July 12, 2023 - Annual Legislative Session Successful
The recently completed Regular Session of the Alabama legislature was a success. It began on a high note and ended positively. Why? There was plenty of money to spend. Both the General Fund Budget and the Education Budget had historic amounts of money.
Most of the focus of the Session was on budgeting, as it should be, because that is the only constitutional mandate that the legislature is tasked with in the 105 day Regular Session.
Gov. Kay Ivey laid out her agenda in her State of the State address, then sent her proposed budget requests over to the legislature. The governor’s speech outlining her legislative agenda was about doing good things for education. However, her desires were vague and her ask list was long and wishful, like a kid’s Christmas wish list. It called for the state to give away the store. It was as though she was running for reelection which everyone knows she cannot do. Therefore, the veteran Senate treats her politely, but has relegated her to a lame duck status. The legislature has taken total control of the budgeting process, as they should do under the Constitution. The governor proposes and the legislature disposes. The days of a strong armed, powerful, omnipotent governor that controls both the Executive and Legislative Branches are over. The King George Wallace era is gone, probably forever.
The surplus in the Education Budget was enormous. How to spend this surplus became the focus of the entire session. There is a very accurate political assessment, that it is much more difficult to deal with a surplus budget than a lean or deficit budget. George Wallace told me about this same thing during his last term as governor when I was a freshman legislator.
Accolades go out to Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), Chairman of the Senate Education Finance and Taxation Committee and Representative Danny Garrett (R-Trussville), Chairman of the House Education Ways and Means Committee. These two gentlemen essentially, singlehandedly wrote the Education Budget and did a masterful job. They were cognizant that what goes up has to come down. Therefore, they created several savings accounts and rainy day funds for the rainy days ahead, because they will come.
The Education Budget was an historic $11.5 billion. It gave increases for pre-kindergarten programs, school supplies, school nurses and a significant 2% cost of living salary increase to teachers and support personnel. All colleges and universities in the state received increased funding. Non-education entities were given money. There was $100 million for prison education.
The high profile aspects of the Education Budget windfall werea onetime rebate going back to taxpayers in November. Governor Ivey had wished for a $400 per person and $800 per couple rebate. However, the final result is $150 per person and $300 per married couple. Most legislators preferred eliminating the grocery tax or long-term tax cuts to this one-time check back in November.
The surprise in the Christmas stocking from the Education Budget surplus is the reduction on the state sales tax on groceries. Eliminating or reducing the state tax on groceries has been championed by Democrats for years, as the tax is regressive and hurts the state’s lowest income earners the hardest. However, the measure garnered Republican bipartisan support this year after 20 years and passed with an overwhelming vote in both Chambers. It is, however, a gradual reduction. The grocery tax would decrease 2% in two steps,with the tax being reduced 1% this year and another 1% percent new year, if the funds are available.
The state General Fund had a good year as well. The $3 billion General Fund was record shattering. The largest in history. The Chairmen, Senator Greg Albritton (R-Escambia) and Representative Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville), oversaw a $159 million increase over the current year. The largest increases in the budget were in Medicaid by $69 million and Corrections by $59 million more.
State employees will see a 2% increase in pay, which will go into effect as the new fiscal year begins October 1. The legendary head of the Alabama State Employees Association, Mac McArthur, has quietly garnered state employees a cost of living raise, five out of the last six years.
See you next week.
July 5, 2023 - Political Potpourri
Even though it is not an election year, the Alabama political pot is heating up and beginning to boil as we celebrate the 4th of July, and the summer heat settles into the Heart of Dixie.
The 2024 candidates for some open state judicial posts have been stirring around all year, and also candidates for next year’s local elections are gearing up all over the state.
There has also arisen a surprise election in Alabama’s largest county. Imperial Jefferson County has a Special Election for a very important and pivotal county commission seat. Republican Steve Ammons vacated this seat to take the post as CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance. In every other county in the state, a vacant county commission seat is filled by appointment by the governor. However, Jefferson County has an unusual local amendment that calls for a Special Election. This local act does not only call for a normal special election, but renders a weird, wild west open no primary Special Election. It calls for a very quick, nonpartisan election similar to Louisiana. There are no party primaries and no party labels. Everybody and their brother can run, and the Jefferson County electorate has no way of knowing who they are, what they stand for, or their positions on anything. All you have to do is get 100 signatures and you are on the ballot. I am surprised that there are not 100 people running.
