November 11, 2020 - Jim Martin Father of Modern Republican Party in Alabama
Three years ago, Jim Martin passed away in Gadsden at 99 years old. His beloved wife of 60 years, Pat, was by his side. He was a true Christian gentleman. Jim was one of the Fathers of the modern Republican Party in the south.
In 1962, John Kennedy was President. Camelot was in full bloom. The Congress was controlled by Democrats only because the south was solidly Democratic. The southern bloc of senators and congressmen were all Democrats. Because of their enormous seniority, they controlled both houses of Congress.
The issue of Civil Rights was a tempest set to blow off the Capitol dome. Kennedy was under intense pressure to pass major Civil Rights legislation. However, he was up against a stonewall to get it through the powerful bloc of southern senators.
Race was the only issue in the south, especially in Alabama. George Wallace was riding the race issue to the Governor’s office for his first term. The white southern voter was determined to stand firm against integration and was poised to cast their vote for the most ardent segregationists on the ballot.
Our Congressional delegation was Democratic, all eight Congressmen and both Senators. Our tandem of John Sparkman and Lister Hill had a combined 40-years of service.
Lister Hill had gone to the U.S. Senate in 1938. He had served four six-year terms and had become a national celebrity in his 24 years in the Senate. He was up for election for his fifth six-year term. It was expected to be a coronation. Senator Hill was reserved, aristocratic, and almost felt as if he was above campaigning. He was also soft on the race issue. He was a progressive who refused race-bait.
Out of nowhere a handsome, articulate, young Gadsden businessman, Jim Martin, appeared on the scene. Martin was 42, a decorated World War II officer, who fought with Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe. He entered as a private and became an integral part of Patton’s team, rising to the rank of Major. After the war Martin went to work for Amoco Oil and married a Miss Alabama – Pat Huddleston from Clanton. They then settled in Gadsden and he bought an oil distributorship and became successful in business. He was a business Republican and became active in the State Chamber of Commerce. When the State Chamber Board went to Washington to visit the Congressional delegation, they were treated rudely by our Democratic delegates, who were still voting their progressive New Deal, pro union philosophy.
Martin left Washington and decided that Alabama at least needed a two-party system and that he would be the sacrificial lamb to take on the venerable Lister Hill as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Martin got the nomination in a convention and the David vs. Goliath race was on. By late summer the big city newspapers could feel that Martin had some momentum. He was being perceived as the conservative and Hill as the liberal.
Every Alabama courthouse was Democratic, all sheriffs, Probate Judges, as well as all statewide elected officials. It was hard to imagine that the tradition of voting Democratic would change, but the winds of segregation were strong. When the votes were counted in November of 1962, Martin had pulled off the biggest upset in the nation. NBC’s team of Huntley and Brinkley reported the phenomenon on the nightly news. Republican President Eisenhower called Martin to congratulate him. However, things were happening in rural North Alabama. Martin had won by 6,000 votes but three days later, mysterious boxes appeared with just enough votes to give Hill the belated victory. The entire country and most Alabamians knew that Jim Martin had been counted out.
Jim Martin would have been the first Republican Senator from the south in a century. Some people speculate that he would have been the vice-presidential candidate with Richard Nixon in 1968. Regardless, Martin was the John the Baptist of the Southern Republican sweep of 1964, and father of the modern Republican Party in Alabama.
That 1962 Senate race was a precursor of what was to come two years later. Jim Martin was one of five Republicans swept into Congress in the 1964 Goldwater landslide. He probably would have won the U.S. Senate seat of John Sparkman in 1966. However, Martin chose to run for governor against Lurleen Wallace.
In 1987, Martin became Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. As Commissioner, Martin helped create the Forever Wild land preservation program. Jim Martin has a special place in Alabama political history.
See you next week.
November 4, 2020 - Alabama is truly a Republican State
Our 2020 Election was yesterday. The Presidential race was the center of all interest. You know the results, unfortunately, my column for today had to go to press before voting began. As you are absorbing the results, allow me to remind you that we do not elect our president by popular vote but by an Electoral College system whereby the electoral winner of each state even if by one vote gets all the electoral votes of that state. Electoral votes are reflective of that state’s population. It is determined by the number of congressional seats plus the states two senators constituting their electoral votes. For example, Alabama currently has seven congressional seats and two senators for nine electoral votes. California has 53 congressional seats and two senators which gives them 55 electoral votes. My guess and it is a pretty safe assumption that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, carried Alabama handily and captured our nine electoral votes. We have been a Republican state in presidential politics for the past 56 years, ever since the Goldwater Southern Republican landslide of 1964.
