June 01, 2016
Sometimes the best thing that the legislature can do in a session is to pass very little legislation. That can be said of this year’s regular legislative session, which ended several weeks ago. Not many bills made it through the legislative labyrinth.
Gov. Robert Bentley made a proposed $800 million prison construction bond issue the cornerstone of his legislative agenda. It failed but not surprising given Bentley’s irrelevance in the legislative process. The surprising aspect is that the proposal got any traction at all. It came close to passing even though it looked like something that Gerald Wallace would dream up.
Bentley’s prison proposal called for borrowing $800 million in a bond issue with no concrete way to pay back the debt from a disastrously broke General Fund budget. It was a total secret as to where the four prisons were going to be built. I am sure this resonated well with senators and representatives who have prisons in their district or close by. Those prisons in places like Escambia, St. Clair, Elmore and Barbour, to name a few, are the largest employers in those counties.
There are also serious questions about the design method proposed for the men’s prisons that would have allowed a single architectural firm to get the contract for all three mega men’s prisons. In addition, one general contractor was going to get the contract for all four prisons. One bonding firm was going to get the deal to float the bonds. It sounds to me like some folks were going to get rich on this deal. Legislators were asked to buy a pig in a poke.
Legislators did pass both budgets. In fact, they passed them early in the session. Since passing the budgets is the only constitutional mandate for a session, I would give this session a C+. However, since they killed some bad legislation, I might rate the session a B-. Then again, their failure to vote to allow their constituents the opportunity to vote on a lottery may drop them back to a C.
It is beyond comprehension how a legislator could not vote to let their people vote on keeping their money in state. Alabamians buy lottery tickets. They just drive to Georgia, Florida and Tennessee to get them. Thus, giving our money to these states. It is as though they are saying, here Florida, we are so rich you can have some of our money.
They chose instead to cut the Medicaid budget, which will force cuts to services like adult’s and children’s pharmacy and outpatient dialysis. It will also lead to cuts in payments to physicians. Medicaid undergirds Alabama’s entire healthcare delivery system. More than half the births in the state and 47 percent of the children, as well as 60 percent of Alabama’s nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid. Bentley had repeatedly asked for more money for Medicaid but the legislature ignored his pleas.
The governor was on the sidelines on a proposed gas tax increase for roads and bridges in the state. This proposal never really got off the ground. It appears that the road builders and certain mayors have very little influence in the legislature.
Even though the legislature passed a barebones General Fund budget, which cuts state services and state employees’ take home pay again, the Special Education Budget was another story. With the upturn in the economy the Education coffers are flush.
The state’s $6.3 billion Education Trust Fund Budget was the largest since 2008. It included increases for transportation, classroom supplies and a four percent raise for teachers. The Budget also provided full funding for Education Employees Health Insurance (PEEHIP). However, that increase was offset by the PEEHIP Board voting to increase the cost of individual plans from $15-$30 a month and family plans from $177 to $207 a month.
There were hints by the Governor that a Special Session may be called for late summer to address the Medicaid problem and his prison bond issue. However, with clouds hovering over the Governor and Speaker of the House, the spectacle of a Special Session is doubtful.
See you next week.
May 25, 2016
A few weeks ago former Alabama Chief Justice Perry O. Hooper Sr. died at his home in Montgomery at age 91. He was the epitome of the southern gentleman. He was also one of the founding fathers of the modern Republican Party in Alabama.
Hooper Sr. was a GOP leader long before it was cool to be a Republican in Alabama. He was the state’s longtime National Committee Chairman as well as a onetime party chairman. Many of Hooper’s early GOP stalwarts, like Wynton Blount and Jim Martin, used to jest that there were so few Republicans in the state that they could call a state executive committee meeting or convention in a phone booth.
Hooper was a marine as a young man. He graduated from Birmingham Southern and then the University of Alabama School of Law. During this time, he married the love of his life, a beautiful Kappa Delta at Alabama from Montgomery, “Mrs. Marilyn.”
He began his law career in Montgomery. He was elected Probate Judge of Montgomery County in 1964 and reelected in 1970. In 1974, he was elected as a Circuit Judge in Montgomery. In those Montgomery judgeships, he was the first Republican elected since Reconstruction. However, he became the ultimate Republican political pioneer in 1994 when he became the first Republican Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. In fact, he was the first Republican State Justice since Reconstruction.