This race also has only a short window. People could start getting their 100 signatures around June first, and get this, the election is July 18. You are looking at an election in less than two weeks in the middle of the summer that only affects 20% of the population of Jefferson County. Folks, this one could very well break records for low voter turnout.
However, it is a very important and pivotal election for a seat that will determine the partisan makeup of the state’s largest county. The current makeup is two Republicans and two Democratic commissioners. Republicans had a 3-2 advantage with Ammons on the Commission. You would assume that the vacant Ammons’ seat would be filled by another Republican because it is made up of the most affluent enclaves in the state, which include Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Homewood, and silk stocking Hoover districts along the 280 corridor. However, as stated, there are no party labels by any candidate, no forums, and no time to campaign – only a list of names. The assumption is a Republican will win. However, the Homewood, Mountain Brook areas are one of the few enclaves of upscale, liberal do-gooder, white Democrats in the state.
It is imperative that the Republican Party in Jefferson County identify who their preferred Republican candidate is in this race and get out their vote. It appears that they may have done just that and have chosen Judge Mike Bolin. The election is just around the corner on July 18.
Justice Mike Bolin is like manna from Heaven for the Jefferson County Republicans. As the old saying goes, “he was at the right place at the right time.” Judge Bolin recently retired from the Alabama Supreme Court and has time on his hands, and this seat comes open.
Mike Bolin is one of the most respected and popular public servants in our state. He is also one of the most accomplished Jefferson County political figures of this era. He is Jefferson County through and through. He was born and raised in Homewood, went to college at Samford University and law school at Cumberland School of Law on Lakeshore Parkway in Homewood. He and his wife, who is also from Jefferson County, currently live in Vestavia.
Mike practiced law in Jefferson County for almost two decades, then was elected Probate Judge of Jefferson County where he served for 16 years. While serving as Probate Judge of Jefferson County, he was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court, where he served for 18 years. He is a man of upmost integrity. Jefferson County is fortunate to have him take on this task.
See you next week.
June 28, 2023 - Friends and Neighbors Politics
Last week I discussed young State Auditor Andrew Sorrell.
Recently, when I had him on my Montgomery television show, we discussed his successful race for State Auditor. He understands the golden rule of politics, “money is the mother’s milk of politics.” In his 2022 race, he raised an amazing, record breaking $714,000, and was able to outspend his opponents 7-to-1.
More impressively, he spent the 7-to-1 advantage prudently and wisely. He designed and produced his own television ads, which cut out a 20% distribution and production charge. The most impressive revelation was that he wisely used his personal campaign time in locales where he took advantage of friends and neighbors politics.
His opponent, Rusty Glover, had a very strong base of support in Mobile where he had been a state representative, state senator and taught school for years. Stan Cooke, his other opponent, was a well known preacher in Jefferson County. Therefore, he acknowledged that these two urban enclaves would vote for their native sons, which they did.
Sorrell realized that this left him as the only North Alabama candidate. He was from the Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia, Florence area and he worked the Tennessee Valley area as their boy. He carried the vote rich North Alabama. He also worked and cultivated the Wiregrass where there was no hometown candidate. He did well there, also, with the help of television.
In the runoff with Glover out, Sorrell swooped down to Mobile/Baldwin and garnered Glover’s votes and trounced Cooke in the runoff. What surprised me was that in 2022 the old “friends and neighbors premise” still prevailed and even more surprising that it existed in a low profile down ballot race.
I have been preaching and telling you about the pervasive friends and neighbors politics in Alabama for the last 20 years in my columns. When folks come to visit with me in anticipation of running a statewide race, I make them aware that it still exists, especially in the governor’s races. Those of us who are students of southern and Alabama politics attribute the highlighting of friends and neighbors theory to the brilliant southern political scientist Dr. V. O. Key, Jr.
In Dr. Key’s textbook, Southern Politics in State and Nation, written in 1948, he points out that friends and neighbors politics has existed in the south for decades. I am here to tell you that it still exists today.
What is friends and neighbors? It is simply a trend whereby folks will vote for someone from their neck of the woods. Alabamians will vote overwhelmingly for a candidate from their county and adjacent counties. When I taught Southern Politics to college classes, I would tell the students this habit of voting for the hometown boy in Alabama politics was so pervasive that if a candidate from their county or neck of the woods was running statewide and was a well-known drunk or crook they would vote for him. They might say, “I know ole Joe is a drunk or crook, but he’s my drunk or crook.”