Six out of seven of our Congressional seats are held by a Republican. It is a pretty safe bet that all of our Congress people were reelected yesterday. The two Republican seats in Districts 1 and 2 were held by the GOP and these two seats will be taken over by two new Republicans.
More than likely, the Republican candidate, Tommy Tuberville, won the race for our junior U.S. Senate seat for a six-year term. This has been a Republican seat since Jeff Sessions first won it in 1996. Our other seat has been Republican since 1996 when Senator Richard Shelby, our senior U.S. Senator, changed to the GOP.
All of our statewide constitutional offices are held by a Republican. Winning the Republican nomination in Alabama is tantamount to election especially in a presidential election year. We are a very red reliably Republican state. Even both chambers of our legislature is over 70% Republican.
For close to 90 years, 1877-1964, Alabama was a totally Democratic state. In the latter part of the last century, folks ran as Democrats not so much out of philosophy but because of tradition. Everybody just ran in the Democratic Primary. It was one grand election.
It changed presidentially and congressionally in 1964 in the Southern Goldwater landslide. Alabamians started voting Republican for national offices that year and have not looked back.
The proof is in the pudding. If indeed Donald Trump carried Alabama yesterday, we have voted for the Republican nominee for President 16 out of 17 times since 1964. Presidential candidates ignore us during campaigns because it is a foregone conclusion that we will vote Republican.
The GOP captured the Governor’s office in 1986. It has been that way for over 30 years now with one exception. The last Democratic bastion, the Legislature, was toppled in 2010 and further entrenched in 2014 and 2018.
Folks, when we change, we change. We do not do things halfway. Fifty-five years ago every statewide official was a Democrat. Our entire congressional delegation was Democratic and our Legislature was close to 100% Democratic. Today, we are arguably the most Republican state in America from top-to-bottom.
Most parts of the country vote on pocketbook issues. However, it would appear that Alabama and the deep south voters are driven by social and religious issues. When you consider that Alabama may very well be one of the most religious and socially conservative states in America, that makes for a perfect recipe for Alabama to continue as a Republican state for years to come. The more things change the more they stay the same is politics.
Unfortunately, we may be in for a protracted result in our presidential contest. As you read this, we may not know the outcome. We may have a scenario similar to the Florida Bush/Gore debacle in 2000. We may have a problem as severe as 2000, especially in swing states like Florida. However, it may very will be in Pennsylvania due to mail in voting.
See you next week.
October 28, 2020 - Election Next Week
Well, folks, it is finally here. The presidential race is next Tuesday. However, a good many Americans have already voted. True early voting is available in a half dozen states and every American can vote by absentee ballot and a good many have taken advantage of that right. A record number of Alabamians have voted absentee. However, the election for president will be decided next week when most voters go to the polls.
This will be a memorable and historical election year. This 2020 pandemic year is hopefully, only a once in a century event. 2020 is a pivotal presidential year. Never before in my lifetime have I seen our country more divided politically into extremely partisan corners. We are really two nations, and we are split almost 50-50. This is understandable because the country is truly divided philosophically.
Back in the day our own George Wallace would run around the country running for president as a third-party candidate in a Don Quixote mission espousing the rhetoric that there is not a dimes worth of difference between the national Republican and Democratic parties. Nobody could say that, even in demagogic form, today.
Folks, there is a world of difference today. The Republican Party is very conservative, and the Democratic Party is extremely liberal. This divide between the two parties is enhanced and perpetuated by the media, especially, the television networks. If you are a conservative Republican you watch Fox News. If you are a liberal Democrat, you watch CNN. It is like seeing the nation’s politics and dogma through two different prisms.
The two parties should and could more aptly change their names. Republicans should be labeled the Conservative Party and the Democrats the Liberal Party. CNN, and to a large degree ABC, NBC and CBS, should take down any pretense of being impartial and simply have their broadcast from the Democratic National Headquarters. Conversely FOX News should broadcast from the Republican National Headquarters. MSNBC should be broadcast from Moscow
We in Alabama are definitely in the conservative Republican tribe as are most of the other southern and midwestern and rural states. The left coast of California and the eastern urban coast of New York are the bastions of liberalism and the Democratic party.
We do not elect our president by direct popular vote whereby the person who gets the most votes nationwide wins the presidency. Under our Electoral College system, the person who gets 50% plus one vote gets all of that states’ electoral votes. The number of electoral votes is determined by the number of congressional seats plus two senators. For example, California has 53 seats in Congress plus two Senators for 55 electoral votes. We in Alabama have seven congressional seats plus two senators which gives us nine electoral votes. Therefore, it does not take a math genius to tell that the liberal Democratic states like California, have more votes than rural, conservative states like Alabama.
