated that Woodfin could probably win reelection without a runoff, but nobody saw the 65% final result figure. I am convinced that the ad firm that designed his televisions ads garnered him a 12% boost from 53% to 65% with an ad using his mother. The ad featured Mama Woodfin asking her friends and neighbors in Birmingham to vote for her boy. She was a superstar.
Mobile mayor, Sandy Stimpson, also won an impressive 63% reelection victory on August 24. He was elected to his third term. Stimpson is a successful businessman from an old silk stocking Mobile family. He is doing the job as a civic duty. Mobilians must think he is doing a good job. Stimpson ran a positive campaign and spent a lot of money. Stimpson will be entering his third four-year term as mayor of the Port City. On election night, he indicated that this may be his last hurrah noting that he will be 73 in 2025 and may be ready to hand over the reins.
Huntsville’s mayor, Tommy Battle, won an impressive reelection last year. Montgomery mayor, Steven Reed, also won a very impressive first term election in 2020. The mayors of our four major cities are indeed popular.
There is another dynamic developing in our state. The Morehouse College Degree and experience has become the standard of success among the new African American leaders in the state. It seems that this traditional historic college in Atlanta is where our elite leaders are spawned.
The leadership of Montgomery are all products of this proud institution of higher learning. It is truly a powerfully bonded fraternity. Mayor Steven Reed, State Senator Kirk Hatcher, Probate Judge J.C. Love, and Circuit Judge Greg Griffin all have the same pedigree. They all were born and raised in the Capitol City, went off to Morehouse for their education and national political networking, then came home to lead their city and Montgomery County.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is a Morehouse man. In his first race his Morehouse friends and fraternity brothers from throughout the country, many of whom are professionals, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen came to the Magic City to campaign and knock-on doors for Woodfin. There was a room full of Morehouse men at Woodfin’s victory celebration on August 24 as he won his second term.
By the same token, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson are products of the old school, 100-year-old University of Alabama fraternity called “The Machine.” Battle was a member of Kappa Sigma and Stimpson was a Delta Kappa Epsilon.
In closing even though Huntsville is the largest city, folks in the Rocket City should not get too big of a head. The Birmingham/Hoover metro area is still by far the largest metropolitan area of the state by a 2-to-1 margin.
See you next week.
September 15, 2021 - Census Results – Revealing
Well folks, the final census figures are in from last year’s 2020 nose count. The census is taken every 10 years to determine the lines and boundaries of congressional and legislative districts. However, the census reveals a lot more information about us as a state and nation than just how many of us there are. It paints a picture of who we are as people and what we look like.
The most recent census unveils an America much different than those of us who were born in the 1950’s and are referred to as the “Baby Boomer” generation. We are one diverse country. Indeed, we are a true melting pot. The United States is now less than 60% white/Caucasian – 57% to be exact. The black/African American population has basically remained the same at about 12% of the population. The most remarkable figure is that 20% of our population identifies as Hispanic. The Asian population has doubled over the 10 years from 3% to 6% percent. It is a new America.
What do these numbers portend and what is the story for Alabama? First of all, we did an amazing job on our count. The Census Bureau has remarked that Alabama was one of the five best states in America when it came to counting our people. We actually came up with 103,000 more people than what was projected. Gov. Kay Ivey’s efforts deserve some credit for this success.
The most significant fact in our successful count is that we saved a congressional seat. It had been projected for the last five years that we were going to lose a congressional seat from seven to six in Congress. We will fortunately keep seven. This will make the legislature’s job much, much easier when they meet in about a month to draw the lines.
After the reapportionment session, we will still probably have six Republican congressmen and one Democratic member of Congress. In fact, when the members of the legislature begin drawing the lines, they will begin with that lone Democratic seat of Congresswoman Terri Sewell. She and that district will come first when dividing up people for two reasons. One is that Alabama is still under the eye of the Justice Department by virtue of the 1965 Voting Rights Act whereby we must have at least one majority-minority district. Because the Black Belt region of the state has lost significant population, she will have to take in a larger area. She will probably go all the way from Birmingham to Mobile. She will pick up a large chunk of Tuscaloosa and almost all of Montgomery as well as at least three to five more sparsely populated Black Belt counties on the way between Birmingham and Mobile. As projected, the Black Belt counties lost population and the growth in the state was in fast growing Republican leaning counties such as Baldwin, Shelby, Jefferson, Lee, and especially in the Huntsville / Madison / Limestone area.
The second reason that Congresswoman Sewell will get deference is that she is our only Democratic congressperson. With the U.S. House of Representatives being majority Democratic, as well as the White House, Congresswoman Sewell is our only conduit to the majority party. In addition, she is on a fast leadership track in Congress and sits on the all-important House Ways and Means Committee.
Huntsville’s amazing growth is the remarkable story of the census in Alabama. Huntsville is now Alabama’s largest city. It far surpasses Birmingham. In fact, Birmingham lost 5% of its population. There is essentially a tie between Montgomery and Birmingham as to who is second. Montgomery held its own. Huntsville city grew by 20%. The metro area by over 40%. The Birmingham/Hoover metro area is still by far the largest metropolitan area. The suburban cities of Hoover, Vestavia Hills and Trussville grew substantially. Hoover, itself, grew by 13%.
After the Madison (Huntsville) / Limestone area, the fastest growing county in the state is Baldwin County. While Daphne had significant growth, the darling in the group is Fairhope, which grew by 47%. Lee County and Auburn grew by whopping numbers.
What does this mean politically? These growth counties of Baldwin, Madison, and Lee will see increased Republican representation in the legislature and the Jefferson/Shelby suburbs will hold their own. It will be hard to not increase the super majority Republican control of the Alabama Senate and House of Representatives.
See you next week.