You can look at every governor’s race the last 80 years and see our local friends and neighbors voting for the hometown candidate when you dive into the numbers. It is unmistakable.
Dr. Key illustrates it well, first in the 1946 races for governor, congress and U.S. senate. There was an open U.S. Senate when Roosevelt appointed our liberal senator, Hugo Black, to the Supreme Court. The congressman from the Tennessee Valley, John Sparkman, won the Senate Seat riding a 75% hometown vote from Madison and Morgan counties. That Tennessee Valley Congressional Seat was won by Scottsboro lawyer, Bob Jones, because he got an unheard of 97.8% of the vote in Jackson County.
In that same year, Big Jim Folsom won the 1946 governor’s race because he had two hometowns. Big Jim was born and raised near Elba in Coffee County but spent his adult life in Cullman in north Alabama. In that 1946 race, Big Jim garnered 72% in Cullman and 77% in Coffee in the first primary where his statewide average was 28% in the crowded field.
You can point to countless examples in all governor’s races since 1946. There are clearcut examples of localism and regionalism voting for the candidate from your neck of the woods. Friends and neighbors politics is still alive and well.
See you next week.
June 21, 2023 - Andrew Sorrell Good Start as State Auditor
Young Andrew Sorrell was sworn into office as the 41st State Auditor of Alabama in January.
In the early years of Alabama statehood, the State Auditor and State Treasurer were important positions in our 1819 political era. In those wilderness times of Jacksonian Democracy, it was not unusual for the treasurer and auditor to abscond with some of the fruits of the state coffers. There were no ethics laws at that time, and the old political maxim of “to the victor goes the spoils” prevailed.
There was a need for an honest man to carefully guard the nest. The posts of State Auditor, State Treasurer and Secretary of State were your only full-time public servants, who were actually full-time officials who came to the Capitol. The legislature only met every other year for three months and the governor was usually a Black Belt planter, who was more interested in running his plantation and considered his governor’s job as part time.
Less some of you are offended by the pronoun “he,” there were only male politicians. It would be 100 years later before women would even have the right to vote in America. Blacks were still slaves and would be given their freedom 45 years later in 1865, and the right to vote in Alabama 100 years after that in 1965. Therefore, in early years the Auditor was an important post.
In recent decades, the legislature evolved and became the important entity that the new 1901 Constitution intended. The legislature created the position of Examiner of Public Accounts. The legislature rightfully created the office because they appropriated the state funds, they wanted to have their accountant oversee their proper appropriations and accounting of state dollars.
Beginning three or four decades ago there became a rallying to do away with the State Auditor’s position. Some would say it was unnecessary and a waste of money. That balloon would never really get off the ground. The State Auditor’s office costs less than one percent of the State General Fund budget, and it is difficult to do away with a state constitutional office. Besides, someone or some office has to be in charge of keeping up with the state’s cars, desks, chairs and computers.
Andrew Sorrell seems to be the perfect fit for this statewide office. While some have used the post in recent years to demagogue and take positions on state matters that the State Auditor is not involved with to try to build name identification, Sorrell is honest, upright and appears to want to make the State Auditors job an important post as opposed to a demagogic stunt show.
Andrew Sorrell is only 37 years old. He has an attractive young family. Hannah, his wife, is a successful realtor in their home area of Muscle Shoals. Their daughter, Liberty, who is only two, became a TV star in Andrew’s campaign commercials last year. Andrew and Hannah currently bring her to political events around the state. She steals the show, as she did during the campaign. Liberty has been joined this month by a baby sister, Glory, born June 1.
Andrew Sorrell was 36 years old when elected Auditor last year. He served one four-year term in Alabama House of Representatives from 2018 through 2022. .
He ran an excellent campaign for Auditor in 2021-2022. He was able to raise $324,000 and loaned his campaign $393,000, which shows he has been successful in the private sector. This amount of money over $700,000, is unparalleled in this state Auditor’s race. He was able to smother and dwarf the campaigns of former State Senator Rusty Glover of Mobile and Reverend Stan Cooke of Jefferson County in the Republican Primary. Both Cooke and Glover had previously run and started with more name identification than Sorrell.
Sorrell ran a perfectly scripted modern campaign using both television and social media. He spent his money wisely and designed his own ads. He also worked the state tirelessly campaigning one-on-one for two years.