President Donald Trump, who has been a proven conservative Republican, has been behind the eight-ball having to fight through the coronavirus disaster. It is not his fault that the Chinese sent this pandemic to the world and the United States, but voters will want to blame someone and he is the one in the Whitehouse and the one on the ballot.
In mid-September Trump’s reelection numbers and chances were dismal. However, in late September the much-discussed October surprise occurred. The death of liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave the conservative President the opportunity to appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court. Trump is blessed to have a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate.
This opportunity for President Trump to place a third conservative Justice to the nine-member Tribunal could be a game changer. This will energize evangelical voters throughout the country as well as devout, mainstream, Catholic voters in the crucial battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona. The election will be decided in these six key battleground states.
The hay is in the barn in most other states. California will vote Democratic and we in Alabama will vote overwhelmingly Republican. President Trump will carry Alabama in a landslide. This third conservative appointment to the Supreme Court is like manna from Heaven and icing on the cake for Trump in the Heart of Dixie.
The Trump train will provide some long and heavy coattails, which will prove disastrous for our anomaly, liberal, national Democratic senator, Doug Jones. The crescendo Republican wave in Alabama will drown Democrat Jones into a watery grave. It has not helped Jones’s cause that during his short tenure he has voted right down the line with the left-wing Democratic leadership.
We will see next week.
October 21, 2020 - Election less than two weeks away
Our 2020 presidential election is less than two weeks away. We Americans will either elect Republican Donald Trump for another four-year term or Democrat Joe Biden.
In Alabama, we will either elect Republican Tommy Tuberville or Democrat Doug Jones for six-years to serve with our iconic Senior Senator Richard Shelby. The winner will be elected to a six-year term in this august body.
Several of you took issue with my statement last week that a vote for the liberal Democrat Doug Jones is a vote against Richard Shelby and the State of Alabama. Allow me to clarify and explain to you as simply as I can why that is true and why I reiterate that declaration.
The United States Senate is steeped in and governed by time honored rules and traditions. The most revered and sacred shrine is the vestige of seniority. The rule of seniority is paramount. The longer you serve in the Senate the more powerful you become. Some become more powerful than others. Richard Shelby has become the most powerful and consequential U.S. Senator to have represented our state in Alabama history.
In my 2015 book, Of Goats and Governors: Six Decades of Colorful Alabama Political Stories, I have a chapter titled, “Alabama’s Three Greatest Senators.” They are Lister Hill, John Sparkman and Richard Shelby.
Senator Lister Hill was an austere, aristocratic gentleman who was renowned for health care. He was the author of the famous Hill-Burton Act and the father of the renowned UAB Medical Center. He served 30-years in the U.S. Senate.
Senator John Sparkman served in the U.S. Senate for 32-years. He was from Huntsville and is credited with being the father of Redstone Arsenal.
If I were writing that chapter today, Senator Richard Shelby would be alone as Alabama’s most consequential, powerful senator in our state’s history. He is in a league of his own. During his 34-year career in the Senate, Shelby has become renowned as the bearer of good tidings and federal dollars to the Heart of Dixie. If Lister Hill was the father of UAB and John Sparkman the father of Redstone Arsenal, then Richard Shelby can very aptly be referred to as the grandfather as well as great uncle to these two premier Alabama institutions. Richard Shelby is the reason UAB and Huntsville’s Space and Rocket Center are Alabama’s most prestigious as well as Alabama’s two largest employers.
Huntsville has become Alabama’s fastest growing and most prosperous city and one of America’s brightest high-tech destination locations. The City of Huntsville is soon to become the second home of the FBI. The state-of-the-art Huntsville FBI cybersecurity headquarters will employ over 2,000 very highly paid individuals. This coup for Alabama is due to one person – our senior Senator Richard Shelby.
It is not just Huntsville and Birmingham that have benefitted from Shelby’s prowess and power, it is the entire state. Every corner of the state can point to a Shelby generated road, building, industry, or military installation.
You might be asking, how has Shelby accomplished so much for our state? It is simple. It is federal dollars. Then you might ask, how does Shelby bring so many federal dollars to Alabama? It is simple. He is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. He appropriates the United States budget, or in other words, he controls the federal checkbook.
In addition to being Chairman of Appropriations, Senator Shelby is Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. If you do not think that is invaluable to Alabama, you best think again. There is no state in the nation that benefits more through defense preparedness and dollars in the United States than the good ole Heart of Dixie.