Today, Republicans hold all nine seats on the Alabama Supreme Court. Hooper broke the ice and paved the way. As a jurist, Judge Hooper was seen as a role model for other judges. He was nonpartisan and fair. Both Democrat and Republican lawyers said he was friendly and treated them with respect and regard in his courtroom.
Suburban Alabamians began voting Republican in the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon presidential race. In fact, Nixon carried Montgomery. The tide turned totally in 1964. The state voted overwhelmingly for Barry Goldwater in what became known as the Southern Goldwater landslide.
Alabamians not only voted for the Republican standard bearer, Goldwater, but a good many pulled the straight Republican lever. This Goldslide put five new Republican congressmen in office, including Bill Dickinson, Jack Edwards and Jim Martin. Judge Hooper also rode this tidal wave to become Montgomery Probate Judge. He used the slogan “Put Barry in the White House and Perry in the Courthouse.” However, this would not to be his toughest race.
Hooper’s perseverance and resolve were exemplary as he won the 1994 State Supreme Court Race and broke the stranglehold that the plaintiff trial lawyers and Democrats held on the Supreme Court. At that time, the state’s and nation’s business community was incensed at the jackpot justice haven that Alabama had fostered. They were determined to root out the plaintiff lawyer oriented/Democratic court. We were called “tort hell” in a cover story by Time Magazine.
The Business Council of Alabama backed Hooper. They also hired one Karl Rove to work on the campaign. The Alabama trial lawyers backed incumbent Sonny Hornsby. It was a bitter and expensive campaign. Hooper narrowly beat Hornsby in the November election by less than 300 votes out of 1.1 million cast. Hornsby and the trial lawyers challenged the election. After a long court battle and several recounts, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Hooper the winner by a final margin of 262 votes.
After Hooper’s win in 1994 the wall was lifted. The Republicans swept the court and have not relinquished any of the seats on the State Supreme Court.
Due to the state’s mandatory age limitation of 70 for judges, Hooper could not run again in 2000. However, if he could have run, his reelection would have been much easier than in 1994.
Judge Hooper is survived by his wife of 63 years, Marilyn, along with his sons, John, Walter, Conwell and Perry Hooper, Jr. and a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Perry Hooper, Jr., affectionately known as “Perry O.”, was my best legislative buddy. He has enjoyed a stellar career highlighted by 20 years as a State Representative from Montgomery.
Judge Hooper was a fine gentleman.
See you next week.
May 18, 2017
Last week we talked about how difficult it is to win passage of a legislative act. It does not matter if the proposed legislation is for apple pie and motherhood. If for nothing else, the bill has to go before both House and Senate committees, win approval, and not get an amendment put on it. If it gets an amendment on it, it has to basically start all over again. It then has to get placed on the special order calendar set by the Rules Committee and there are hundreds of bills waiting to get on this calendar and only a few bills ever get on the calendar each day and there are only 30 legislative days in the session. If it gets on the calendar, it then has to pass both chambers and hopefully the governor is also for apple pie and motherhood, because if he vetoes it, it has to start all over again.
Let me give you an example of a piece of apple pie and motherhood legislation I was asked to sponsor when I was a freshman legislator. There was a quirk in Alabama criminal law that allowed the family of a criminal defendant to be in the courtroom during a criminal trial but, unbelievably, the family of the crime victim could not be in the courtroom. The Victims of Crime Leniency (“VOCAL”) sought to correct this injustice.
VOCAL asked me to sponsor its bill and work for its passage. I worked diligently on the bill. The press gave the bill glowing editorials for its fairness. We got the bill out of the House, where it passed overwhelmingly. When it got to the Senate it was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was Sen. Earl Hilliard from Jefferson County. He was opposed to the bill and as Chairman of the Committee, he “deep sixed” it and would not let it out of committee. No amount of haranguing from VOCAL or bad press could budge Earl.