Andrew Sorrell is a very capable, bright star on the political scene in the Heart of Dixie. He is part of an interesting trend of a trio of superstars on the political horizon in Alabama – State Auditor Sorrell, Secretary of State Wes Allen and Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth, who all served one four year term in the Alabama House of Representative before being elected statewide. The State House of Representatives seems to be the new launching pad for state political office.
See you next week.
June 14, 2023 - The Alabama Community College System
Sometimes overlooked and often unsung, Alabama’s community and technical colleges are on a roll. It is time they get the recognition they deserve as workhorses for the state’s economy.
There are 24 community and technical colleges in the state, located on 50 different campuses with over 130 service locations. This means every Alabamian reading these words is close to incredible education and training opportunities.
The colleges offer over 300 degrees and certifications, and award more than 30,000 credentials each year that show employers these students are serious about working.
More than 155,000 students are served by Alabama’s community colleges, and 95% of students live in Alabama. What is more, 71% choose to stay in Alabama after completing their studies. These students and alumni add an amazing $6.6 billion to Alabama’s economy each year, according to a report from Lightcast, a national firm that analyzes labor markets. Nearly 99,000 jobs in Alabama are generated or supported by Alabama’s community colleges, their students and alumni. To put it another way, that is one of every 27 jobs in the state.
Under the leadership of Chancellor Jimmy Baker, who took the helm of the Alabama Community College System (ACCS) in 2017, innovative and transformational programs are in place that “build strong Alabama people who are willing to work and do what it takes to move the state forward,” as Baker puts it.
Among the most impressive is the Innovation Center, a division of the ACCS that brings together the state’s community colleges, businesses and industries. These partners deliver Skills for Success training for careers that employers say are most in demand but lack qualified Alabama workers to fill.
By working together with Alabama businesses and industries, the ACCS Innovation Center ensures Skills for Success training is perfectly aligned with the jobs that employers say they need to fill right away.
Since its launch, a little more than a year ago, more than 2,700 Alabamians have benefitted from Skills for Success training. The appeal to trainees – other than getting the skills needed for an in-demand job – is the training is offered at no cost to them.
It is free to trainees thanks to appropriations from the State Legislature and support from Gov. Kay Ivey, who has put a strong emphasis on workforce training. The Governor’s Success Plus initiative aims to add 500,000 Alabamians with postsecondary credentials to the state’s workforce by 2025. Rapid training from our community colleges will be key to reaching this important goal.
It is incredible to think that every Alabamian has the opportunity to receive no-cost training and become credentialed for jobs as bulldozer operators, fiber optic technicians, truck drivers and more, but that is the reality of today’s community college system in our state.
Chancellor Baker has wisely built a workforce training program around the skills that employers say they need in their workers. As a result, many students can walk right out of training and immediately into jobs that are waiting for someone with their exact skillset. The training is essentially “customized” for Alabama employers in desperate need of workers.
What is also innovative is how quickly Skills for Success training can be delivered. Part of each training course is offered online, with self-paced learning that can take place anywhere one can connect to the internet. Some have said they have completed the online training from their mobile phones over a few hours in the evening. When a trainee completes the online portion of the course, they then get hands-on training with qualified instructors at a nearby community college or some other regional location.
The average Skills for Success course can be completed in as little as two or three weeks. Any Alabamian can sign up for no-cost training and in less than a month have a community college credential that shows employers they have the skills and qualifications to do the job. With Skills for Success training, they are “job-ready” on day one for jobs that are in high demand throughout the state thanks to the forward-thinking leaders of the Alabama Community College System and the State Legislature.
See you next week.
June 7, 2023 - Dr. Wayne Flynt’s, Afternoons with Harper Lee
Renowned Alabama historian Dr. Wayne Flynt has chronicled and penned a marvelous book appropriately entitled Afternoons with Harper Lee. This gem is published by New South Books with editing by Randall Williams. It is receiving worldwide acclaim. If you are a fan of Harper Lee and her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is a great read. Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville in 1926 and died in Monroeville ninety years later in 2016. It was fitting that Dr. Wayne Flynt would give her eulogy. Her book, To Kill A Mockingbird, is one of the five most bought and read books in the history of the world. It is second to only to the Bible in most countries. In secular Great Britain, it surpasses the Bible and is number one.
Dr. Wayne Flynt is probably the most significant and accomplished historian on Alabama history in my lifetime. He taught history to over 60,000 undergraduate and graduate students at Auburn University for over 28 years. He was beloved, and he loves Auburn. He is very proud of his 43 car tag, as he often told Nelle’s accomplished sister Alice.
