December 14, 2016
While the presidential race played out this year, several things happened in Alabama politics that went under the radar.
First, a federal appeals court upheld the legislature’s banning PAC to PAC transfers. The new Republican legislative majority that marched into the Statehouse in 2011 set out to destroy and bury the last bastion of Democratic power in the state – the once omnipotent Alabama Education Association. They succeeded.
One of the legs they sawed off was the PAC to PAC money laundering scheme that AEA so adroitly used to funnel and hide their campaign contributions. The primary beneficiary of the AEA transfer was to Joe Reed’s Alabama Democratic Conference. The three judge panel’s ruling does not limit the amount of money that the ADC can raise, it just disallows the AEA from transferring money to their sister organization.
The AEA/ADC coalition was not the only group using this PAC to PAC shell game of hiding campaign contributions. The practice was pervasive. However, the ADC was the one that sued to say that the PAC to PAC prohibition was unconstitutional because it banned free speech and due process.
Attorney General Luther Strange praised the ruling saying “the PAC to PAC transfer ban has been instrumental in limiting campaign corruption while adding greater transparency to the election process.” This federal court ruling has hammered an additional final nail in the coffin of the once vaunted AEA.
In early October, the U.S. Justice Department launched a statewide investigation into the safety and sanitary conditions of Alabama’s men’s prisons. It has been common knowledge that Alabama’s prisons are overcrowded. It is probably a foregone conclusion that there is a very real possibility that the federal courts may intervene and take over control of our prisons.
The state already settled a suit with the Department of Justice over problems with the Julia Tutwiler women’s prison in Wetumpka arising out of allegations of physical and sexual violence. This settlement occurred about a year ago. The Justice Department is now saying that the same problems exist in the men’s prisons. The DOJ investigation may very well be the precursor to federal intervention.
The prison problem will have to be front and center when the legislature convenes in February. State Senator Cam Ward of Shelby County, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been at the forefront of the prison issue, says, “At the end of the day you have to change the facilities to some degree not just for the safety of inmates but for the safety of those who work there.”
Alabama’s prisons were at 178 percent capacity in July. This severe overcrowding is the primary contributing factor to violence in prisons. There have been six homicides at the St. Clair Correctional facility between 2011 and 2014. There have been riots at Holman prison in Atmore. The Bibb and Bessemer correctional facilities have seen numerous allegations of physical and sexual abuse. All three U.S. Attorneys in the State have tacitly agreed with the Justice Department investigation.
The Governor’s Advisory Council on gambling is meeting and will formulate a plan of action to propose to the legislature when they convene in February. This seven-member advisory panel will examine the entire gambling gambit. Hopefully, this council will promulgate a plan of action for gambling in Alabama.
This issue of gambling has plagued the state for decades. In fact, it has existed since the state’s founding. Gambling revenue is probably the state’s largest potential revenue source. Our state is losing millions of dollars to our surrounding states.
Hopefully, this council will look at all aspects of gambling including the lottery, how to extract some money from the Poarch Creek Indian casino monopoly, and also allowing the locally sanctioned facilities in Greene, Macon and Lowndes counties to exist and pay some state taxes.
The council should have a recommendation to give the legislature by January 31, 2017, in time for the legislative session in February.
The race for our open U.S. Senate seat is beginning to percolate. Candidates will be wise to avoid the interim appointment to the seat by Gov. Bentley. The early favorites to win election to the seat are Attorney General Luther Strange and Congressman Robert Aderholt. A host of viable candidates will enter the fray.
See you next week.
December 06, 2016
It is Christmas time, and since Alabama is one of the most charitable states in the nation, I would expect that many of us are in the giving mood and plan to help many worthy causes across our great state. Unfortunately, it appears that some recent rulings by the Alabama Ethics Commission are going to make it more difficult for charities across the state to raise the funds that they need to serve our communities.