Under the Rules of the Senate, the political party that has the majority of members presides and makes the rules. More importantly, for Alabama, the majority party gets all the committee chairmanships. Our Senior Senator Richard Shelby is a Republican. Currently, Republicans have a slim 53-to-47 majority in the Senate. There are three Republican incumbent senators in Arizona, Colorado, and Maine, who are in serious jeopardy of losing. If the Republicans lose these three and one more, then Senator Shelby loses the chairmanship of appropriations and Alabama loses all of its power in Washington. Suppose your vote for Doug Jones, a liberal, national, California Democrat, is the deciding vote that puts the Democrats in control of the U.S. Senate and puts Richard Shelby and Alabama out to pasture.
See you next week.
October 14, 2020 - GOP Control of U.S. Senate Critical for Alabama
The 2020 race for the White House will culminate in less than three weeks on November 3rd. However, some experts are predicting the outcome will not be determined that night and there will be a protracted result due to the massive number of mail-in votes.
In fact, state officials in Pennsylvania are expecting controversy. The Keystone state is looking like ground zero for the presidential contest. It is one of the largest key battleground states, and it has obviously been the focus of the Biden Democratic presidential campaign.
Under the Electoral College System, there are six pivotal battleground states to watch on election night. The election will be decided in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and to a lesser degree in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The proverbial October surprise in the presidential race occurred in late September. The passing of legendary liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed the entire dynamics of the 2020 Election. The opportunity for President Trump to appoint an outstanding accomplished, conservative, federal jurist to the high tribunal is significant to say the least.
Trump’s appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett is truly historical. If Barrett is confirmed this will change the entire ideology of the Court to a solid six-to-three conservative majority. Trump’s appointment of Barrett is even more pivotal than his previous Gorsuch and Kavanaugh appointments. In these two cases you replaced conservatives with conservatives. With Barrett, you are replacing a woman with a woman but more importantly you are replacing one of the most liberal judges in history with potentially one of the most conservative. From a political standpoint, this Supreme Court surprise is like manna from Heaven for Trump and the Republicans.
The pandemic was the issue prior to the Ginsburg/Barrett surprise. Trump was not going to win on that issue as the person in the White House. While he may not have caused the problem, voters must blame someone. The campaign focus briefly changed from COVID to the Supreme Court battle. However, Trump’s contraction of COVID redirected the campaign focus back to the pandemic. Things are changing so rapidly the Supreme Court hearings and ultimate vote for confirmation scheduled for the last week of October may refocus the campaign theme back to a partisan divide between the socially liberal Democrats and the conservative Republicans. It will illuminate the differences in the two parties. The philosophical chasm is deep and wide.
Which brings me to this point – the battle over control of the U.S. Senate is just as important as the presidential contest in this year’s election. President Trump could not have garnered three Supreme Court appointees without the confirmation by the majority Republican Senate. Currently, Republicans have a slim 53 to 47 majority in the U.S. Senate. There are three
Republican incumbent senators behind in polling and fundraising. The GOP is in serious jeopardy of losing seats in Colorado, Arizona, and Maine, in addition Iowa and North Carolina are toss ups.
Your vote may not count for much in the presidential race. Trump wins in Alabama probably by a 60/40 margin. However, folks, I am here to tell you that your vote in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race is paramount for the State of Alabama. If the U.S. Senate flips from Republican to Democratic our iconic senior Senator Richard Shelby loses the Chairmanship of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and Alabama loses our power in Washington. Therefore, a vote for liberal Democrat Doug Jones is a vote against Richard Shelby and the State of Alabama.
The amount of federal money Richard Shelby brings home to Alabama as Chairman of Appropriations is unimageable. He is Alabama’s number one economic engine. Our seven Congressmen combined do not have 10% of the influence as Senator Shelby.
Whereas Doug Jones is totally irrelevant when it comes to Alabama. His only relevance in the Senate is to be a pawn for the New York and California liberal Democrats. He has voted reliably with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and along with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. Indeed, Jones has voted so much like a Californian, most of his campaign money has come from the California Democrats. Actually, Jones is referred to in Washington as California’s third U.S. Senator.
Regardless of the fact philosophically Jones is the most liberal senator to sit in an Alabama senate seat in recent times, economically a vote for a Democrat could cost Alabama millions of federal dollars. Therefore, not only is a vote for Doug Jones a vote against Richard Shelby and the State of Alabama, if you work or benefit from UAB or Redstone Arsenal or any military facility in our state, you may be voting to cut your own throat.
