October 18, 2006
With the general election less than three weeks away the airwaves are becoming bombarded with political ads, both positive and negative. Unfortunately you may see more of the latter because negative ads are the most effective.
October 04, 2006
With the general election looming both sides in the governor’s race are preparing for the final four week sprint to the finish line on November 7. These last few weeks will be critical and the last few days will be very critical. When it boils down to the last week there will only be about 5% of the electorate who are undecided in this high profile contest. At this time both sides’ highly paid consultants are planning their strategy and campaign ads for the final week.
September 27, 2006
As the November elections for statewide office get closer there is a lot of media attention and stories written about the power being wielded by special interests, PACs and big money. They focus on the large amount of cash and influence being bet on the horses for Governor. The Business Counsel of Alabama and its allies have loaded up Gov. Riley in his reelection bid. The AEA and its campaign largesse and influence are supporting Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley in her bid to unseat Riley. Quietly behind the scenes is a very real power in Alabama politics, Milton McGregor. You can bet he is playing ball.
September 20, 2006
The selection of Speaker of the House will not be as volatile and contentious as the race for President Pro Tem of the Senate next year. Nevertheless it will be just as crucial and pivotal. Seth Hammett will be the odds on favorite to be reelected to his third 4-year reign as king of the House of Representatives. Hammett, a conservative Democrat from Andalusia, is a 28-year veteran of the House with eight of those as Speaker. He was Pro Tem the four years prior to being head of the 105 member lower chamber.
September 13, 2006
Earlier in the year when qualifying began for this year’s election the fact that Republican legislative candidates were required to sign an agreement to support a Republican candidate for Speaker received wide spread attention for a few days but has been swept under the rug ever since. This first of its kind pledge to support the choices of the House and Senate Republican caucuses for leadership positions in the new Legislature was approved by the party’s 21 member steering committee to make sure Republican legislators vote in unison for the choices of the House and Senate Republican caucuses. The pledge also commits them to vote for the operating rules recommended by the Republican caucuses.
September 06, 2006
While the Governor’s Race along with Legislative and local races are center stage in Alabama, this is also a national election year with all 435 members of Congress up for election and 33 Senate seats up for grabs. We do not have either of our two U.S. Senate seats up this year, which makes the Governor’s race even more of a marquee show. However, all seven of our Congressmen run this year, as they do every two years, but they all will be reelected.
August 30, 2006
With Labor Day approaching it signifies that the long hot summer will soon be coming to an end. It seems that the summers are getting hotter and hotter. I was born and raised in south Alabama so I was accustomed to long hot summers. I remember when there was no air conditioning in houses or cars. It was hot, but seems hotter today. I think we have gotten softer, but I also believe in global warming. It is not just a theory. The average temperature has increased several degrees in the past decade. It also seems that we do not seem to have the spring or fall seasons anymore. All of a sudden one day in mid May it is 86 degrees and it never goes below that through mid September, or maybe even October. We have about 5 months out of the year where the temperature is mostly in the 90s.
August 23, 2006
As late as forty years ago Alabama was still a no party state. Everybody ran as a Democrat out of tradition and convenience. Even though we started voting Republican for President in 1964 it was twenty-two years later when we elected our first Republican Governor and that was a fluke.
August 16, 2006
Among national voters there exists definitive long term voting patterns among demographic groups. The most obvious is that over 90% of all African American voters vote Democratic. The majority of white voters vote Republican. However, within white voter groups there is a distinct gender gap. White males are overwhelmingly Republican and white females are split 50/50. They may not discuss politics before they vote, but unquestionably there are a lot of husbands and wives who vote differently than each other, thus many times they cancel out each other’s vote. These white males tend to like the pro-gun and pro-military posture of the Republican Party and women tend to care more about issues like education and childcare which the Democrats are perceived as being strongest on.
August 09, 2006
As this campaign year develops there are several interesting observations. One is as I predicted the primaries were negative. However “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Wait until the general election. In October and November you will see some brutally tough ads on television.