Many charities in Alabama are concerned that an unintended consequence of recent Commission interpretations of the ethics law is that it could restrict the ability of public officials and employees and their family members to be involved in fundraising for charities and other organizations that they support, including public schools and universities.
You may not be aware, but there are over 300,000 public officials and employees at the state and local level who are covered by Alabama’s ethics law. Many of these individuals are leaders in their communities, who are appointed to positions of public responsibility such as school boards and water boards. Not surprisingly, these same individuals are often also involved in supporting a number of worthy causes and charities by helping with their fundraising and serving on their boards.
The problem is, over the past year or so, in an effort to implement what they seem to believe the law requires, the Ethics Commission has issued guidance that places restrictions on the ability of public officials and employees to help charities by seeking donations from various individuals, businesses, and organizations.
While their intentions are no doubt good, the broad language of these rulings has caused major issues for charities across the state. This is because a number of those charities rely on individuals, who happen to be part-time members of public boards who are covered by these ethics laws. As a result, charities are asking anyone involved in a public body not to fundraise for them no matter how much they have done so in the past. I do not expect that anyone was thinking about these situations when they amended the ethics laws back in 2010, but it appears that this is another one of those unintended consequences of a well-intentioned law.
To make matters worse, under the Commission’s interpretations of these laws, the restrictions on charity fundraising also seem to apply to the family members of these 300,000 public servants who are raising money for a charity. This means that these rulings affect the ability of many more Alabamians. There are probably close to one million folks who help raise money for the charities that they support.
Hopefully, the Commission will clear up this confusion. However, if they do not, I expect that the outcry will be so great that the Legislature will take action.
Remember that this is not the first time we have had problems with broad interpretations of the ethics laws at Christmastime.
Back in December 2011, you may recall, the Ethics Commission issued rulings that raised a lot of questions and concerns about the ability of public school teachers to accept Christmas gifts from students under these same ethics laws. The concerns arose then because of some of the changes to the law that had gone into effect earlier in 2011.
The Commission’s rulings in 2011 did not, in the end, clear things up very much for students and their teachers in time for Christmas. However, in the following legislative session in 2012, the Legislature amended the ethics law to make it easier for students to give Christmas gifts to public school teachers and coaches. The legislative fix was needed to address an unintended consequence of the law.
I think we are all hoping this current problem for charitable fundraising is resolved by the Ethics Commission in time for Christmas. We do not need our charities and other worthy causes to suffer an unintended consequence of a well-intentioned law.
See you next week.
November 30, 2016
It is definite, our Junior Senator, Jeff Sessions, is going to be President Donald Trump’s Attorney General, as well as his closest advisor.
Sessions will be confirmed by the Senate. He has been a respected member of the Senate for 20 years. He has an impeccably clean history of integrity. Even though he is and has been one of the Senate’s most ardent right wing conservatives, the Democratic senators on the left respect him. He has served on the Senate Judiciary Committee his entire tenure in the House of Lords and he has voted to confirm liberals to the high court even though he disagreed with them philosophically.
All 52 Senate Republicans will vote for confirmation and probably most Democrats. Instead, the Democrats will pick on other conservative Trump appointees, if only out of respect for Sessions and Senate deference and courtesy.
The liberal eastern media has scrutinized all of Trump’s appointments. Statements supposedly made by Sessions 30 years ago will not stand in the way of his confirmation.
Sessions is uniquely qualified for Attorney General having been Attorney General of Alabama along with his twenty years on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was considered for Secretary of Defense and also would have been qualified for that post given that he has served on the Armed Services Committee for two decades. Defense would have been better for Alabama. The impact that the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Maxwell/Gunter in Montgomery and Ft. Rucker in the Wiregrass have on the economy of Alabama is immense.
Speaking of Alabama’s influence in Washington, we do lose a senator with 20 years of seniority. Therefore, we will have an open Senate seat in the Heart of Dixie for the first time in two decades.
The Sessions vacancy will be coveted by every viable political figure in the state, as well as everybody who ever won a 4-H speaking contest. The Governor gets to nominate a senator for the vacancy, although the label will be interim Senator.