See you next week.
October 7, 2020 - The Story of the Dixiecrats and 1948 Truman Election as President
The year 1948 was an interesting and momentous year in southern politics. World War II had just ended. The King of American politics, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had passed away in Warm Springs, Georgia.
FDR had reigned omnipotently as President from 1932-1945. His Vice President was an obscure, peculiar looking, Missourian named Harry Truman. Truman had been a haberdasher in Independence, Missouri who had gone broke selling men’s clothing. The legendary St. Louis Pendergrass political machine took Harry in and made him a U.S. Senator.
Harry was a backbencher in the senate, to say the least. FDR plucked him out of the Senate and made him his running mate. FDR won the 1944 election overwhelmingly. Americans never un-elect presidents in the midst of a war. Thus the saying, “You never change horses in the middle of the stream.” Truman settled into his obscurity as Vice President. He would often quote another Vice President, John Nance Garner, a tough talking Texan who would say the office of Vice President is about as useless as a warm bucket of spit.
FDR did not even tell Truman about our scientists working on a project to create the nuclear bomb. However, it fell to Harry to drop those bombs on Japan, which ended World War II.
Another famous Texas politician, Sam Rayburn, was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Sam ruled the House with an iron hand, craftily shepherding FDR’s New Deal legislation through Congress. Mr. Sam had a private office tucked away in the basement of the Capitol. It was right under the House Chamber.
Mr. Sam Rayburn, the Speaker, would also refer to himself as the Chairman of the Board of Education. He would invite aspiring congressmen to join him every afternoon at 3:00 p.m. for a Board of Education meeting. His cubbyhole Board of Education would only hold about 12-18 members. Therefore, you knew you had arrived when you received one of Mr. Sam’s invitations to his 3:00 board meeting. Mr. Sam would promptly look at his watch at 3:00, adjourn Congress, and stroll downstairs to his Board of Education meeting where they would enjoy Bourbon and branchwater.
Since Harry really had nothing much to do as Vice President, Mr. Sam extended him a standing invitation to his board meeting. Harry was a regular as they enjoyed their good Kentucky Bourbon and Texas branchwater.
One April afternoon in 1945, Mr. Sam, Harry and a dozen Congressmen had about three or four libations under their belts and the Secret Service came in and whisked Harry away to the White House. FDR had died in Georgia and Harry was sworn in as President. I am not saying Harry was inebriated. However, he was probably a little dizzy, as he unexpectedly became President of the United States.
Harry Truman was elected in an upset as President in 1948. He won despite the departure of the Deep South, which had been loyally Democratic. The South split off from the Democratic Party and voted for the Dixiecrat ticket led by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond.
This split in the Southern Democratic ranks was due to the race issue. Truman had espoused and promoted a Civil Rights Bill. The South revolted. Thus, 1948 was a pivotal year in Alabama and Southern politics. The previous decades had seen the South and Southern congressmen ardently support the Democratic ticket and agenda. They were New Deal Democrats. Economic issues drove the engine. That all changed in 1948 when race trumped economics.
That same year, Dr. V. O. Key wrote a book entitled “Southern Politics in the State and Nation.” Dr. Key’s book became the premier textbook for students of southern politics. It is so renowned and enduring that it is the bible of southern political theory. I use the textbook when I teach Southern Politics now. It is used at Vanderbilt, Emory, Tennessee, Georgia, and the University of Alabama to name a few. Dr. Key first wrote his textbook in 1948. It was updated and revised in 1984.
In Dr. Key’s epistle, he outlines a profound theory called “Friends and Neighbors” politics, which has a profound and prevalent presence in southern politics. It is very pronounced in Alabama politics. As is the theory that more people will vote against someone than for someone. This rule will play out in the presidential contest in three weeks.
See you next week.
September 30, 2020 - Alabama’s Budget Year begins this Week. COVID-19 has played Havoc.
The new fiscal year begins this week for Alabama government. We have two budgets, a General Fund and an Education Budget. Both budgets have seen devastating havoc to their revenues due to the coronavirus. The Education Budget was drastically destroyed from what was originally expected at the beginning of the calendar year in January.
The Education Budget receives the revenues generated from our sales and income taxes in the state. Therefore, the downturn in the economy is especially heartbreaking for educators, teachers, schools, and universities.
The Education Budget was poised in January to be by far the largest and robust in state history. There was money for a 6% increase over the $7.1 billion 2020 Education Budget. However, that was eliminated and the budget is level funded.
Altogether, the coronavirus pandemic has left a half billion dollar cut to Alabama’s state budgets for the upcoming year.
