March 17, 2010
It is very fitting that we Alabamians celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this week because a good many of us can trace our ancestry back to Ireland. The majority of Alabama’s early settlers were of Scotch Irish descent and a good many of us are still here today.
My maternal ancestors settled in southeast Alabama in the 1840’s. Their roots are easily traced back to Ireland. I had heard this from aging relatives that they came to Alabama from the Carolinas and indeed their birth and genealogy tables bear this out. They simply said the Carolinas because I believe that at the time of their migration there was no distinction between North and South Carolina. Although I believe most of our ancestors came from what is now North Carolina.
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March 10, 2010
I host a 30-minute television show entitled, “Alabama Politics,” which airs on public television. Most of the gubernatorial candidates have graciously appeared on the show. Invariably I have asked all of them the same question, “Why in the world would you want to be governor?”
The economy has cast an ominous financial cloud over our state government. Gov. Riley has declared historic levels of proration. The entire rainy day savings account is gone. We are surviving on onetime federal stimulus money, which runs out in 2010. The legislature is currently working to craft a budget, which takes effect in October. It will be a nightmare next year. When the new governor walks into the office in January of 2011 it will be like walking onto the deck of the Titanic. It will be a daunting task for the next governor. They may very well be a one-termer.
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March 03, 2010
With all the furor created by our outgoing governor over electronic bingo, the fact that we have a governor’s race has flown completely under the media’s radar screen. However, this is a premier governor’s race because it is the first gubernatorial contest without an incumbent governor on the ballot in over two decades. The contest has now been ongoing for close to a year.
As early as seven months ago I foolhardily predicted the winners and losers in the 2010 Governor’s Race. With just three months until the June 1st primary, I stand by my prognostications. If you recall, in early August of 2009 I told you that Bradley Byrne and Tim James would be the top contenders in the Republican primary and that they would eventually be pitted in a GOP runoff to face Democrat Artur Davis in November. I stand solidly behind that scenario. My prediction at that time was based on intuition. Today’s confirmation prognosis is based on fact.
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February 24, 2010
A good many of you have asked why simple, straightforward, no nonsense, good government legislation fails to pass even though it appears to have universal and overwhelming support and appeal among voters and legislators. Remember the old sayings and adages from the lips of your grandparents and older folks that you felt irrelevant and quaint? Sayings like “if you’ve got your health you’ve got everything” and “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.” The older you get it occurs to you how accurate and wise these old sayings are in actual life. They are golden facts.
One of these sage adages, “it takes an act of congress,” pertains to the difficulty of getting something accomplished. In politics there is no clearer truism. It is extremely difficult to pass a piece of legislation through congress and it is just 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 the legislative wars and they will tell you that they much prefer to be against a piece of legislation than trying to pass it.
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February 17, 2010
As Gov. Bob Riley delivered his last State of the State address to the legislature on January 12th, I sat in the old House of Representatives chamber in the Capitol. It was nostalgic. The House moved out of those chambers in 1984. However, I got to serve in that venue for at least two of my sixteen years in the House. I also served in those old chambers as a Page in my youth. I had the opportunity to hear quite a few State of the State addresses in the old historic chamber where delegates voted to secede from the Union and the Confederate States of America were born in 1861.
Most of these addresses were delivered by George Wallace. As you know, he was governor one way or the other for over 20 years. There was no teleprompter for the governor to read his speech from in bygone years. Today the governor acts like he is talking to the legislators but is actually speaking to a television audience.
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February 10, 2010
Most folks were shocked when Gov. Riley declared that unlike every other state in the country Alabama was not plagued by nor should we worry about the financial crisis facing our state. The governor took two minutes to dismiss the economic woes in a Pollyanna display of optimism basing his budgets on a pie in the sky gamble that congress would rescue us with another stimulus spending boondoggle. However, it was no surprise that Riley quickly moved to the subject of electronic bingo and spent nine minutes in a tirade against bingo in the state.
It has become obvious that the governor has made electronic bingo his paramount concern during his last year in office. To say that he is obsessed with this iniquity would be an understatement. At a time when every other governor in the nation is soberly and rationally wrestling with the daunting task of funding their state’s vital services, Riley is planning midnight raids on bingo parlors which employ over 5000 Alabamians and attract out of state business.
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February 03, 2010
This week marks a milestone in the young 2010 Governor’s Race. The yearend campaign fundraising disclosure forms are due. Because of mailing delays the reports will begin trickling in this week. I will review them over the week and report my analysis of what the results portend. However, it will not take a rocket scientist to figure out the winners and losers. The candidates with the most money raised will be the favorites to win in November.
Money is the mother’s milk of politics. You cannot win without it. There is a direct correlation between money and victory. In 90% of all races the candidate who spends the most money wins.
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January 27, 2010
The 2010 Legislative Session is underway with an ominous cloud of economic woes overshadowing every move. Other issues pale with the daunting task of crafting the 2011 state budgets staring legislators in the face.
Unlike the federal government, which can deficit spend like drunken sailors with no thought of fiscal restraint, Alabama has a constitutional mandate to create and live with a balanced budget. We cannot spend more than we take in and then pass the debt on to the next generation like the U.S. Congress continues to do year after year. To further complicate the financial dilemma facing lawmakers, this is an election year and all 140 members will face the voters in the primaries and general election. Therefore, the legislature has to deal with the budget crisis with the backdrop of the 2010 elections clearly on the horizon.
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January 20, 2010
As the legislature wrestles with the daunting dilemma of crafting a budget in these dire economic times, they are mindful that the worst is yet to come. Those returning for the next quadrennium will face the Herculean task of riding out this economic tsunami.
The only situation vaguely similar to this current scenario was 1983. We were in the throes of an economic recession. George Wallace had just taken the reigns of state government for his fourth term. Wallace’s health was so poor that it was doubtful he would live out his full term, much less run for a fifth. He had nothing to lose, so he chose to raise taxes. Wallace called his new taxes and fee increases revenue enhancement measures.
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January 13, 2010
Southern politics has produced the most colorful political characters in U.S. history. We are in a league of our own in that category. Even cartoons have depicted the stereotypical southern senators with a frock coat and long white hair with a deep southern accent. These caricatures have even come to life with the likes of Strom Thurmond, Sam Ervin and our own Howell Heflin.
We have spawned the nation’s most legendary demagogues. South Carolina had Pitchfork Ben Tillman, Georgia had the Talmadges, and Mississippi had Theodore Bilbo. We produced George Wallace and Big Jim Folsom. Louisiana had the ultimate demagogue, Huey Long. His family continued the tradition. His brother, Earl, followed him as Governor and his son, Russell, followed him to the U.S. Senate.
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