Sessions’ current term in the Senate goes through 2020. However, the primary and general election will probably be in 2018. To call a special election prior to that would cost $4 million and get only a 15-20 percent turnout. Besides, the 2018 election is practically already here.
The Republican primary is tantamount to election in Alabama. It will be held in June of 2018. Fundraising for state offices will begin this June – one year prior to the primary election. However, federal fundraising can begin immediately. Therefore, the bell has already rung for election to Sessions’ seat. The smart candidates would be best served to ignore and avoid the interim appointment by Governor Robert Bentley. The appointment is a kiss of death.
First of all, Bentley is extremely unpopular and most people think he is totally irrelevant, irrational and distracted by his personal advisor. Whoever is appointed by Bentley may be associated with him.
Secondly, history reveals that people in Alabama resent someone getting an appointment. They like electing their politicians. The last time there was an open Senate seat was a couple of decades ago. We actually had two open at one time. George Wallace had two appointments. Both appointees lost in the next election, and believe me, Wallace was more popular then than Bentley is now.
This has happened over and over again in Alabama politics for high profile posts. Alabama voters resent an appointment, especially if the appointee seeks election to that office. Therefore, my advice to anyone who wants to be a U.S. Senator is start running for it right now. Declare and start shaking hands from Gulf Shores to Huntsville and do not detour by the Governor’s office in Montgomery. The appointment will be tainted even if by chance you are the best qualified and Bentley makes a rational appointment, which would be unusual and unlikely.
The list of names that have surfaced as potential candidates to run for the seat are 20 year veteran Congressman Robert Aderholt, Attorney General Luther Strange, State Treasurer Young Boozer, Secretary of State John Merrill, Congressman Mike Rogers, Congressman Mo Brooks, Supreme Court Justice Jim Main, State Senators Del Marsh, Trip Pittman, Cam Ward, Greg Reed, Dick Brewbaker, and former State Representative Perry Hooper, Jr., and finally Congresswoman Martha Roby may figure if you are going to lose reelection to your current seat in 2018 anyway, you may as well go out running for the Senate.
We will keep you posted.
November 23, 2016
Our Senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby will begin his sixth six-year term in January. He is an Alabama treasure. Over the past 30 years as our Senator he has brought millions of federal dollars home to Alabama.
Richard Shelby currently reigns as Alabama’s most prominent political figure. He is one of Alabama’s three greatest Senators in history along with Lister Hill and John Sparkman. Shelby is easily one of the most influential political figures in the nation.
Shelby has had a perfectly scripted rise to political power and acclaim. In 1970 at age 35, he entered politics and was elected to the State Senate from Tuscaloosa. He ran for an open seat in Congress in 1978 and won. In 1986 he rolled the dice, gave up his safe congressional seat and took on an incumbent Senator.
In 1986, Shelby was a 50-year-old Congressman a Democrat who had a stellar conservative voting record. He was safe in his U. S. House seat. Therefore, his decision to challenge an incumbent U. S. Senator was a gamble. His friends cautioned him that it was an uphill battle and he should not risk his safe House seat. His basic reply was, “I’m one of 435 in congress, given the rules of seniority, it will be 20 more years before I can chair a committee or subcommittee. They don’t even know my name up here. I’m either going to the Senate and be somebody, or I’m going home and make money.”
One factor that the average political observer was not aware of that Shelby probably sensed was that his congressional district was destined to be the first African American district after reapportionment in 1990. That is what happened to Shelby’s 7th District.
Although it would be a daunting task to upset an incumbent, U. S. Senator, Jeremiah Denton had written a textbook on how to lose a Senate seat during his six-year term. Denton was elected as Alabama’s first Republican Senator since Reconstruction in 1980. He was swept into office on the coattails of Ronald Reagan who carried Alabama in a landslide. Alabamians knew very little about Denton except that he had been a naval officer and a well-known national POW in the Vietnam War. His patriotic hero position sold well in Alabama, especially with Reagan headed to the White House.
