Main
by Glynn Wilson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 28 – As president George W. Bush made a closed, big money only campaign fund-raising appearance for Republican Gov. Bob Riley at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, Lt Gov. Lucy Baxley held a free, public rally just up the street in Lynn Park between City Hall and the Jefferson County Courthouse, where she took on the president and the governor as big time corporate politicians who ignore the needs of normal, working people.
"The contrast in this campaign is obvious here today. It is the stark contrast between big dollars verses the people," Ms. Baxley said. "Access to the government is not supposed to be up for sale to the highest bidder."
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | New Orleans musician Ricky Castrillo entertains the crowd at Lynn Park during Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley's campaign stop. |
To obtain entry into the Bush-Riley fund raiser, the estimated 2,000 guests had to pay a minimum of $250 to get in the room. And they had the option of paying $500 or even $1,000 to get closer to the president, plus an undisclosed sum to have a snap shot taken with Bush. In the past the amount has been reported in a range of from $15,000 to as much as $50,000.
Ms. Baxley's campaign offered free hotdogs to the public in the park, and she shared the stage with sailor Damien Moore and his new bride Mandy Moore. The couple chose the day to get married outside the courthouse, and said they supported the Democrat over the Republican in the Alabama governor's race.
"We love Lucy," Ms. Moore said.
Ms. Baxley described Bush's visit as bad timing at the height of the campaign season and a rip off for taxpayers, since all the taxpayers pick up the tab every time the president flies Air Force One.
"This costs all the taxpayers all over the state," Ms. Baxley said. "It's an extravagant show, but a show that proves Riley is about big money. Government is supposed to be the servant of the people, not just for those who can afford it most."
She urged the people in attendance to go out and work to recruit people to vote for her. If she is elected, she said, she will prove that "big dollars cannot buy the government."
While Bush was dropping all kinds of interesting bombs that will never be reported in the local press or the mainstream media anywhere, Ms. Baxley's event drew an interesting local celebrity supporter.
Former Libertarian and Birmingham City Councilman Jimmy Blake showed up in support of Baxley, and said he did so because Bush and Riley have allowed big corporations and insurance companies to take over the Republican Party and the government.
"I do not support this government (of Bush and Riley)," Blake said. "It's the big corporate coalition."
To prove it, he said, just look at what the Birmingham News supports. Former Gov. "Big Jim" Folsom called it the paper of the "Big Mules," meaning the large corporations, and not much has changed in Birmingham since the 1950s in that respect. The paper endorsed Bush in 2000 and 2004, and endorsed Riley in 2002 and during the Republican Party primary this spring.
Baxley just laughed when a local reporter asked about the Riley campaign's comment that her inclusion of a cardboard cutout of Bush was a joke.
"Of course it was a joke. But look, no one here wants to have their picture taken with Bush. No one is doing it," she said, and walked off toward her next campaign stop.
The Associated Press is now leading their local reporting on the Baxley event by underestimating the size of the crowd, and by interviewing anti-Bush activists for not even bothering to protest Bush's visit. Between 150 and 200 people gathered in Lynn Park for the event. The Montgomery Advertiser reporter, formerly with the Birmingham Post-Herald, thought it was more like 250.
Many Anti-Bush Activists Skip Protests During President's Visit
Meanwhile Back At The Bush Ranch
Did anyone else see what the president said during his visit to Hoover about using wood chips to make biofuel? Switchgrass is one thing. Is there a secret plan by the paper companies, which own most of Alabama's forests already, to plow down all the woods in America so Bush's corporate friends can make piles of money on alternative fuels?
I asked Ms. Baxley about her stand on the environment since she was in the real estate business before going into public service in state government. We are planning a trip to the Gulf Coast Oct. 7-12 for the bird migration, to check up on the overdevelopment of Alabama's coast and to do our own private hunt for the ivory-billed woodpecker recently heard in the Florida panhandle.
But Ms. Baxley's response was vague and general, which may explain why none of the people from the Black Warrior Riverkeepers party Wednesday night were in attendance.
"We need to let the people of Alabama enjoy the coastal area," Ms. Baxley said. "And we need to protect our environmental needs at the same time."
Perhaps a more concerted effort to let the tens of thousands of people in Alabama who are concerned about the state's environment know that she really cares might help her campaign in the final month.
For staters, what's this plan to turn wood chips into biofuel?
(Note: Blake also had some interesting things to say about Riley's grassroots campaign manager Bill Johnson, but we are saving that for a larger story in the works to come out before the November election).