The pandemic debacle has decimated other states much more than Alabama. Indeed, our legislative budget committees have done such a good job as stewards of our tax spending and of budgeting that, unlike other states that are deficit spending and headed towards bankruptcy, there is a slight increase in our two budgets.
In fact, all surveys nationally rank Alabama in the top five of the 50 states when it comes to how well states are handling and are able to absorb the staggering blow to state’s budgets.
Our state budget chairmen, Representatives Bill Poole of Tuscaloosa and Steve Clouse of Ozark and Senators Arthur Orr of Decatur and Greg Albritton of Escambia, have done a yeoman’s job of keeping Alabama afloat by passing conservative budgets and implementing rainy day funds.
The Education Budget will be about $7.2 billion. The General Fund will be about $2.2 billion. The difference in what was expected in January is about $500 million.
However, Alabama’s share of the Federal Stimulus money is said to be $1.8 Billion. This is like manna from Heaven.
The General Fund budget still includes increases for the Alabama Medicaid Agency. The Department of Public Health also got an increase to cover a larger share of the costs for The Children’s Health Insurance program. The Department of Mental Health got an increase to setup three regional crisis centers for folks with mental illness caused by the epidemic.
The Department of Corrections will get about a $20 million increase, but it may not be enough to satisfy the feds. Within the Education Budget, the Legislature was able to fund a bond issue for school and capital projects. All-in-all, it could be a lot worse. Again, Alabama is in better shape than other states.
One of the best things the crafters of our 1901 Constitution did was to make it unconstitutional to have a deficit budget. We have a constitutional mandate that we cannot spend more than we take in. We cannot print money in Alabama like the Federal Government does. The amount of red ink that the federal government is stacking up is staggering.
The federal government with the printing of new money sent over $1.8 billion to the state in the 2020 Cares Act bailout. This money was sent to the states to pay for expenses incurred from the coronavirus epidemic.
That is a lot of money and it did not take lawmakers and the governor’s office long to start salivating and feuding over the use of the pandemic relief manna from Heaven from the good old debtor Uncle Sam.
Indeed, the fight over the windfall money caused quite a brouhaha between Governor Kay Ivey and the Legislature. It is a natural spat because it is a gray constitutional interpretation of power between the Legislative Branch, which is given the power to appropriate money, and the Executive Branch which administers state government.
The Cares Act of 2020 passed by Congress, which appropriated a total of $105 billion of which Alabama received $1.8 billion, is different than the federal bailout funds during the Great Recession. This relief money for this year cannot be used to aid in current or long-term expenses. It can only be used for expenses directly related to or incurred for expenses directly caused by the coronavirus.
We are in the waning days of the census count. If you have not been counted, be sure you are.
See you next week.
September 23, 2020 - All Politics is Local. Most of Alabama’s Mayors Races this Year.
With it being a presidential election year and an election for one of our United States Senate Seats and all of the interest that goes along with those high-profile contests, it has gone under the radar that most of our cities in the state had elections for mayor and city council last month. Mayors serve four-year terms and to most Alabamians they are the most important vote they will cast this year.
The job of mayor of a city is a difficult and intricate fulltime, 24 hours a day dedication to public service. They make more decisions that affect the lives of their friends and neighbors than anyone else. The old maxim, “All politics is local,” is epitomized in the role of mayor. Folks, being mayor of a city is where the rubber meets the road.
In looking all over the state, it appears that most Alabamians are content with the jobs their mayor is doing. In almost every contest around the state, the incumbent mayor turned away the challenger usually by a wide margin. Indeed, a good many of the incumbent mayors in the Heart of Dixie had no opposition.
Many of these incumbent mayors were reelected without opposition. Gordon Stone, the mayor of Alabama’s fastest growing community, Pike Road, will be entering his fifth term as mayor. Pretty soon Pike Road will have to start calling themselves a city.
Vestavia’s Mayor, Ashley Curry, won a second term without opposition. This former retired FBI agent has done a yeoman’s job managing this upscale, Jefferson County suburb.
Jasper Mayor, David O’Mary, who escaped opposition, will begin a second term. He has run Jasper like a well-tuned engine. Albertville mayor, Tracy Honea, garnered a third term without opposition. Luverne Mayor Ed Beasley was also unopposed.
In the contested races, most of the matchups were no contest. Two of Alabama’s largest and most prosperous cities, Huntsville and Hoover, had mayoral races. Tommy Battle coasted to an easy 78 to 22 reelection victory in Huntsville. If Kay Ivey opts to not run for reelection in 2022, Battle will be favored to win the governor’s race. However, being Governor of Alabama would be a demotion to being Mayor of Huntsville.
