December 27, 2006
As the year 2006 comes to a close let’s reminisce about what happened politically in our state. This being an election year the races for Governor and other statewide contests were the big story. However, the election was almost preempted by the Don Siegelman corruption conviction. Siegelman’s trial lasted for months and dominated the news for almost half of the year. The investigation and ultimate indictment had been brewing for years. It ended in June with Siegelman’s conviction.
December 20, 2006
When the votes were counted on November 7th the results revealed very few surprises. Bob Riley was reelected Governor. Eight out of nine members of the Supreme Court are Republicans. The GOP also claimed five of the seven constitutional offices including Governor. Five of our seven members of Congress are Republican and both of our U.S. Senators. You add to the fact that Alabama has voted for a Republican for President nine out of eleven of the last Presidential races. In the last 42 years only once have we voted for a Democrat, Georgian Jimmy Carter in 1976, and then only narrowly.
December 13, 2006
Last week’s column expounded on the looming 2008 Presidential Race. It is obvious that the apparent GOP frontrunner is Sen. John McCain from Arizona who is considered a moderate by republican standards. However, McCain has veered more to the right over the past year positioning himself for the republican primaries. It reminds me of a saying made popular by the legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn, “you have to go along to get along.”
December 06, 2006
Now that our Alabama gubernatorial race has concluded the jockeying will begin for the next governor’s race in 2010 four years from now. In the same vein the 2008 Presidential Race has been going on for two years. It began the day George W. Bush was elected to his second and final term. The lack of an incumbent leaves the door open for a wild free-for-all and it is just that with as many as twenty presidential aspirants testing the water. They have inundated the early primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa with their appearances. There are a lot more candidates than ever before and they are campaigning at a full throttle pitch much earlier than usual.
November 29, 2006
When Bob Riley took office in January of 2003 he had just survived one of the most bruising gubernatorial elections in history. His razor thin margin of victory over Don Siegelman hardly gave him a mandate for major accomplishment in state government. He and Siegelman had so pulverized each other in campaign ads that most voters wondered why both were not in jail and ironically a cloud was brewing over Siegelman and he indeed would be heading for jail.
November 22, 2006
If you like politics and also enjoy a good movie I highly recommend the recently released comedy starring Robin Williams entitled “Man of the Year.” Williams plays a television talk show comedian who specializes in political commentary and satire of national politicians. His satirical comical exploits make him a wildly popular television personality. One day on his show he whimsically says I will run for President and is immediately bombarded with positive emails from throughout the country urging him to indeed run for President. He is enticed to run by the obvious popular draft so he runs as a third party candidate and wins.
November 15, 2006
Even though last Tuesday was a watershed year for change on the national political scene the democratic midterm avalanche did not reach Alabama. Although we had a larger than normal turnout similar to the national trend, 50% in Alabama is of record proportions, our results revealed very little change. After the dust settled we found ourselves pretty much status quo.
November 08, 2006
This week’s column puts me at a disadvantage. You have the luxury of knowing the outcome of Tuesday’s election and I do not. Newspaper deadlines dictate that this column had to be written prior to Tuesday’s results being known. However, Tuesday’s election will answer some major political questions regarding Alabama politics. Several questions have already been answered earlier this year in the primaries.
November 01, 2006
We Alabamians enjoy our politics almost as much as we love our college football and the Governor’s race every four years is almost as eagerly anticipated as the Auburn vs. Alabama game. It is like an extra Christmas every four years. We start handicapping the possible candidates three years out and the field is usually set one year out. However, if you believe the polling data there will be no surprises for Christmas this year. It is like our parents have told us what Santa Claus is bringing us.
October 25, 2006
Last week we discussed the judicial races. This week we will focus on the remaining secondary statewide contests. Many of these positions arouse very little interest among the average Alabama voter because the majority of you could care less who holds the office of State Auditor or Secretary of State. In fact, if a poll were taken in two months less than 10% of Alabama voters could tell you who held these positions, probably could not even recognize the candidates name and more than likely could not tell you who they voted for in that race. Therefore, many of these secondary races will be decided by party preference and gender and who they are voting for in the Governor’s race.