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lucy Baxley, the Alabama Democratic Party's candidate for governor, campaigned against Gov. Bob Riley and visitng President George W. Bush today in Birmingham, and was joined on the stage by sailor Damien Moore and his new bride Mandy Moore, who said they supported the Democrat over the Republican in this year's governor's race. |
In response to George Bush's $1000 a plate lunch for Bob Riley scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28, the campaign of Lucy Baxley, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, will hold a free rally on the same day at Lynn Park in downtown Birmingham from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
For more info, call 334-244-218. To help notify people about this rally, contact Janis Martens, who will be coordinating a phone tree, at jmartens01@aol.com or (205) 492-1976.
Details Emerge for Bush's Little Visit to Hoover
Bush to Stop in Hoover to Discuss Energy Policy?
Sometimes it takes a great college newspaper to say it best...
Assorted Logic
By Jordan Pittman
TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Sept. 20, 2006 - A few weeks ago I wrote about the extremely dim-witted attack ad Gov. Bob Riley began airing in the middle of August. Riley was trying to convince Alabamians that Democratic gubernatorial nominee and current Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley is "too liberal for Alabama."
The ad didn't spell out any specific reasons or stances, but it definitely tried to paint Baxley as being out of touch with Alabama voters. For Riley to accuse anyone else of being out of touch with the people of Alabama is laughable.
Consider his first major action as governor. He tried to pass one of the largest tax increases in the history of Alabama through Amendment One, which went before voters in September 2002. Two-thirds of Alabama voters voted against the $1.3 billion tax increase.
If a huge majority of people voted against a measure Riley proposed, wouldn't that make him out of touch with the voters?
Continue reading "Gov. Bob Riley Cannot Be Trusted" »
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lucy Baxley launched the tax truck this week in her campaign as the Democratic Party's nominee for governor of Alabama against Republican Bob Riley. |
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 14 - Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, went on the road with an anti-tax truck Thursday to point out that flip flopping on taxes is all the proof Alabama voters need to know "you can't trust Bob Riley," she said at a press conference at the Birmingham Public library.
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, at the first Blue Dot Ball in Homewood, says "you can't trust Bob Riley." |
Ms. Baxley and Jefferson County Assessor Dan Weinrib both expressed their strong opposition to Governor Bob Riley’s property tax increase because of its negative effect on Alabama’s working families.
"As a candidate in 2002 Bob Riley said he would not raise our taxes, but then as soon as he got elected Riley proposed the largest tax increase in Alabama history,” Ms. Baxley said. “When the people said, 'No,' Riley had his Revenue Commissioner order annual property reappraisals, and with the stroke of a pen and without a vote of the people Riley raised our property taxes."
She pledged that her first official act as governor will be to revoke Bob Riley’s property tax increase he ordered of every revenue official in all of Alabama's 67 counties when he made the ad hoc decision to reappraise property taxes every year instead of at least once every four years, as the law calls for.
"Alabama families already pay enough taxes," she said, including new home owners in Alabama's burgeoning suburbs, where many African-American families are already stretched to the breaking point economically.
Robbie Yarbrough, chairman of the Jefferson County Democrats, joined Baxley and read the statement from Weinrib.
“Never in my wildest imagination did I ever believe that this governor would help impose the biggest property tax increases imaginable and do so without the consent of our people,” Weinrib said.
Jefferson County begins collecting taxes from property owners Monday October 2 based on the third year of annual revaluation.
"Every tax season I hear heart-wrenching stories from constituents, whose pocketbooks are already stretched thin as it is," Weinrib said. "Often they are elderly folks on fixed incomes or middle class families struggling to keep up each year with increasing house payments.”
Riley has said that it would take an act of the legislature to overturn annual property reappraisals, but the last four Alabama Governors operated under the same laws as Riley and none of them ordered annual reappraisals, Baxley said, including Gov. Fob James.
“Governor Riley could reverse the property tax increase any time he wanted to by executive order, but instead he is trying to mislead us,” Baxley said. "It just goes to show you, folks, that you just can’t trust Bob Riley."
Lt. Gov. and Democratic Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley will hold a press conference at the Birmingham Public Library Thursday, Sept 14, from 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 2100 Park Place, along with Deputy Jefferson County Tax Assessor Grover Dunn.
Dunn will read a statement from Jefferson County Assessor Dan Weinrib which in part reads, "Never in my wildest imagination did I ever believe that this governor would help impose the biggest property tax increases imaginable and do so without the consent of our people."
Earlier in the day Baxley will speak from noon to 12:45 p.m. at a WWII Veterans reunion where she will be honored by the gift of one of the only two remaining pieces of the USS Birmingham.
Following the 3 p.m. press conference the campaign will unveil the "Tax Truck."