Hoover citizens must approve of Mayor Frank Brocato’s job performance. Brocato trounced Hoover City Council President Gene Smith by a 76 to 24 margin.
Opelika’s popular and effective, longtime mayor, Gary Fuller, turned back his challenger 66 to 34 to win a fifth term.
In Cullman incumbent mayor, Woody Jacobs, won a second term overwhelmingly. Hamilton Mayor Bob Page won a second term. Troy’s 48-year-old mayor, Jason Reeves, won reelection to a third four-year term with 74% of the vote. Incumbent Eufaula Mayor Jack Tibbs won an impressive 68% victory for reelection over two opponents.
Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie may have turned in the most impressive showing. He shellacked former City Councilman Dean Argo 70 to 30. His fellow citizens must approve of frugality with their city finances. Wetumpka’s popular and hardworking, longtime mayor, Jerry Willis, turned back his challenger by a 69 to 31 margin. In neighboring Millbrook incumbent mayor, Al Kelley, won reelection 67 to 33. Mayor Kelley has overseen the growth of his city from 6,000 in population to over 20,000. Tallassee reelected Mayor John Hammock to a second term.
Clanton lost their mayor of three decades, Billy Joe Driver, to COVID this year. His successor will be Jeff Mims, who won the election in the Peach City. Mike Oakley won the mayor’s race in Centreville with a 60% margin. It is proper and fitting that an Oakley will be Mayor of Centreville.
Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley won a landslide reelection garnering 68% of the vote. Incumbent Pell City Mayor Bill Pruitt won reelection by an impressive 73 to 27 margin. Longtime Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon won reelection in the Camellia City. Opp’s first female mayor, Becky Bracke, won a second term with 60% of the vote.
There were two mayoral upsets on August 25. Scottsboro’s incumbent mayor was defeated by challenger Jimmy McCamy. In the thriving, growing city of Fairhope challenger Sherry Sullivan trounced incumbent mayor Karin Wilson.
There are runoffs for mayor in several major cities, including Enterprise, Ozark, Selma, Tuskegee, Alexander City and Northport. These cities will elect their mayors on October 6 in runoff elections.
Some of you may be wondering about two of the most populous cities. Tuscaloosa and Dothan have their mayoral races next year in August of 2021. Tuscaloosa’s Walt Maddox and Dothan’s Mark Saliba will be tough to beat. All politics is local.
If you have not been counted in the census, you have not got many more shopping days to Christmas.
September 16, 2020 - The Presidential Race is Underway
Now that the national political party conventions are over and the nominees have been coronated, the battle royale for the White House is in full throttle. The nominees, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, will shatter the age barrier. Whoever is elected will be the oldest person ever elected President. If Donald Trump is reelected, he will be 75 when sworn in. If Joe Biden wins, he will be close to 79. When I was a young man, folks at that age were in the nursing home if they were alive. By comparison, 60 years ago when John Kennedy was elected, he was 42.
If by chance, you are worried about their traversing all over the 50 states and keeling over in the process, calm your fears. Trump will campaign in only about 10-12 states, and Biden will campaign in probably only two. Why, you might ask? There are only 10-12 states that matter in a presidential contest.
Under our Electoral College system, the candidate that gets one more popular vote than the other gets all of that state’s electoral votes.
The country is divided like never before in our history. You either live in a red Republican state, like Alabama, or a blue Democratic state, like California. You might say the hay is in the barn in all but about 10 battleground swing states. There are 40 states that it really does not matter who the Republican nominee is, that party’s candidate is going to win that state and get all of that state’s electoral votes.
Our national politics has become so partisan and divided with such a vociferous divide that old Joe Biden will carry California by a 60-40 margin, and Donald Trump will carry Alabama by a 60-40 margin. Unfortunately for Donald Trump, Alabama only has 9 electoral votes whereas California has 55.
The election is won or lost in the swing states like Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It is in these six states that all of the campaign money will be spent and where the two aged candidates might campaign. It will all boil down to certain zip codes in these six states. Current polling has Biden ahead of Trump in most of the battleground states.
President Donald Trump for the first three years of his presidency reigned over a tremendous economic boom. He had a fighting chance at reelection based on one factor: “it’s the economy, stupid.”
All that changed in March. The coronavirus pandemic hit our nation and devastated our national economy. All of the growth of three years has been devastated. During the same month of March, the aging Democrat, Joe Biden, captured the Democratic nomination from the Socialist, Bernie Sanders.