Yet Shelby beat Denton. It was close and Shelby had to spend some of his personal money the last week of the campaign to carry out the upset, but Alabama has been the better for Richard Shelby’s 1986 gamble. He was been reelected in 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010 and now in 2016.
I had the opportunity to fly back from Washington with and visit with Shelby a few years after his 1986 victory. He told me the inside story of the last six days of that campaign that illustrates how important money and media are in today’s modern politics.
When he decided to run against Denton, he knew the importance of money to a campaign. He also knew that it was essential to get the best media guru regardless of the price. Therefore, he spared no expense and got the best pollster and media people in America. About six days out, he was six points behind. The pollster told him to put $100,000 of TV ads in the Birmingham market using a certain ad and it would raise him two points. He did and it did. The next day the media man and the pollster told him to spend $50,000 on TV ads in the Mobile market using a certain ad and it would give him a one point boost. He did and it did. The next day the pollster told him to run a certain ad in the Huntsville market and spend $60,000 and it would raise him a point. He did and it did. Two days out the pollster told him to run a certain ad in both Birmingham and Montgomery and it would raise him by three points. He did and it did.
He won by one point. I suspect the ad most suggested by the pollster and the media guys was the one where Denton was saying he didn’t have time to come home and kiss babies’ butts.
See you next week.
November 16, 2016
Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency left the pollsters and pundits from every media outlet and news network with egg on their face. It also left them with their mouths ajar in shock.
Every poll and every pundit had Hillary Clinton winning the presidency. It was assumed that the Electoral College advantage for a liberal Democrat was impregnable. Trump’s amazing surprise victory will be recorded as one of the biggest upsets in modern political history. It will be compared to and was very similar to the upset victory that Harry Truman pulled off against Thomas Dewey in 1948.
There are uncanny similarities between the Truman come from behind victory and the Trump win. All polls showed Truman losing. However, in the final weeks of the campaign, Truman was bringing out large crowds as he spoke from the back of a train in what was referred to as his Whistle Stop Tour. Toward the very end his crowds were growing larger and larger.
Like Trump, Truman was plain spoken and the crowds would shout out, “Give ‘em hell Harry!” He would retort, “That’s what I plan to do.” It was so assumed that Truman would lose that there was a famous photo of Truman holding up a copy of the “Chicago Tribune” with the headline, “Dewey Wins.” Similarly, there is this year’s revelation that “Newsweek” in order to get to press early had Hillary winning with the headline, “Madam President.” They had to recall millions of copies. Also, I have had to admit that yours truly had written a much different headline story on the Monday before Tuesday’s Election Day for today’s column.
There is no question that we live in two distinct, diverse, and different philosophical Americas when it comes to presidential politics. It appears that we in the south are not the only folks in America who believe in a balanced budget, a strong military, and sustaining a strong agricultural base. In addition, we may not be alone when it comes to being pro-life and pro-gun. The rest of the country may be more like us than we think. We obviously have some southern thinking folks in the Midwestern Rust Belt states
In short Trump won the election because white conservatives all over the country turned out in mass as though their nation depended on it and they probably were right. Evangelical Christian voters realized the importance of the impending Supreme Court appointments. That will indeed be Trump’s most lasting legacy. He will appoint conservatives to our Supreme Court, and they will be confirmed by a Republican U.S. Senate.
The Republican control of the Senate is another victory for conservatives throughout the country. Trump will be a Republican President with a Republican U.S. Senate and a Republican conservative U.S. House. This Republican governing majority will be immensely beneficial to Alabama. Six of our seven congressmen are Republicans.
More importantly our two Senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, are in the majority in the Senate. Shelby will be beginning his sixth six-year term. Within two years he will break the record set by John Sparkman as the longest serving Senator in Alabama history. But, more significantly, he will become Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Trump election changes the entire political landscape in Alabama politics. More than likely, President Trump will appoint our Senator, Jeff Sessions, to a major cabinet position – more than likely Secretary of Defense. Sessions will probably accept this prestigious and powerful post.