Then, one day I was on the floor of the House and the VOCAL leader, Mrs. Miriam Shehane, called me out to the lobby. She said Earl would not be in Montgomery that day but the Senate Judiciary Committee was meeting and the Vice Chairman was going to bring up our bill out of order. We quickly went to the 6th floor and whisked our bill out of the Judiciary Committee. It won final approval in the Senate a few weeks later and became law. The old truism, “It takes an act of Congress,” is very accurate, especially in politics.
Also during legislative sessions, I am asked by people if their letter makes a difference. My response is, yes, definitely. Most legislators and congressmen want to know what their constituents are thinking. They generally want to vote like their districts feel. I would cherish this input and actually solicited it. Let me share with you a story which illustrates how important a letter to a legislator can become.
One year, I received a note from one of my favorite retired teachers. She had not only taught me but also taught my mom and dad. She was as fine a lady as I had ever known. Her note simply asked me to vote for some issue I perceived as not very controversial. I was not even cognizant of the issue until she made me aware of it, but she even referred to it by bill number. It did not pertain to education and like I said, it did not appear to have much opposition or controversy. I do not even remember what the issue was, now. However, because I revered this lady, I called her and told her due to her interest I would vote for the measure. I kept her note on my desk with the bill number referenced.
Lo and behold, about halfway through the legislative session, I saw the bill on the special order calendar for the day. I got primed for the vote. I voted for the bill simply because of the letter from my former teacher. To my amazement, I looked up at the large electronic vote tally machine and the bill passed by only one vote. One vote can make a difference.
See you next week.
May 11, 2016
For the past five or six years the legislature has pretty much cut state government to the bone. One of the areas that legislators have taken an ax to are Alabama’s cultural heritage agencies. These organizations throughout the state have taken it on the chin.
There is an informal partnership of seven state agencies that have sought to educate Alabamians about the importance of our rich and dynamic history. The alliance is comprised of the Alabama Agricultural Museum in Dothan, Brierfield Ironworks Historical State Park in Brierfield, Tannehill Ironworks State Park in McCalla, the Historic Blakely Authority in Spanish Fort, the historic Chattahoochee Commission in Eufaula, the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile and the St. Stephens Historical Commission in St. Stephens.
This alliance’s membership of educational institutions represents nearly two centuries of combined service to Alabamians in promoting and preserving the state’s history. These institutions have played a significant role in the cultural life of our state by educating residents and visitors to the state about our past. Their work runs the gambit from Alabama’s rich Native American history to its formative years and the important role in the Civil War to the vital role of the agriculture and iron industries in Alabama’s development. They preserve some of our state’s most special places and provide a crucial resource for educators. They are preserving Alabama’s heritage.
In fact, the tourism dollars generated annually by these agencies more than offset the modest appropriations they formally receive from the legislature. These agencies core functions are educational in nature.
These cultural history agencies are small potatoes in state spending. However, our state roads are another story and they are falling apart. At least 15% of the state’s urban roads are in very poor condition and another 35% are rated as mediocre. This is according to a recent report from TRIP, a national transportation research group. The same study revealed that 25% of Alabama’s bridges are deemed structurally deficient.
Since 2012 the state has had a windfall in federal money to help with our road and bridge building in the state. This joint federal state project known as ATRIP, an acronym for Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program, has been a godsend for rural roads in the state. Many a county commissioner has praised the lord for this manna from heaven. This program has been a $1 billion boost to help counties repair and improve roads and bridges. However, ATRIP is coming to an end.
Our state road program and entire transportation is funded totally with revenue from gasoline taxes. In fact, they are separate from the General Fund and operate autonomously from the rest of the state agencies. The Alabama Department of Transportation has been a good steward with its money. It has put its resources into proper projects without regard to politics. In past years, governors used road projects to reward their friends and punish their enemies. The current Bentley administration has chosen a businessman to head the agency and the agency has made the most important arteries and roadways a priority.
The current gasoline tax of 18 cents per gallon has been the same since 1993. As you know, things like equipment and materials have gone up significantly since then. In addition, more fuel-efficient cars have hit the road causing a decrease in revenue. Some legislators and mayors are seeking a gas tax increase in either this year or next year’s legislative session.
During legislative sessions a good many of you have asked why straightforward, no nonsense, good government legislation fails to pass even though it appears to have universal and overwhelming support.