Under the Electoral College System, President Trump has to carry most of the key battleground states in order to win. Current polling has Biden ahead of Trump in most, if not all the pivotal swing states because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the economy was busting through the roof, Trump could claim credit for the thriving economy. Likewise, the economic recession caused by the coronavirus is not Trump’s fault. However, it happened under his watch. There is a tried and true political maxim, “If you claim credit for the rain, then you gonna get the blame for the drought.”
There is also a cardinal rule in politics. All politics is local. Folks, Joe Biden was born and raised in Pennsylvania in the blue-collar city of Scranton to be exact. Even if Trump were to miraculously carry all five of the large, pivotal states, he will have a hard time carrying Pennsylvania.
I know most of you reading this do not like to hear this dour outlook for Trump. However, there is hope. First of all, I am pretty good at predicting and analyzing Alabama political races; not so much when it comes to national politics. In fact, I am usually wrong.
Another golden, proven caveat in politics, they only count the votes of the people who show up to vote. Older voters tend to be Republican. and older voters are the ones that show up to vote.
We will see in six short weeks.
September 9, 2020 - 1960 Presidential Race Marked beginning of Television as Premier Political Medium
The 1960 Presidential Race between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy is considered by many political historians to be a landmark presidential contest. This race for the White House, exactly 60 years ago, marked a pivotal change in presidential election politics when the advent of television became the premier medium for political candidates.
John Kennedy was a 42-year-old, charismatic, democratic senator from Massachusetts. Richard Nixon was a veteran politico who was vice president under the popular war hero, President General Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower.
The presidential debate between Democrat Kennedy and Republican Nixon was to be televised nationwide. This was the first televised presidential debate. Television was a new phenomenon.
Kennedy understood the importance of the debate and the new medium of television. He took a full week off the campaign trail and went to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port and studied and prepared and was rested and tanned.
Nixon, on the other hand, campaigned nonstop, 18 hours a day up until the telecast. He was tired looking and also suffering from painful phlebitis. When he arrived at the NBC studios for the debate, he bumped his bad leg on the car door, and it flared up the phlebitis. He was in severe pain when he took the stage. However, the worst thing he did was fail to shave and he refused makeup. He had a heavy five o’clock shadow. In fact, he had not shaved since five o’clock that morning. He appeared tired and haggard and unshaven. It made him look very sinister. He glared menacingly into the camera and at Kennedy. In short, he was awful.
Nixon was used to radio and, in fact, those that listened to the debate on radio thought Nixon won. However, those that watched on TV thought differently. Kennedy was tanned, relaxed, smiled and was handsome and charismatic. Kennedy won the election that night. The televised debate was the key. Therefore, 1960 marks the beginning of television being the way and means to victory in an election.
Folks, I am here to tell you it has not changed. Television is still the medium that drives the vote. It has been rumored and stated as fact that social media has taken over. But, it has not yet.
It is a known fact in politics that older people vote. That has not changed. It is folks my age, who are 60 and over, who vote and elect people. Young people under 40 simply do not vote. They really do not have time to vote in that stage of life. They are trying to raise a family, build a career and get children to soccer games or dance class after an eight-hour workday and then get dinner on the table.
There are very few 25-year old millennials who vote. They get their information off social media, but it does not translate into voting. Most of them are not even registered or know where they go to get registered or much less where their polling place is. We older people still watch TV and we vote.
As I peruse and study the campaign finance filings of the candidates running for office in Alabama this year, the fact is confirmed. Every major winning candidate for all the viable and primary races for U.S. Senate or Congress spent the bulk of their campaign money on television.
In looking back at the 1960 Presidential Race and comparing it to this year’s 2020 contest, reveals a stark transition in presidential politics. Under the Electoral College System, at that time there were 40 states in play and 10 states that were safe Republican or Democratic enclaves.
Today, it is just the opposite. There are 40 states that are predetermined to be safely solid either Red Republican states or Blue Democratic states. You might say the hay is in the barn in at least 40 of our United States. As I often say, if Mickey Mouse were the Republican nominee, he could carry Alabama; and if Donald Duck was the Democratic candidate, he would carry California.”
Our country is divided, politically, and divisively like never before in history along partisan lines. It is almost 50/50. Therefore, the key to victory is inspiring and firing up your base to vote.
If enthusiasm is any indication, then the needle is moving toward Donald Trump and the Republicans. Although the addition of Senator Kamala Harris to the Democratic ticket may enthuse African American female voters, who are the base of the Democratic Party.
See you next week.