April 30, 2015
Recently, at a forum I was asked the question, “Which governor made a difference in Alabama politics?” The question caught me off guard because I really had not thought about that obvious inquiry. My knee-jerk reaction and answer to the insightful questioner was George Wallace and I gave a litany of reasons for my response. Later, after contemplation, I felt that my answer was probably correct. Wallace would be the appropriate choice, simply because he was governor so long. I prefaced my reply to the inquisitor with the caveat, “You know, I’m not as old as you might think.” Therefore, I qualified my answer with, “Let’s talk about the governors since 1954.”
I actually knew Wallace and served as his representative in the legislature during my first term in the House and his last term as governor. I met Wallace earlier when I was a Page and he was a fiery first term governor in the 1960s. He would often times invite me down to the governor’s office to talk politics.Read more
April 23, 2015
On a picture perfect sunny January day Governor Robert Bentley was sworn in for his second term as governor, along with all of the other constitutional state officeholders. Taking their oath of office on the same day were Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Luther Strange, State Treasurer Young Boozer, and State Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan. They were all sworn in for a second four year term. Newcomers Secretary of State John Merrill and State Auditor Jim Ziegler also took office on January 19.
Speculation has already begun as to which of these folks are eyeing Dr. Bentley’s office four years henceforth. It is shaping up as quite a governor’s race in 2018. Unlike Bentley’s 2014 coronation victory trot, this one will be quite a horse race. Beginning in September, I will handicap the potential horses for the 2018 derby for the brass ring of Alabama politics. I have a list of 18 potential horses that we will begin with as we handicap the derby.Read more
April 16, 2015
As the world turns in Alabama politics, a lot has happened in the first three months of 2015. After Inauguration Day, a federal judge in Mobile ruled Alabama’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was not constitutional under federal law. In appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court it was obvious that the high tribunal conferred with the lower court ruling and gave every indication that they would render a final edict on the subject come June. By midsummer same-sex marriage will be the law of the land as decreed by the omnipotent U.S. Supreme Court.
There is not much that our state leaders/politicians can do but bark at the moon, which is exactly what our stalwart, religious, Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore has done quite valiantly and in vain. He has ridden his high horse from Gallant again, much to the delight of our very religious state. Moore gallantly instructed the probate judges to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. He made national news and further endeared himself to his evangelical base.Read more
April 09, 2015
Alabama’s senior and premier political reporter, Phil Rawls, has retired. Phil spent 35 years reporting on Alabama politics for the Associated Press. He was simply the best. He was fair and accurate. His 40 years of covering the State Capitol made him easily the longest serving member of Alabama’s Capitol press corps.
Phil is a native of Covington County. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama. We have been friends since our days together at the University. His departure leaves a real void in the day-to-day coverage of Alabama politics.
Even though the State’s General Fund appears to be on the brink of disaster, there could be a rainbow or two at the end of the tunnel. Congress may pass legislation that will require payment of sales tax on internet purchases and eventually we will reap a bonanza from BP on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This should not deter the legislature from acting on the acute problems that confront the General Fund. However, it could offer some comfort that relief may be on the way and it will be like manna from heaven.Read more
April 02, 2015
In recent years, the Republican Party has taken control of the legislatures in all of the southern states. Alabama’s legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. The GOP holds a 25 to 9 majority in the State Senate and an equally dominating 72 to 33 majority in the House of Representatives.
Our supermajority GOP legislative body appeared to take on every conceivable ultraconservative reactionary issue during their first four year reign from 2011 to 2014. However, they forgot one. Charter schools.
The idea of charter schools is a hot button litmus issue within the Republican legislative ranks. Alabama has now joined the ranks of states that allow for charter schools. Both the super majority Republican House and Senate passed the measure like a shot out of a cannon within the first two weeks of the session. The vote fell right along party lines with most GOP legislators supporting the proposal.Read more
March 26, 2015
Our good doctor governor, Robert Bentley, has done a thorough physical exam on the state’s finances and his diagnosis is that the General Fund needs additional revenue. His Republican comrades in the legislature have been trying to starve the patient for the past four years. If the patient is an analogy to the state government, the approach over the past four years has been to put the patient on a rigid diet of starvation and bleeding to death in pretty much the same way that George Washington’s doctors did in his day. The patient according to basic tenets of medicine or government should weigh about 180 pounds. The legislature has starved the patient/government to 120 pounds of skin and bones.
In defense of these ultraconservative legislators, if truth were known, they would probably do away with state government altogether or simply let the patient die. However, in reality, we actually need roads to drive on and state troopers to give aid to motorists. Some people like to have a court system to punish people who commit heinous crimes and if you have a judicial system and the judge sentences someone to prison then you have got to have a prison to house them.Read more
March 19, 2015
Alabama may be in the lower tier of the country in some categories but not when it comes to providing health insurance for children. In that one category we excel.
Brian Lyman with the Montgomery Advertiser provided an excellent study revealing that Alabama leads the south in taking care of its young people when it comes to giving them health coverage. A recent Georgetown University study showed that Alabama leads the south when it comes to healthcare for children. Remarkably we are ranked in the top 10 states in America.Read more
March 12, 2015
The Common Core education topic is not only a hot political issue in Alabama, it has become a political football nationwide and it appears to be a hot potato in the looming 2016 GOP presidential contest.
As soon as Jeb Bush announced that he would “actively explore” a 2016 presidential bid, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, also a potential candidate and Tea Party Libertarian said, “We need leaders who will stand against Common Core.” The right wing candidates like Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin have staked out positions against Common Core.Read more
March 05, 2015
The first regular legislative session of the quadrennium has begun. Legislators have arrived in Montgomery for their three and a half month session and they will face a myriad of problems and issues.
The General Fund Budget has been in the doldrums for several years. The chickens have to come home to roost. There is a crisis looming in the prisons. The continuing escalating cost of Medicaid further exasperates a desperate situation for the General Fund.
Ever since my boyhood there has been a perennial call to rewrite our antiquated State Constitution. The constitutional reform people will come at the revamping issue again with renewed fervor. The question is do you address the update article by article or in total. Indeed, our 1901 Constitution is lengthy and cumbersome with more than 800 amendments.Read more
February 26, 2015
The first legislative session of the quadrennium convenes next week. It is no secret that the state is broke. Fiscal problems left over from the Riley administration that were swept under the rug for four years are finally front and center. The chickens have come home to roost, so to speak.
The General Fund is projected to be over $260 million short of the amount needed to maintain the state’s basic operations in the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.Read more