You will remember old sayings you heard from your elders when you were young. One of these sage adages, “It takes an act of congress” pertains to getting something accomplished. In politics, there is no clearer truism. It is hard to pass a piece of legislation through congress and it is as equally difficult to channel a bill through the labyrinth of legislative approval in Alabama.
Ask any successful lobbyist or legislator which side they would rather be on in legislative wars and they will tell you that they much prefer to be against a bill than trying to pass it. It is much harder to steer a bill through the legislative process than it is to kill a bill. The Senate rules are such that if a handful of the 35 Senators are adamantly opposed to something then they can easily kill the bill. That is why nothing much happens in the legislature.
See you next week.
May 4, 2016
At this time of year Washington, D.C. is a beautiful place to visit. The city is aglow with the blooming of the cherry blossom trees. The cherry blossoms offer a glorious scene as you stroll down the mall and look toward our nation’s capital. This scene has been glimpsed by tourists and visitors for over a century.
Each year the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates a 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the United States. The current Cherry Blossom Festival has grown tremendously. It is now one of our nation’s greatest springtime celebrations. The first festival was held in 1927, and it has continued to grow over the years. The festival grew to two weeks beginning in 1944. In 2012, the festival expanded to five weeks to honor the 100 year anniversary of the gift of the trees.
Over the years, millions have participated in the events and viewed the flowering cherry trees. Today more than 1.5 million people visit Washington to admire the blossoming cherry trees in our nation’s capital.
Last April I spent several days walking the Potomac and enjoying the festival and cherry blossoms. It was indeed a magnificent sight. As I walked past the Jefferson Memorial and into the heart of the blossoms that surround the tidal basin, my mind wandered back in time and I began to think about the blossoming relationship that the gift of the trees signified between Japan and the U.S. In 1915, we reciprocated by giving the Japanese an equal number of dogwood trees. Little did we know that 24 years later the Japanese would attack us on a Sunday morning in December of 1941.
World War II was the most epic war in our nation’s history. Our nation united like no time in our history in response to the war. The World War II years and the two decades after the War was a magical time to serve in Congress. Many of the images we have of Congress were established during the decades of 1941-1961. Many of the legendary icons of congressional history reigned during this time.
Congressional power was immense during those years and at the front and center of this pinnacle of power was our Alabama delegation. We were the most powerful state in the nation when it came to leadership and seniority. Our representatives and senators not only had power based on their seniority, they were also very well respected and erudite gentlemen.
Gentlemen is the proper description because all ten members of our congressional delegation were men. Both senators and all eight of our congressmen were white male Democrats. If you look back to an early spring day in 1964, you would see a senatorial team from Alabama that was the envy of every state in the nation. Our senatorial duo of Lister Hill and John Sparkman was unparalleled.
Strolling along the Potomac from Alabama at that time was an eight member congressional delegation that boasted of over 120 years of seniority in Washington. These gentlemen were similar in backgrounds. It is as though they were born planning their paths to Congress. Amazingly all eight graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law and were all attorneys by profession.
On a Sunday afternoon in mid-April you would likely see some of our delegation casually strolling by the Jefferson Memorial toward the tidal basin admiring the brilliant cherry blossoms in bloom. Among the group were the likes of George Andrews, George Grant, Albert Rains, Bob Jones, Carl Elliot, Armistead Seldon, Kenneth Roberts and George Huddleston.
Little did they know that six months later their stellar congressional careers would be snuffed out by straight ticket republican voting in Alabama. The tidal wave that swept them out of office was spawned by Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964. White Southerners were so incensed that they voted not only for Goldwater but every other Republican on the ballot. All of our delegation voted against the Civil Rights Act. However, it did not matter. White southern voters took no prisoners. African Americans did not vote in 1964. Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act the next year in 1965.
The only members of our delegation to survive the Goldwater landslide tidal wave were Bob Jones, Armistead Selden and George Andrews. If Hill or Sparkman had been on the ballot that year they would probably not have persevered the onslaught. Alabama lost over 100 years of seniority in one fell swoop.
See you next week.
April 27, 2016
As the budget hearings began for the 2016 Legislative Session in January the largest Powerball lottery sweepstakes in American history was playing out. It was one of the biggest news stories of the year, thus far.
