January 30, 2008
Next Tuesday, February 5th, will be a red letter political day for Alabama. We will be a full participant in Mega Super Tuesday. We will be one of twenty-two states holding a presidential preference primary that day. It will be the first time in decades that we will have a real say in the party nominees. With this many states, including the most populous states like New York and California voting, we may get an early indication of who will be the nominees for president.
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January 23, 2008
Political campaign gurus and insiders have always known that there is a difference between running for a legislative, congressional or senatorial seat versus a race for mayor, governor or president. The big difference is that voters do not seem to scrutinize the personal and family life of a lawmaker or congressman. They are one of a body of people and people tend to vote more on pure name identification or party affiliation. They especially prefer to vote for incumbents. Interestingly, when polled about the legislature or congress they will rate the body as a whole as a bunch of degenerate idiots who they detest and distrust. However, within the same poll they will rate their legislator or congressman very highly and will rank him or her as the most popular politico in their county or area.
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January 16, 2008
Although our United States Congressmen are up for election every two years, they seldom are challenged. Incumbents win reelection at a 96% rate. Our founding fathers intended for the U.S. House of Representatives to reflect the changing mood of the country and for the House members to be reflective of the electorate in every way. They fully expected the average House member to stay a few terms, four to six years, in Washington and then go home. However, our U.S. House has become a bastion of career legislators whose tenure averages over two decades. Given the advantage of incumbency, if they win a seat a person can expect to retire there with little opposition, unless it is a swing seat or it becomes eliminated by reapportionment.
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January 09, 2008
The cavalcade of presidential preference primaries has begun. They will fall fast and furiously over the next two months and when the dust settles you will have a good idea who will be the Republican and Democratic Party nominees for the November general election.
The dynamics of the presidential race have changed dramatically this year. In years past New Hampshire and Iowa would hold their early primaries and caucuses in January or February. Then there would be a lull and states would fall in a month later and the primaries would be slowly staggered over four or five months up until the summer conventions. That has all changed this year. You will not have a six course slow dinner over six months. Instead you will be served a gigantic buffet on February 5th and then it will be all over but the shouting.
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January 02, 2008
As we enter the New Year we find ourselves in the midst of a political year in full swing. We are off to the races and in full throttle in the 2008 presidential juggernaut. It will be a horserace for both parties’ nomination. It is a wide-open race.
This year’s contest is the first time in many years where not only is there no incumbent president for reelection but neither is there an incumbent vice-president waiting in the wings to move up. It is truly open but the obvious frontrunners have emerged over the course of the past year’s campaigning. The race has indeed been going on at full speed for at least a year.
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December 26, 2007
As 2007 comes to an end let’s look back at what happened politically in Alabama this year.
The partisan bickering in the Alabama Senate climaxed on the final day of the annual legislative session with Republican Senator Charles Bishop slugging Democrat Lowell Barron in the face on the floor of the senate. It was seen on newscasts and internet sites all over the world. Indeed it was the blow seen round the world.
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December 19, 2007
Many of you found last week’s column on the Machine at the University of Alabama interesting and intriguing. The Machine, as mentioned last week, is a cadre of campus leaders who are members of Greek fraternities and sororities at the University. It is a farm club system where those who aspire to public service or politics get their training. This system has spawned many of the state’s leaders for over a century.
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December 12, 2007
There has been a political organization on the University of Alabama campus, called the Machine, since 1888. It is a secretive coalition of fraternities and sororities that has controlled campus politics since that time. It has completely dominated campus political life because of the cohesiveness and commitment to the Greek system within the University of Alabama. The student newspaper, the Crimson and White, has exposed the Machine periodically since the 1920s.
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December 05, 2007
During the autumn months there has been a potpourri of political happenings in Alabama. So as the fall comes to a close and we enter the Christmas season let’s look back on some the most notable events of the past few months.
Gov. Bob Riley planned to call a fall special session to deal with ethics reform but backed off. Riley did not grow up in Alabama politics. He worked most of his life as a businessman. As a result, he has shown some naiveté especially his first year in office when he proposed a huge tax increase which went down to ignominious defeat at the polls.
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November 28, 2007
Our nation’s founding fathers were determined to create a democracy where anybody could become president. They espoused and formulated an egalitarian republic that would spawn a person of common birth. The Constitution requires that our president be born in America. Our original leaders had weathered the travails of a revolution and war in order to break the shackles of a British monarchy. They fought to rid themselves of the tyrannical yoke invoked by noble born aristocrats who ruled by virtue of privilege rather than ability. A king or queen ruled England and the House of Lords and House of Commons were subservient to the crowned monarchs. However, our presidents were intended to be men of the people.
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