Dr. Flynt taught history at Samford University for 12 years before beginning his 28 years at Auburn University. During his illustrious career of 40 years, he authored 14 books, all centered around southern politics, history, and southern culture. He is very proud of his heritage of being the son of a sharecropper and growing up in the Appalachian culture of rural Calhoun County.
It is so poetic that the most renowned southern Alabama historian of this century would write the most revealing and detailed history of Alabama’s and arguably the world’s most famous author of this century. He tells Nelle Harper Lee’s story explicitly and with authenticity.
Dr. Flynt and his beloved wife, Dorothy “Dartie,” of 60 years, became Harper Lee’s best friends in the twilight of her life. Wayne and Dartie Flynt journeyed from Auburn to Monroeville and spent 64 afternoons over 12 years visiting and chronicling Harper Lee’s life story as she lived in a modest retirement home in Monroeville even though the royalties from the book were over a million dollars a year.
The book is part memoir and part biography. It truly tells the intimate story of legendary author Harper Lee. It encompasses her life and intertwines it with Alabama history. It is like we Alabamians like to say, “they were sitting on a big front porch swapping life stories.” Flynt and Lee were both southern storytellers. They were often joined by Nelle Harper Lee’s two sisters, Alice Lee and Louise Lee Conner.
Alice Lee was ten years older than Nelle and was famous in her own right. She was one of the first female lawyers in Alabama. She was one of Monroeville’s most prominent lawyers for close to 80 years. She practiced law until she was over 100 years old, and was a leader in the Alabama Methodist Church.
Louise Conner introduced the Flynt’s to Nelle Harper. They met at a History and Heritage Festival in Eufaula in 1983.
Nelle Harper Lee was the classic recluse. She was very private and very secretive; she liked to drink and curse and speak her mind. She never married and never really dated. She wore frumpy, dowdy, non-stylish clothing and disdained being around people and speaking in public.
She lived most of her life in her modest apartment in New York City. She lived there mostly from ages 23-81, 58 years, with only brief journeys home to Monroeville, Alabama, by train as she did not fly. New York City gave her the anonymity she desired.
The book tells of her celebrity and meeting other famous people who desired to meet her, including Presidents Lyndon Johnson, George Bush and Barack Obama. She especially liked Lady Bird Johnson who also had Alabama roots.
She adored Gregory Peck, who was the star of the movie To Kill A Mockingbird. He won an Oscar and every award imaginable for his role as Atticus Finch in the movie.
Only after a stroke in 2007 at 81 did Nelle Harper Lee return home to Monroeville.
Dr. Flynt is also an accomplished ordained Baptist preacher. He is a true kind-hearted gentleman, who speaks kindly of everyone in his book. He and Dartie grew to love the foul tempered eccentric, cynical, opinionated, irascible, uninhibited, very private and reclusive author. He discerns and captures her true humility. She really felt and often said, modestly, “But all I did was write a book.” She wrote a pretty good one, and so did Flynt.
See you next week.
May 31, 2023 - Girls State Has Had A Profound Effect on Current State Leaders
The Alabama Boys State and Girls State programs have been the spawning ground for Alabama political leaders for generations. It is a marvelous civic contribution that the American Legion has sponsored for almost a century in our state.
The prominence that Boys State has played is immense. However, Girls State may very well be eclipsing the boys in this generation, given the amazing array of women who are currently leading our state.
Governor Kay Ivey was a young high school leader growing up in Wilcox County in the early 1960s. Kay was selected for Girls State and had a week there that left an indelible impression on her. She went on to Auburn where she was a student leader. For over 40 years, Kay Ivey has come back to Girls State every year as a counselor, advisor, and speaker. She is devoted to Girls State.
Dr. Cathy Johnson Randall has been one of the states most respected leaders for 50 years. She was the most outstanding student at the University of Alabama when I arrived in 1970. She graduated undergraduate and got her doctorate from the Capstone.
In her early career years, she was an administrator at the University of Alabama. She has been a premier businesswoman and philanthropist and Tuscaloosa Civic leader in her adult life. As a teenager, Cathy was a Girls Stater to say the least. She was elected Governor of Girls State. She then went on to Washington and was elected President of Girls Nation. Furthermore, her daughter Kate was elected Governor of Girls State like her mother and – get this – Kate was also President of Girls Nation. Cathy’s late husband and Kate’s father, Pettus Randall, was Governor of Alabama Boys State. It is doubtful any family in America much less Alabama, will ever match that family lineage.