Legislators were hearing the same song second verse that they heard last year. The General Fund is about $200 million short. If the money is not found, we will lose $500 million in Medicaid federal matching dollars, most state highways will be without state troopers, and most counties, not just in the Black Belt, will be unable to grant or renew driver’s licenses. In addition, the federal courts will take over our prisons and more than likely release hundreds of convicts on the streets and state employees will either be let go or have their take home pay cut again for the eighth straight year.
At the same time that legislators were hearing that Alabama needs $200 million to make ends meet, most of their constituents were buying lottery tickets in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee and the rest were going to Biloxi to the casinos. Ironically, the amount of money that Alabama would receive from having their money stay in state from a lottery is $200 million.
Most Alabamians find it ludicrous that we allow our money to exit the state to our neighboring states. Alabama and Utah are the only two states in America who derive no state revenue from gambling. We are one of only five of the 50 states who have no lottery. Our neighboring state of Mississippi does not have a lottery because they get most of their state revenue from casino gambling.
The largest number of lottery tickets sold in the recent Powerball in Tennessee, Florida and Georgia were in outlets on the border of Alabama and guess who was buying the tickets? You guessed right, Alabamians. They say the lines on the Florida border were so long that they backed up to Andalusia and Atmore.
The last time that Alabamians were allowed to vote on a lottery was 1999. It lost on a narrow vote because of the large amount of pork and questionable spending attached to the constitutional amendment. State Senator Jim McClendon (R-St. Clair) has come with a clean lottery proposal. It is very simple. It succinctly calls for a yes or no vote on an Alabama owned lottery. The proposal does not lay out any details for the operations of the program nor does it spell out how the money would be spent.
If passed by the legislature it would go before voters in the November general election. The legislature would then establish a lottery in the 2017 Regular Session.
Sen. McClendon in announcing his reason for offering the legislation said that he was simply trying to respond to demands of his constituents who have told him, “Let us vote. We want to vote.” He added, “I have heard it time and time again.”
At least one legislator is listening to his people who sent him to Montgomery. The hew and cry from throughout the state is deafening. People want to vote. Polling reveals that the lottery would pass by a two to one margin at this time if put on the ballot. My guess is that it would be more like three to one. Alabamians are sick and tired of their money funding the governments of Florida and Georgia.
Democrats in the House and Senate want the lottery to be similar to Georgia’s, which allows all the money to accrue only to education.
The people of Alabama want the right to vote. It is hard to understand how a legislator could justify not voting to allow his or her constituents the right to vote on this issue.
Alabamians gamble and Alabamians buy lottery tickets. They want their money to stay home. As Sen. McClendon said his people, who by the way are mostly Republican in a non-border suburban Jefferson and rural area of the state are telling him, “Let us vote,” then most Alabamians are telling their representatives and senators the same thing.
A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers, 63 votes in the House and 21 votes in the Senate to allow a vote of the people on the lottery issue.
See you next week.
April 20, 2016
Some of you may have seen and remember the movie, Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. In the comedy, Murray awakens on Groundhog Day and has the identical day that he had the previous year, similar to Yogi Berra’s colloquial saying of “déjà vu all over again.” Well folks, this year’s legislative session began on Groundhog Day and it is déjà vu all over again. It is like it is last year again.
Similar to the way realtors say, “it is location, location, location,” with Alabama government it is the General Fund, General Fund, General Fund. Several legislators optimistically predicted that they would have the budgets out by the middle of the session.
In budget hearings, General Fund agencies requested $250 million more than the current $1.7 billion in this year’s budget and as is usually the case there has been no revenue growth. Last year Gov. Robert Bentley offered a $540 million tax increase package for the General Fund. Lawmakers systematically rebuked his proposal. It took three sessions for the legislature to finally pass a budget. However, it failed to address long term budget needs.
The 800-pound gorilla in the room is Medicaid. It is a money eating monster, which eats up all the General Fund money. Almost 20% of all Alabamians are on Medicaid. It provides healthcare for nearly one million low income Alabamians, most of them children. The problem is that if you cut state funding to Medicaid, you lose a gigantic match of federal dollars. For example, if you cut state Medicaid funding by $100 million, which the legislature is proposing, it will result in a loss of $1 billion in federal funds.
