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.
August 02, 2006
As we stroll through the dog days of summer the political scene is quiet. The opposing sides are girding up for battle in the fall. They are plotting strategy and raising money. The campaigns traditionally kickoff after Labor Day. Although it will be late September or early October when the airwaves become saturated with ads.
July 26, 2006
Now that the field has crystallized and the race for Governor is down to two people the bout will get down and dirty if recent elections are any indication. The fifteen week sprint to November 8th will be fun and interesting.
July 19, 2006
This week’s primary runoffs have very little luster. The Republican Lt. Governor nomination is the only marquee race yet to be decided. The Governor’s race is settled and the only drama stemming from the June 6th primary was the refusal of Roy Moore to endorse his fellow Republican Bob Riley. In fact, Moore flatly stated that he could not support Riley because Riley is inextricably tied to and beholden to special interests. Moore had just felt the sting of what it feels like to be on the short end of the stick where you have been outspent 10 to 1. That is a hard mountain to overcome.
July 12, 2006
In late May, two weeks prior to the primary, my column posed the question as to which primary, the Democratic or Republican, would attract the most voters. My belief was that for the first time in history the Republican primary would get the most primary participants. This did not materialize, even though the Republican primary overwhelmingly had the most attractive statewide races. All of the contested judicial races, as well as the hotly contested Lt. Governor’s race, were on the GOP side. However, the numbers were 465,000 Democratic ballots vs. 460,000 Republican voters, close indeed. The state appears exactly evenly divided in gubernatorial years, although, as I suggested earlier, the Democratic numbers were probably driven more by local races. Remember what Tip O’Neill said, “All politics is local.”
July 05, 2006
An issue sidestepped this year, which will resurface in the future, is whether state judges should be appointed or elected. Alabama is currently one of only seven states in the country that elects judges.
June 28, 2006
This year’s Supreme Court races have been obscured by the more high profile Governor’s and Lt. Governor’s races. They generally are low profile even though they are extremely important and the justices who hold these positions wield substantial influence over public policy in Alabama. They probably are as insignificant as the secondary constitutional offices of Treasurer, Secretary of State and Auditor to the average Alabama voter. However, they are much more powerful and important than these administrative offices. If the truth be known, if you took a poll of Alabama voters one week after they had voted for Auditor or a Supreme Court seat not 5% of the voters could tell you who the Auditor or Justice was nor whether they had even voted for them or their opponent.