Cathy Randall and Kay Ivey took a young lady from Enterprise under their wings when she arrived at Girls State. That student leader was one Katie Boyd. Katie became Governor of Girls State. She then went on to the University of Alabama and pledged Cathy Randall’s sorority, Chi Omega. Katie was elected Student Government President at Alabama, then married Crimson Tide Football star, Wesley Britt. Last year Katie Boyd Britt was elected as our United States Senator at the ripe old age of 40.
The list of Girls Staters that are current state leaders does not end with Governor Ivey, Senator Britt and Dr. Randall. Supreme Court Justice Kelli Wise was a Girls Stater, as well as past Justice Lyn Stuart. Federal District Judge Anna Manasco is a Girls State alumnus from around the same era as Kelli Wise. Mary Margaret Carroll from Ozark, who is one of the state’s top lobbyist, was a Girls Stater with Katie Britt and a Chi Omega with Katie at Alabama. She was also President of the SGA at the University of Alabama. Liz Filmore, Kay Ivey’s Chief of Staff, got her start at Girls State.
Many of these women have bonded through the Girls State program. Especially Kay Ivey, Cathy Randall and Katie Britt. They are like sisters. The fourth sister in this close knit group is Lee Sellers of Montgomery. Lee grew up in Montgomery and has lived there all of her life. She was a prominent Girls State leader as a teenager. She became Executive Director of Alabama Girls State 21 years ago. She and her husband, Supreme Court Justice Will Sellers, are some of Kay Ivey’s closest friends. Lee is the glue that keeps this band of Girls State Alumni together.
Lee will more than likely bring this group of state leaders back to welcome this year’s group of teenage Girls State leaders when they arrive next week to Troy University for the 81st meeting of Alabama Girls State. There will probably be a future senator or governor in attendance.
Our current governor, Kay Ivey, is the first elected female Republican governor of Alabama. She will not be the last female to be elected governor of our state. In the future, my prediction is that there will be mostly female governors and presidents in future years. It is a fact that the majority of college enrollees and graduates are female.
The reason most future governors and presidents, and probably Supreme Court justices, will be women is because currently 60% of law school graduates are females and this is expected to grow to 70% in the next decade.
See You next week.
May 24, 2023 - Women in Alabama Politics
It is hard to imagine that it was only a little over 100 years ago that women were given the right to vote in the United States. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women full suffrage was finally ratified in 1920.
In recent decades, many folks have lamented that there are very few women in elected office in Alabama, especially in the legislature. We do indeed have a low percentage of female legislators, most particularly in the Republican ranks. We have some high-profile female statewide officeholders. Governor Kay Ivey, PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh and Supreme Court Justices Kelli Wise and Sarah Stewart, to name a few.
Some of the more progressive states have ridiculed our lack of female political participants. However, history will reveal that we in Alabama were electing women to statewide offices many years before other so-called progressive states. In fact, women dominated the offices of Secretary of State, State Treasurer and State Auditor for several decades during the 1960s and 1970s. My first observations of Alabama politics were watching women swap out the State Treasurer and Secretary of State posts every four years. In fact, these constitutional offices were considered women offices.
In 1944, Governor Chauncey Sparks appointed Sybil Pool as Secretary of State. Two years later, in 1946, Pool won the office, overwhelmingly, and became the first woman in Alabama history to be elected to a statewide office. In that 1946 race, Pool carried 63 out of 67 counties. Four years later, in her victorious run for State Treasurer, she received the largest vote in state history. In 1954, she was elected to the first of four terms on the Public Service Commission.
Prior to Pool’s first statewide victory, she had served in the legislature for two terms from her native Marengo County. She was only the second woman elected to the Alabama Legislature, in addition to being the first woman elected statewide. All-in-all her political career included eight years as Secretary of State, four years as State Treasurer and 16 years on the State Public Service Commission. Sibyl Pool was way ahead of her time, and she opened the political door for women to walk through in Alabama.
Mary Texas Hurt Garner of Scottsboro was a lawyer by profession and an Assistant Attorney General before being elected Secretary of State in 1954. She then went on to become State Auditor in 1958. She was elected State Treasurer in 1962.
