February 10, 2011
The first legislative regular session of the quadrennium is looming. Our new Republican led majority House and Senate will convene on March 1 for the four month 2001 Session. There are a good many GOP freshmen in the group. However, they are no longer greenhorns. They have an organizational and special session under their belts.
The sweeping and significant overhaul of our state ethics laws passed by these legislators shortly after they were elected in December may very well be looked at four years from now as their hallmark accomplishment of this term. This ethics reform legislation passed by this GOP led legislature will change the culture of Montgomery.
Our original ethics and campaign finance laws were passed in the 1970’s. Most states passed ethics reform legislation as an aftermath to the Watergate scandal. Our laws were very similar to most states as many states used a model act to design and craft their laws. However, Alabama’s laws, like other states over the years, became the subject of subterfuge and craftiness to get around the original intent and language of the acts.
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February 04, 2011
The overwhelming Republican tidal wave that engulfed the South in November basically washed away every white conservative Democrat in the region. The most conservative Blue Dog Congressional Democrats bit the dust from Texas to Georgia, including Alabama.
However, there was one anomaly. In Montgomery a young ardent and earnest Democrat named Joe Hubbard defeated a Republican to win a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives. He was one of only a handful of Democrats nationwide to unseat a Republican in a legislative seat.
Hubbard is no ordinary Democrat. He is the great grandson of Alabama’s most illustrious U.S Senator Lister Hill. Hubbard is indeed named for his prominent grandfather and was sworn into office with the same family bible used to swear in his ancestor to Congress in the 1920’s.
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January 27, 2011
When I am an old man and reminisce stories of years gone by with any young folks who will listen to stories that old men generally tell over and over again, I will love to tell them that I lived during an era when the two greatest Alabamians of their professions lived.
A hundred years from now and probably for eternity, no person will ever rival the supremacy of Paul “Bear” Bryant in college football nor George Wallace in Alabama politics. Their feats, accomplishments and records speak for themselves. They will never be matched. God simply sat down one day and said, I’m going to make the greatest college football coach in history and the greatest Alabama politician in history and I’m going to send them down to Alabama to live in the same era. I was fortunate enough to know both of them and actually got to know Wallace very well over the last 30 years of his life.
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January 20, 2011
Those of us who are over 50 years old have witnessed and been a part of one of the most profound and dramatic changes in American political history. The total transformation of the South from an all Democratic region to an all Republican enclave is remarkable to say the least. Fifty years ago we were referred to as the Solid South because we were solidly Democratic. We are still labeled as the Solid South, but today it is because we are the most reliably Republican part of the country.
This time 50 years ago there was not one Republican U.S. Senator from the South. Today, the 10 Deep South states have 20 U.S. Senators and 19 out of those 20 are Republican. The only Democrat left is Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
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January 14, 2011
Last week we discussed the organization of the Alabama State Senate. As a result of the Republican tidal wave that engulfed Alabama in November, the Alabama House of Representatives, like the Senate, will also have a Republican majority for the first time since Reconstruction ended 136 years ago.
The Alabama Legislature was the last bastion of Democratic control left on the Alabama political scene. The November GOP tsunami wiped that away and more than likely changed the political landscape in Alabama for a long time to come.
This seismic shift was dramatic in the House. Prior to the fall election there were 43 Republicans in the lower chamber. As they organize this week there will be 66 Republicans in the 105 member body. This is a super filibuster proof majority.
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January 07, 2011
When the Alabama State Senate meets in organizational session next week it will be the first time since Reconstruction Rule ended 136 years ago that the Republicans will be in the majority.
The November general election was a landmark watershed revival transformation. It was like an old timey foot washing conversion experience. It was a tidal wave that came from Washington and wiped away most of the Democrats in the State Senate. It carried with it iconic Democratic Senators that most Goat Hill observers were astonished were washed away. Names swept away and probably gone forever include Lowell Barron, Tom Butler, Wendell Mitchell and Ted Little. All these men were replaced with fresh faced Republicans.
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December 31, 2010
Bradley Byrne made his announcement for governor looking down Dexter Avenue at the AEA building and attacking Dr. Hubbert’s omnipotent control of Alabama government. He threw down the gauntlet and declared that the dethroning of King Hubbert would be the hallmark of his tenure as governor. This was like waving a red flag in front of a raging bull.
Most people assumed that Hubbert would simply ignore Byrne’s rhetoric and continue to bestow his political action committee largesse onto the legislative battles. However, Byrne’s bold attack on Hubbert and his herd of teachers angered the king. He figured a governor could be allowed to play in his sandbox because after all that person is the governor, but Hubbert was not about to allow someone to kick sand on him in his own sandbox.
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December 24, 2010
As the Republican field for governor began to formulate almost two years ago, the players crystallized early in the game. They all figured that the winner of the GOP primary would have a cakewalk to the Governor’s office because they assumed that an aloof, intellectual, mild-mannered, Harvard educated, African American congressman named Artur Davis would be their Democratic opponent. In the Heart of Dixie that is called a free pass. In basketball vernacular it is referred to as a slam dunk. Every major GOP player saw a clear shot at being governor. The only hurdle they faced was the Republican primary because winning the Republican nomination would be tantamount to election.
As the race began in earnest over a year out in mid 2009, most so-called experts projected a Bradley Byrne and Tim James runoff simply because these two had the money. Bradley Byrne was a 55 year old Fairhope lawyer, former State School Board member, two-term State Senator and Chancellor of the State Junior College System. He began running two years in advance of the election. Byrne became the anointed candidate of the Big Business community. It was also known that he was Gov. Bob Riley’s choice for governor. With these credentials he took on the mantle of frontrunner.
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December 17, 2010
For the next three weeks I will chronicle and analyze this year’s governor’s race.
As is usually the case, the 2010 Alabama Governor’s Race began two years prior to the event. By mid 2009 the field was fundamentally set. All of the horses had made their decisions and intentions known and were in the chute ready to go.
As the jockeying began in early 2009 the obvious frontrunner was three-term Democrat Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. Thus, Folsom’s early decision to opt out of the Governor’s Race and instead seek an unprecedented fourth term as lieutenant governor became the first big surprise of the young 2010 gubernatorial contest.
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December 10, 2010
Gov. Bob Riley has called a Special Session of the Legislature to pass ethics reform legislation. The major issues expected to be addressed include prohibiting the transfer of campaign money between political action committees, which essentially hides the original source of campaign contributions. This practice of PAC to PAC money laundering has rendered our campaign finance laws meaningless. The call will also include giving subpoena power to the Alabama Ethics Commission as well as requiring more stringent disclosure of lobbyists’ spending on public officials.
The more logical and prudent avenue to address these issues would have been the way that Governor-elect Robert Bentley proposed. Gov. Bentley suggested that the wisest and most cost effective approach would be to tackle these issues in a Special Session sandwiched in between the March Regular Session. It would not cost the already depleted General Fund much needed resources because Bentley’s way would expend no extra money.
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