Folks this leaves a vacant U.S. Senate seat in the Heart of Dixie. There are probably a dozen major viable political figures who will pursue this coveted once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Governor Bentley will appoint Session’s successor. However, whoever gets the appointment will have to run in 2018.
Bentley has been unorthodox and unpredictable in his appointments. This one is by far the most significant of his tenure. Some speculation is that he might appoint himself or a close advisor. Others say he will appoint Attorney General Luther Strange, who will probably run for the post in 2018, regardless. Some say the inside track belongs to Perry Hooper, Jr., who has statewide name identification from his role as Trump’s front man in the state and has a staunch conservative lifetime GOP pedigree.
If you thought we had a good year awaiting us in 2018, it has become exponentially more titillating. We will have a governor’s race, U.S. Senate race, and every constitutional office is up for grabs, as well as all 140 State House and Senate seats. It will be quite a year and believe me, it has already begun.
See you next week.
November 09, 2016
You know the outcome of the election. Unfortunately I had to go to press with the column prior to Tuesday. We will analyze the results for you next week. There should be very few surprises.
The Electoral College System of selecting our President favors a Democrat winning the White House. Under this archaic and undemocratic system, it is a winner take all electoral vote contest. For example, if Hillary Clinton carries New York by one vote, she gets all 29 electoral votes. If Donald Trump gets one more vote than Clinton in Kansas, he gets all 6 electoral votes.
When you look at the map of the red Republican states carried by Trump, it looks like most of the country. The middle of America is Republican but those states have fewer people. The east and west coasts of the country are fortressed by New York and California.
It is easy to see that the east and west coast outweigh Middle America. The country is trending leftward philosophically. That is why California is referred to as the left coast. The country is also changing dramatically demographically. An amazing 15% of our U.S. Electorate is Hispanic. That makes this vote the most important ingredient in the presidential contest. These voters are not totally predictable, unlike African American voters, which comprise 12% of the electorate. African American voters monolithically vote 95% Democratic. Therefore, their votes are predetermined and they are not courted. Most southern whites are the same way. They vote 90% Republican.
We in Alabama really do not have a say in presidential politics. Indeed very few Americans do. If Donald Duck was the Republican nominee for president, Donald Duck would carry Alabama. However, do not feel left out. If you lived in California you do not matter either. California has over 10% of the nation’s people. They have 48 electoral votes. They are so liberal and Democratic that if Mickey Mouse was the Democratic nominee, he would carry California and garner all of their electoral votes.
There are about 40 states that are predictably safe in either the Republican or Democratic column, similar to Alabama and California. All the money is spent and campaigning is done in the 10 pivotal battleground states.
The ultimate swing state is Florida. The Sunshine State is now America’s third most populous state. It is a microcosm of America, probably because most of America has moved there to retire. Therefore, if you want your vote to count in a presidential race, move down to Florida. It would also make it easier to buy your lottery tickets. You can probably look at Florida and whoever carried Florida Tuesday won the White House.
Our state elections are also pretty much no contests in the November general election. We are a solidly Republican state. All of our statewide officials are Republican. If you want to win in Alabama you have to do it in the Republican primary.
Our senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby will be reelected to a 5th six-year term. He will soon be Alabama’s longest serving U.S. Senator. He has also been one of our most powerful. He will join the ranks of Lister Hill and John Sparkman as Alabama’s three greatest U.S. Senators.
Popular PSC President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh will be reelected to her second four-year term. She was first elected to the commission in 2010.
Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker will be reelected to another six-year term. He was the largest vote getter in the Republican primaries earlier this year.
Kelli Wise will also be reelected to another six-year term on the State Supreme Court. The Geneva County native may be the prettiest Supreme Court Justice in America.