Annie Laura Gunter held several prominent cabinet positions in the Wallace Administration. Afterwards, Gunter was elected State Treasurer of Alabama in 1978 and served eight years in that important state office.
Melba Till Allen was one of 10 children, who grew up modestly on an Alabama farm. She rose to be elected as State Auditor and then was elected State Treasurer for two terms.
Mabel Amos and Agnes Baggett were household names in Alabama for decades. Agnes Baggett was probably the most prominent and profiled female officeholder in state history after Sybil Pool. She served as Secretary of State from 1951-1955. She was then elected State Auditor in 1955, State Treasurer in 1959, and returned to Secretary of State in 1963. In 1967, she was elected again as State Treasurer and served eight years in this post. She finished out her career as Secretary of State, thus capping a career that made history. She served 28 consecutive years as an elected statewide officeholder, making her one of the most celebrated elected officials in Alabama history.
Mabel Amos was one of the most beloved and revered women in state politics. She had an amazing career as the recording secretary for six governors, including Frank Dixon, Chauncey Sparks, James Folsom, Gordon Persons, John Patterson, and George Wallace. There is no telling what secrets and political deals Ms. Mabel knew of during this unbelievable 30-year reign inside the governor’s office. She was elected Secretary of State in 1966, and served eight years in that office. She was a native of Conecuh County and never married. Therefore, she had no direct heirs. When she died, she had a sizeable estate, primarily of family land. Because she had no children, the beloved lady left her estate with instructions that her money should be used for deserving Alabama female students, who otherwise would not be able to attend Alabama colleges.
See you next week.
May 17, 2023 - Lurleen Wallace
Kay Ivey is Alabama’s second female governor. Lurleen Wallace was the first. Appropriately, Kay Ivey’s idol and impetus for striving to be governor was Lurleen Wallace. Kay’s first involvement in state politics was as a campaign worker for Governor Lurleen’s 1966 race for governor when Kay Ivey was a student at Auburn.
It was 55 years ago in May 1968 that our first female governor, Lurleen Wallace, passed away. She was a genuinely humble person. Lurleen Wallace was very popular. The state fell in love with her. She was not only beloved, she was also a good governor for the 18 months she served before she succumbed to cancer.
Her husband, George Wallace, was first elected governor in 1962. He had ridden the race issue to the governorship and had made segregation the hallmark issue of his first four years. He had become the paramount king of segregation in the nation. He was very popular. However, he was forbidden by the Alabama Constitution from seeking a second, consecutive term. At that time, the governor could not succeed themself.
The idea of George Wallace running his wife Lurleen as his proxy had been tossed out by a few of his cronies as a joke. After a few weeks, the idea grew on Wallace. He made calls around the state and began to realize that dog might hunt.
George and Lurleen met when he was a 22-year-old law student at the University of Alabama. He met her at a dime store in Tuscaloosa where she was a 16-year-old clerk. She was born and raised in Northport. They soon thereafter got married.
Wallace’s life and devotion was to politics and being governor of Alabama. Lurleen was content to be a behind the scenes mother. George’s passion was politics. Lurleen’s passion was being a mother and going fishing.
Lurleen was a genuinely sweet lady. Her humble background as a dime store clerk in Northport endeared her to Alabamians. She was gracious and sincere, and people fell in love with her. Lurleen had been diagnosed with cancer two years prior to the 1966 election. Although it seemed to be in remission, her health was not excellent. The campaigning was a challenge to her. She did not cherish the spotlight like George. Instead, she preferred her quiet time. She had been mother and father to four children.
However, after Lurleen agreed to run it seemed to grow on her. She was a quick study. She got better day after day. As the crowds grew, you could feel the momentum and surge in popularity. She seemed to thrill to it.
Lurleen’s landslide victory in May of 1966 was astonishing. She set records for vote getting, some of which still stand today. She defeated nine male opponents without a runoff. Left in the carnage was an illustrious field of proven veteran political men. Included in the field she demolished were sitting Alabama General Richmond Flowers, Jasper Congressman Carl Elliott, State Senator Bob Gilchrist, Dothan businessman Charles Woods, two former governors John Patterson and Big Jim Folsom, popular state Agriculture Commissioner A.W. Todd, and of course Shorty Price. She then went on to trounce the most popular Republican in the state, Republican Congressman Jim Martin, by a two to one margin.