The legislature balanced the General Fund budget last year by transferring $80 million from Education dollars, which may be unconstitutional. Gov. Bentley is proposing the same remedy this year. However, he would like to see $180 million taken away from funds earmarked by the constitution for Education.
The idea of balancing the budget with Education’s money has received a cool reception from the legislative leadership. After the Governor’s State of the State address on February 2, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) said, “I would be surprised to see those dollars come from education.”
In his annual speech to the legislature, Gov. Bentley offered a myriad of proposals without any thoughts or ideas on how to pay for them. In his platitudes he especially heralded proposals to help improve healthcare access. However, expansion of Medicaid was conspicuously missing. Despite recommendations from his own task force to implement Medicaid expansion, it was never mentioned in his hour long speech to the legislature.
This is a sore subject with Democrats in the House and Senate. Democrats make up about 30% of the legislature. They are adamant about expanding Medicaid. They argue that the state is losing out on billions of federal dollars from Washington. They have a vocal ally in Dr. David Bronner, who vehemently says it is foolish to not take advantage of this federal windfall.
Bentley is hanging his hat on the implementation of Regional Care Organizations (RCO’s). RCO’s would shift from a fee for service model to one that allocates money based on health care outcomes. Bentley hopes this move will encourage more preventative care and less hospital use, hopefully slowing the growth of costs in the program.
Speaking of Bentley, at a time when the General Fund is broke, he chose to give all his Cabinet members huge raises. Four Cabinet members alone were given raises of $73,400 per year thus increasing their salaries from $91,000 to $164,400. By the way, regular state employees have not seen a raise in eight years and have actually lost take home pay with increased costs of their health insurance. This did not sit well with the legislature. They immediately cut the governor’s personal budget by $330,000.
The legislature had not only rendered Bentley irrelevant in the budgetary process, they have begun to treat him with disdain. This latest rebuke appears as though they look upon him like a petulant child.
See you next week.
April 13, 2016
There appears to be very little interest in promoting an effort to impeach Governor Robert Bentley.
With very few legislative days left in the session, legislators have a myriad of problems to deal with, not the least of which are the budgets, especially the General Fund. The financial woes surrounding the General Fund cloud the horizon and justly require more attention than the circus of an impeachment charade.
In this day of wiretapping, videophones, “burner” phones and loose tongues, most legislators do not want to risk the chance that Bentley could have them on the phone with their paramour. In addition, it would be the height of hypocrisy to have the Speaker of the House preside over an impeachment proceeding with a pending trial awaiting him in less than 30 days on 23 ethics law indictments.
It was obvious from the get go that the impeachment idea would get very little traction given the sponsor of the measure. Representative Ed Henry, a first term backbencher from Hartselle, is considered somewhat of a nut with a penchant for grandstanding. His colleagues in the House consider him a joke and refer to him as “Headline Henry.” It is common knowledge that Speaker Hubbard and the House leadership have relegated Henry to the backbench. They do not even recognize him when he seeks to speak. It would be hard for him to pass a resolution honoring apple pie and motherhood, much less pass a bill.
Furthermore, very few House or Senate members want to substitute Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey for Bentley. At least they know what they have in Bentley. They can push him around and basically ignore him. He has been relegated to a benign punch line. He can serve out his next two years cutting ribbons. However, they are not sure about a new lame duck.
Kay Ivey would have very little power, but she could be a loose cannon. Based on reliable sources the Poarch Creek Indians are clearly one of the driving forces behind the effort to have Gov. Robert Bentley impeached. The Poarch Creek Indians clearly would like to see Kay Ivey as Governor for a number of reasons, but primarily to protect their non-taxed monopoly of casino gambling in the state.
The Indian casinos are gearing up for the 2018 elections. However, legislators and gubernatorial aspirants clearly perceive that Alabamians are disenchanted with the “so called Indian Gambling” monopoly. The Indian money may be an albatross to any potential candidates.