All six of our Republican members of Congress will have been reelected on Tuesday. Bradley Byrne, Martha Roby, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks and Gary Palmer will continue to represent the Heart of Dixie in a very conservative fashion for another two years. Terri Sewell will continue to be our only Democrat.
Tuesday’s election may be the last that would require residents to prove that they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote. A federal appeals court appears likely to side with voting rights groups seeking to block Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from requiring proof of citizenship.
See you next week.
November 02, 2016
We will vote to select the 44th President Tuesday. The next President will be a New Yorker. Whoever is selected will enter the Oval office with the most unfavorable poll ratings of any President in recent memory. This election will epitomize the old adage that George Wallace once told and that is, “more folks vote against someone than for someone.”
There is no question that our country is drifting to the left in ideology. We in Alabama are conservative, pro-life, pro-gun, Christians with a desire for a strong military and sound fiscal government. All of these philosophical tenets align with the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is on the opposite side. We have two very diverse parties in America.
Another maxim that George Wallace espoused as he traversed the country running for President as a third party candidate was that there is not a dimes worth of difference in the national Democratic and Republican parties. He would have a hard time saying that with a straight face today. Folks, there is a vast difference.
This presidential selection is a crucial pivotal crossroads election in our nation’s future. The primary reason is because the next President’s power to appoint at least one justice to the Supreme Court and probably at least two or three more.
This Supreme Court appointment power is immense because with divided Executive and Legislative branches of government the influence and decisions of the Supreme Court become omnipotent.
An appointment to the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment and most of them stay their entire life. Therefore, any of the next President’s appointments will remain on the high tribunal for decades, well past the next President’s four or eight year reign.
The death earlier this year of Justice Antonin Scalia removed one of the most reliably Republican jurists on the Court. The Republican majority U.S. Senate has thwarted Barack Obama’s appointment of another liberal to the Supreme Court. However, there will have to be an appointment and consent by the Senate next year. Regardless of whether the GOP retains control of the Senate.
The current Court without Scalia is considered broadly to be made up of four liberals and four conservatives. However, one of those considered a conservative is really a moderate drifting to the left. Justice Anthony Kennedy has been a swing vote when the Court had nine.
Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas are considered conservative. There are four hardcore liberals, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Kagan and Sotomayor were appointed by Obama. They are both young by Supreme Court standards. Sotomayor is 62 and Kagan is only 56. These two liberals will be on the Court for probably two more decades.
The other two liberals will more than likely vacate the bench one way or the other during the next President’s tenure. Stephen Breyer is 78 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83. She appears to be teetering and she has suggested that she would like for Hillary Clinton to be able to appoint her successor.
The three conservatives may be on the Court for the foreseeable future. Chief Justice John Roberts is only 61, Samuel Alito is 66, and Clarence Thomas is 67. Roberts was appointed by George W. Bush, as was Alito. Thomas was appointed by George Bush, Sr. The Court’s moderate, Anthony Kennedy, is a Californian appointed by Ronald Reagan. Kennedy is 80 years old.
It appears that Kennedy at 80, Ginsburg at 83, and possibly Breyer at 78, could vacate the Court during the next presidency. Therefore, your vote next Tuesday is not only a vote for President but also a vote that will affect the Supreme Court.
Many times we overlook the Amendments on the ballot. However, it is important to vote yes on Amendment 14. It has no opposition and is located near the end of the ballot. If it is not passed over 700 vital local bills impacting every county throughout the state would be affected. I urge you to vote for Amendment 14 on November 8th.
See you next week.
October 26, 2016
The year was 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, especially the Senate. 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 stone wall to get it passed 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 in his 1962 campaign. The white southern voter was determined to stand firm against integration and was poised to vote for the most ardent segregationists on the ballot.
Our congressional delegation was Democratic, all eight Congressmen and both Senators. All had come to Washington during the Roosevelt New Deal Era and were somewhat progressive. They had been the sponsors of legislation to help poor Southerners during the Depression. Our two U.S. Senators, John Sparkman and Lister Hill, had a combined forty years of service. Hill was up for reelection in 1962.