Lurleen Wallace became Governor in January of 1967. She warmed to the job and made a very good governor. She let George know that she was Governor. However, she lived less than two years after she took office. Soon after her Inauguration she visited the state’s mental hospital in her native Tuscaloosa County. She was so moved by the deplorable conditions that she made it her mission to improve the mental health facilities in the state. She gave one of the most moving speeches ever delivered before a legislature that resulted in passage of a major bond issue to support mental health.
Lurleen was also instrumental in the creation of a major cancer center at UAB. It came to pass after her death.
She became beloved by Alabamians. She showed amazing grace and courage as she battled against cancer. When she died, the outpouring of sympathy from people of the state was unparalleled. Thousands of Alabamians filed by her casket in the Capitol Rotunda. Schools let out and school children came to Montgomery from all over the state to pay their respects for our Lady Governor.
See you next week.
May 10, 2023 - Dr. David Bronner Celebrates Fifty Years as CEO of RSA
The legendary head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), Dr. David Bronner, celebrates 50 years as CEO this month. When the annals of Alabama history are written, there will never be an Alabamian as remarkable a public servant to our state than David Bronner.
Dr. David Bronner has marked his place in Alabama governmental history. When Bronner took his present job with RSA, the Retirement Systems had approximately $500 million of funds. Today, RSA has approximately $43.9 billion in funds under management and manages the pensions for 385,000 public teachers and public employees.
Alabama public employees will swear by, standup for, and place on a golden pedestal David Bronner. They credit him with securing their retirement years with a solid foundation. Indeed, he has. The Employees’ Retirement System and the Teachers’ Retirement System are financially sound and the envy of most other states. Bronner is quick to credit the Alabama Legislature for their part in helping to ensure the systems are fully funded, which is something that has set RSA apart from pensions in other states.
Dr. Bronner is also the head of the insurance program for public educators, the Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan. This program covers over 300,000 educators, retirees, and dependents. This $1.4 billion a year program provides excellent benefits to members at a low cost to both the members and employers. In fact, RSA has managed the plan with level funding for the past seven years and plans to do the same in the coming year.
Bronner was born in Iowa and received his elementary and high school education in Minnesota. He came to Alabama to study law. He earned his Law Degree and PHD from the University of Alabama in 1972. Shortly after graduation, he became Assistant Dean of the Law School at the University of Alabama. A year later, at the age of 28, he became head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama.
Today, 50 years later, Bronner is a youthful looking 78 with plenty of vigor and probably no plans to retire. When you have a conversation with him it is an experience you will never forget. He is extremely quick witted. There is no mistaking that you are talking with someone very intelligent. He has digested your words almost before they are out of your mouth and will reply immediately with a succinct response that appears as though he has given it 15 minutes of thought. Of course, that may be because we native Alabamians talk a little slower than he does.
The Retirement Systems of Alabama has contributed a great deal to the state’s economy over the last 50 years. One the greatest legacies that Dr. Bronner may enjoy is his creation of Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. This idea generated a profit for RSA in the first years. The brilliance of the Golf Trail is not only the profits the Trail generates for the RSA, but the peripheral boost to our state’s economy.
The Golf Trail has enhanced the image of Alabama. It has also benefitted the state’s attractiveness for corporate recruitment. The economic benefits and prestige that it brings to our state are exponential and helped increase tourism from a $1.8 billion industry to a yearly $24 plus billion industry.
The courses have made Alabama a tourist destination. It brings well-heeled northern golfers to our state for week-long stays and they spend untold amounts of money in our hotels and restaurants. Snowbird golf enthusiasts are locked out of their courses six to seven months of the year so they journey to warm climates of the Heart of Dixie to play these world class courses. They might look at the adjoining hole and see Dr. Bronner playing, chomping on his ever-present cigar.
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s first seven sites were constructed in Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, Opelika-Auburn, Dothan, and Greenville. These seven were completed from 1990 to 1994. The Prattville site opened, and the Lakewood Club course in Point Clear joined the Trail in 1999. The premier Hoover site at Ross Bridge appeared in 2005.
The Ross Bridge course and Ross Bridge Renaissance Resort Hotel and Spa may be the crown jewel. This Hoover location attracts national conventions and has spawned one of the premier residential neighborhoods in the state. Ross Bridge is home to a good many of the young physicians and medical specialists from UAB.
Dr. Mark Fagan has authored a wonderful book on Alabama’s Golf Trail, Dr. Bronner and the RSA. It is entitled, Alabama’s Public Pension Fund Growth and Economic Expansions Since 1972.
See you next week.