This distrust and disdain for the Indian casinos could be the political death for Attorney General Luther Strange. It is well known that Big Luther plans to run for governor in 2018. It is also rumored that Luther will be the Indian casinos’ horse. If that is the case it is very difficult to hide their money under the new campaign finance laws. They are also so arrogant that they pompously, like lizards, want to show their money. This could be the kiss of death for Luther.
On another front, it has gone under the radar with all the Bentley and Hubbard scandals, but the U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Alabama has stepped into the ring of the casino gambling circus. He may become the ringmaster under the tent.
It should be known by most 9th grade civics students and hopefully by now our Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, that the federal courts trump the state courts every day of the week. U.S. Attorney George Beck, a very well-respected man and attorney, has weighed in on what he calls an obvious discriminating enforcement of laws by the state.
In a March 21st letter to Luther Strange, Beck adamantly calls out the attorney general for flagrantly giving different and inequitable treatment to the Indians. He clearly asks the attorney general to clarify his position on the matter concerning the Indian casinos and Alabama casinos, especially VictoryLand. Beck focuses on the memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that Attorney General Strange forced the vendors at VictoryLand to sign, which have prevented VictoryLand from reopening.
We could have Gov. Robert Bentley, Speaker Mike Hubbard and Attorney General Luther Strange all in hot water at the same time.
See you next week.
April 06, 2016
In early 2009, Dr. Robert Bentley came to see me about his race for Governor of Alabama. Bentley was finishing his second term in the Alabama House of Representatives and closing down his very successful dermatology practice in Tuscaloosa.
I liked Bentley immediately and thought it was magnanimous that he would want to spend his retirement years as Governor. I did not give him much of a chance and predicted he would run a respectable third in the race. However, he surprised everybody, probably even himself.
I offered Bentley the opportunity to appear with me on my 30 minute Public Television show, “Alabama Politics.” He gladly accepted and arrived with only his wife, Diane. The two of them were traveling the state together with Diane driving him. After his victory, Bentley returned to the show as Governor with the usual entourage of staffers and troopers. One of the staffers was Rebekah Mason.
Dr. Bentley is a good man. He did an exemplary job his first four years as governor; although he inexplicably had a dismal track record with the Legislature. Even though they all were Republicans, the House and Senate treated him with complete disdain. Therefore, his first term lacked success as far as initiatives. Even still, Bentley remained extremely popular with the voters and was overwhelmingly reelected in 2014.
During Bentley’s first term, he stayed in touch and thanked me for favorable columns, but I heard very little from him during the 2014 campaign year. In January of 2015, when I sat down for an annual visit with a contemporary of mine, who is the most astute political guru in the state, I casually mentioned to my friend that I had not heard from the Governor all year. The gentleman, who by the way was an integral part of planning the governor’s inauguration replied, “Steve, nobody has.”
He privately told me that the Governor at 72 had fallen head-over-heels in love with his 45 year old girlfriend, Rebekah Mason, and was spending every waking hour with her. He further informed me that it was uncertain whether Bentley’s wife or four sons were going to attend the Inauguration. Mrs. Bentley was so fed up with his affair that she only acquiesced a few hours before the event.
Ironically, a week later I was standing in the Rotunda of the Capital after Governor Bentley’s State of the State speech and Rebekah Mason came up to me and said, “Steve, the Governor really appreciates the power of your pen and the first thing we do every Wednesday morning is I read your column to him.” I didn’t quite know what to say or take from the comment.
Well, as you know, Mrs. Bentley filed for divorce late last year. It was assumed that the dissolution of the 50 year marriage was over a romantic interlude, but the divorce was quickly settled and sealed. Dr. Bentley agreed to a 50 percent settlement with the agreement that there would be no comment about the divorce or peripheral reasons.
Surprisingly, the divorce and rumored relationship seemed to dissipate as an issue. The mainstream media left it alone. In the meantime, Mrs. Mason took on a significant role as the governor’s advisor and it appeared to all involved that she was the governor. Her overt, forthright and offensive approach in all important meetings with the governor further alienated Bentley from the legislative leadership.
A number of Bentley’s cabinet members are his former legislative buddies. His best legislative companion was Spencer Collier, who he made head of the ALEA. You know the rest of the story. When Bentley fired Collier he fired back. That gave the media the door they needed to open the Rebekah Mason can of worms. It is suspected that the salacious tapes were leaked to Collier by Ms. Bentley or a son.