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 to a fifth six-year term. It was expected to be a coronation. He was reserved, aristocratic, and almost above campaigning. Hill was also soft on the race issue. He was a progressive who refused to race-bait.
Out of nowhere a handsome, articulate, Gadsden businessman, Jim Martin, appeared on the scene. Martin was 42, born in Tarrant City, 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, serving as an intelligence officer in the Army of Occupation, and rising to the rank of major. After the war he went to work for Amoco Oil and married a Miss Alabama – Pat McDaniel 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 it was obvious 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, 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 Nixon in 1968. Regardless, he was the John the Baptist of the Southern Republican sweep of 1964, and the father of the modern Republican Party in Alabama.
That 1962 Senate race was a precursor of what was to come in 1964.
See you next week.
October 19, 2016
Ole Bill Baxley has been in the news a lot this year. He was the lead defense counsel for former Speaker Mike Hubbard’s ethics conviction trial over in Opelika. Baxley practices law in Birmingham and is one of the state’s premier and most expensive criminal defense lawyers. Like a good many of the top defense attorneys, Baxley was first a prosecutor and a doggone good one.
Baxley was born and raised in Dothan, the heart of the Wiregrass. His family was one of the original settling families in Houston County. His daddy Keener Baxley was the Circuit Judge in Houston and Henry counties. Mr. Keener had been the District Attorney prior to going on the bench. Bill grew up in his daddy’s courtroom. There was no doubt in his mind that he would be a lawyer.
Baxley was a child protégé. He also had a meteoric rise in Alabama politics. He finished Dothan High School at 16, the University of Alabama at 20 and Law School at 22. He became the District Attorney in Houston and Henry Counties at the age of 24. He was elected Attorney General of Alabama at the ripe old age of 28 and served eight years as the state’s top prosecutor. Unlike many of the recent attorney generals, who actually know nothing about criminal prosecution, Baxley though young was well qualified and an effective prosecutor. Baxley was elected lieutenant governor in 1982 and ran second for governor twice, once in 1978 and again in 1986.
Bill Baxley like most politicians had his favorite stories and jokes. His best that he told repeatedly throughout the years took place in October over 50 years ago. It was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Most of us thought our world was coming to an end. The story was about an ole guy named Squatlow. I am not sure whether this story is true or not but it could very well be true.
Squatlow got his nickname because he would squat down low to the ground whenever he talked with folks. Ole Squatlow would hunker down with a chew of tobacco in his mouth and gossip and swap stories all day.
Baxley was a young District Attorney for Houston and Henry Counties. Dothan and Houston County has about 90 percent of the people in the Circuit with Henry County being the home to about 10 percent. Baxley was a youthful 25-year-old district attorney and would travel to Court on occasion in Henry County to prosecute the few criminals they had in Henry County.
Baxley like most politicians would stop at a country store and drink a coke with the rural folks in the area. Henry County is a very sparsely populated rural county in the Wiregrass with two small towns, Abbeville and Headland. Abbeville happens to be the county seat.
Squatlow had a mechanic shop/gas station/grocery store in the obscure community of Tumbleton in Henry County. His whole world was no bigger than that county. The biggest places he had ever been were Abbeville and Headland with a population of about 1,000 people each.
Well, they may have been back in the woods, but they knew about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the standoff between the United States and Russia. It was a scary situation. I think most people were afraid that a nuclear war was imminent. The whole world was on edge.
During the week of this crisis, Baxley while traveling to court in Henry County, stopped by Squatlow’s store in Tumbleton. Squatlow and all the folks in the little community were scared. This was obviously the topic of conversation that day.
Ole Squatlow sauntered down in his lowest squatting position and just shook his head. “You know, I’ve been thinking about it all night, and I just know those damn Russians are going to bomb Abbeville. Yeah, they gonna drop one of them atom bombs right on Abbeville” said old Squatlow.
Baxley looked at Squatlow and said, “Squatlow, why in the world would the Russians drop a bomb on Abbeville, Alabama?” Squatlow looked at Baxley like he was the most stupid person he had ever seen. He shook his head at how ignorant this young, 25-year-old lawyer was. He looked at Baxley and said, “Boy, don’t you know nothing? Don’t you know that Abbeville is the County Seat of Henry County?”
See you next week.
October 12, 2016
Our junior U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions has risen to national prominence in this pivotal presidential year. His arch conservative senate voting record and impeccable pedigree as one of the most rock solid Republicans in the U.S. Senate has made him a marquee persona among right wing Fox News conservatives throughout the country.
During the GOP Primary debates earlier this year, the aspirants would refer to him and insinuate that Sessions was in their corner. However, the ultimate victor, Donald Trump, won the early support of Sessions primarily due to their common opinion on immigration.
It is no secret that Trump reveres and trusts Sessions. In fact, Sessions has evolved into Trump’s foremost confidant both politically and philosophically. Without question, Sessions is closer to Trump than any member of the Senate. If Trump were to be elected, Trump could appoint Sessions to the Supreme Court.
Jeff Sessions would unquestionably become a social conservative stalwart on the Court. If this were to occur he would be only the second Alabamian in a century to be named to the nation’s high tribunal.
The last Alabamian named to the Supreme Court was Hugo Black. If Sessions is appointed to the Supreme Court, the contrast in the two legacies of Sessions and Black would be remarkable.
Probably the most enduring legacy a president will have is an appointment to the United States Supreme Court. This lifetime powerful appointment will be lasting. The nine Justices of the Supreme Court have omnipotent everlasting power over most major decisions affecting issues and public policy in our nation.
Our new president will not only fill the one seat vacant now due to the death of Justice Scalia, but probably two more. These appointments may be their most lasting legacy.
It may come as a surprise to you since Alabama is currently considered one of the most conservative places in America but Alabamian Hugo Black was arguably one of the most liberal Supreme Court Justices in history. He was also one of the longest serving Justices. Black was the fifth longest serving Supreme Court Justice. He sat on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Nearly 35 of his 85 years on earth were spent on the Supreme Court.
Hugo Black, like most folks and heroes of that era in Alabama history, was born on a farm. He was born in rural Clay County in 1886. He was the youngest child of a large family. He worked his way through the University of Alabama Law School under the tutelage of President George Denny. He shoveled coal to stoke the furnaces at the University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
He began practicing law in Birmingham at 22 years old. He became a Jefferson County Prosecutor and then World War I broke out. He served in the War and rose to the rank of Captain. In 1926 at age 40, Black was elected to the United States Senate. He arrived in the Senate at the beginning of the Great Depression. During his entire tenure in the Senate, America was in the throes of the Depression. Folks who endured this era were marked by it.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the White House in 1932. His New Deal was the most legendary political accomplishment in American history. Black became one of FDR’s staunchest allies. He voted for 24 out of 24 of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
Alabama benefited mightily from FDR’s New Deal, especially, rural Alabama and the Tennessee Valley. Roosevelt rewarded Alabama’s junior senator with a coveted seat on the Supreme Court. He was one of nine justices appointed by President Roosevelt during his 13 year reign as president.
Black was a liberal New Dealer in the Senate and liberals were pleased by the Justice from Alabama’s tenure over the next 35 years. Liberals regard Black as one of the most influential Supreme Court Justices of the 20th Century. He literally hung his hat on the 14th Amendment. He was part of the court decision that declared school racial segregation illegal in the famous Brown v. Board of Education decision.
It is probably unbelievable to most Americans that Alabama’s only contribution to the Supreme Court is one of its most liberal justices in history.
Believe me, there would be quite a difference in philosophy between the ultra-liberal Hugo Black and the ultra-conservative Jeff Sessions, which illustrates the historical change in Alabama politics.
See you next week.