The bottom line is Dr. Bentley has quietly fallen in love in his 70’s like a school boy although he looks like the least likely person in the world to have an affair. He has paid a heavy price for his transgression. He has lost half his life savings and is estranged from his wife of 50 years and his four sons.
However, Bentley has done nothing illegal that should prevent him from serving out the remainder of his term as Governor. Impeachment proceedings will go nowhere nor should they. The leadership in the House and Senate cannot withstand the same scrutiny. The Biblical admonition that Jesus evoked, “To those who are without sin cast the first stone,” applies to those who would castigate Bentley. There is also a more secular version of Jesus teachings, “Those who live in glass houses should not cast stones.”
See you next week.
March 30, 2016
This has been an exciting election year when it comes to presidential politics. It has been an extraordinarily unusual and unpredictable presidential contest to say the least, especially on the Republican side.
The GOP race began with an extraordinarily large field. There were 17 candidates as the race began, all with exceptional credentials. The one with the least experience and political resume is the one left standing. One Donald J. Trump has been the story of the year.
As we head into the last three months leading up to the nominating convention, conventional wisdom has Donald Trump being the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton being the Democratic nominee. If that indeed is the case, you will have two brash New Yorkers pitted against each other with the probability of a Titanic colorful dual headed into the fall campaign. It will be a fun show to watch. It will not be lacking for controversy, acrimony and entertainment.
We will have been an important part of the nominating process here in the Heart of Dixie. On Super Tuesday we were a part of the nationwide momentum that probably propelled Trump and Clinton to their parties’ respective nominations. We seem to be lockstep with the rest of the country as we have joined the Trump and Clinton trains.
In the past several presidential election cycles we in the south have been different than the rest of the country, particularly on the GOP ledger. We have sided with the evangelical candidate in the race. Not so this year. We here in Alabama, as well as all of our sister southern states, chose Trump in a resounding fashion.
Donald Trump, a less than humble, very worldly, casino owner and developer, won every Alabama county garnering 44% of the vote and collecting 36 of Alabama’s 50 delegates to the GOP convention. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the avowed evangelical candidate, was a distant second with 21% of the vote and will be allotted 13 delegates. Marco Rubio was third with 17%. Ben Carson got 10% and Governor Bentley’s choice, Ohio Governor John Kasich, received 4%.
Trump’s campaign brought out a record turnout on primary election day, as well as a record-breaking crowd in Madison/Huntsville the Sunday before the primaries. There were an estimated 25,000 people in attendance in Madison County, where our popular Junior U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions endorsed Trump. He had over 30,000 fans show up in Mobile when he first began his campaign last year. There have not been crowds that large in Alabama politics since the Wallace era.
There were 60% more people voting in our Republican primary than in 2008 and 40% more than 2012. These 865,000 Republican votes cast in our GOP primary - a record turnout - were primarily due to the fervor of the Trump campaign.
Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton beat socialist Bernie Sanders 80% to 20% due largely to a 90% support from Alabama's African-American voters. There were 382,000 Democratic voters on March 1.
Our Senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby won the Republican nomination to an unprecedented 6th six-year term with a very impressive victory. Shelby received 65% of the vote against four opponents. All four were political novices. However, getting 65% with four challengers is very strong.
Four incumbent Republican Congress people, who were challenged in the primary, won overwhelmingly. U.S. Representatives Robert Aderholt in the 4th, Mike Rogers in the 3rd, Martha Roby in the 2nd, and Bradley Byrne in the 1st districts, won big. Martha Roby and Bradley Byrne were challenged by extreme right wing candidates but prevailed impressively.
PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh defeated challenger Terry Dunn by a 63 to 37 margin. She will continue at the helm of the three-member utility regulating panel.
Longtime state school board members Stephanie Bell and Ella Bell, both of Montgomery, won reelection.
Shelby County approved Sunday liquor sales by at 4 to 1 margin and two of the last dry counties in the state, Clay and Chilton, went wet. These two referendums portend how overwhelmingly Alabamians would vote in favor of the lottery/casino deal if allowed to vote on this issue.
See you next week.