The truck reads, "Thanks Bob Riley for our Tax Increase!" and includes a headline from the Decatur Daily, "Get ready for tax man."
The Tax-Truck will crisscross the city of Birmingham for the next week, after which the Tax-Truck will head out for a state-wide tour. The Tax-Truck will remind the people of Alabama that Governor Riley raised their taxes with the stroke of a pen when he ordered annual property reappraisals. The truck will be parked just outside the Birmingham Library following the press conference.
Rally at West Birmingham Car Wash on Riley’s Connections to Gambling Money, PAC-to-PAC Transfers
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, will hold a rally at Dundee’s Car Wash and Detail at 1700 3rd Ave. West in Birmingham from 11:30 am to noon on Wednesday, September 6.
Baxley will ask Governor Riley to “come clean” about his connections to Mississippi gambling money and outline her proposal to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers, according to a press release.
Baxley will also hand out copies of former Riley aide Michael Scanlon's company ledger showing he earmarked $75,000 for Riley under the heading "Operation Orange,” the nickname he gave to transactions intended to limit gambling competition on behalf of the Mississippi Choctaw Indians.
Testimony included in a report issued by Senator John McCain’s Indian Affairs committee shows that the total amount of money in question could be as much as $13 million.
Lt. Gov. and the Democratic Party's nominee for governor Lucy Baxley will hit the campaign trail around Alabama on Labor Day beginning with a parade in Tuscumbia, where she will ride in a 2007 Ford Mustang convertible in the Labor Day Parade beginning at 9 a.m. and speak to the crowd at Spring Park at 10.
Ms. Baxley will then make an appearance at the Jefferson County Labor Council/AFL-CIO’s "Family Fun Day" at the Sloss Furnace historical site in Birmingham between between noon and 4 p.m.
Introduces Workers Impacted by Raising the Minimum Wage
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 30 - Democracitc Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley held a rally in Birmingham today and vowed to lead the charge to help the tens of thousands of Alabamians who would benefit from a $1 an hour increase in the minimum wage.
“Working people deserve to earn a moral wage,” Baxley said . “Governor Riley said he doesn’t know anyone still paying the minimum wage. Well, here are some hard working people who need that $1 raise, and I’m going to make sure they get it.”
Baxley was joined shortly after the event by a number of workers who would feel the impact of an increase in the minimum wage, a group that Governor Bob Riley has apparently never met.
An August 6th story in the Cullman Times quoted Riley as saying, “I don’t know of anyone who is still paying minimum wage, even in the rural areas.”
“I will lead the charge to increase Alabama’s minimum wage because people who put in an honest day’s work should earn enough to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads,” Baxley said “It is morally unacceptable that anyone working 40 hours a week still earns $5,000 less than the federal poverty line for a family of four.
"Study after study shows that raising the minimum wage helps low-income working families without negatively impacting employment, and we as leaders have a duty to fight for this increase,” she said.
Baxley has proposed raising Alabama’s minimum wage by $1 above the federal minimum to $6.15 by 2007.
Since 1997, 18 states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wage above the federal level, with seven more considering the issue on the ballot in November, and eight state legislatures considering the issue during 2006 sessions. Only six states, including Alabama, have no state minimum wage law on the books.
In 2004, 562 economists, including four Nobel Laureates, signed a letter agreeing that “modest increases in state minimum wages in the range of $1 to $2 can significantly improve the lives of low-income workers and their families, without the adverse effects that critics have claimed.”
The 1999 Economic Report of the President expressed that “the weight of the evidence suggests that modest increases in the minimum wage have had very little or no effect on employment.”
Thirty-five percent of workers who receive a minimum wage are their families’ sole earners. Sixty-one percent are women, and almost one-third of those women are raising children. More than 80 percent of minimum wage earners are over the age of 20, with half between the ages of 25 and 54 years-old.
Letter from 562 Economists (pdf)
Economic Report of the President
On Wednesday, August 30, Lt Gov. and Democratic Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley will hold a rally in Birmingham at the CWA Local 3902 Union Hall, 210 Summit Parkway, from 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.
She will introduce workers who will benefit from a $1.00 raise in the minimum wage, a proposal Gov. Riley scoffed at recently in an article for the Cullman Times, when he said, “I don't know of anyone who is still paying minimum wage."
Proposes Initiative to Get Every Alabamian Online
by Glynn Wilson
Editor and Publisher
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley |
If you follow this Web site regularly, you may remember a few weeks ago when we called on Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley to advocate raising the state minimum wage in Alabama and to consider a new technology initiative.
While some have suggested the 68-year-old Ms. Baxley had no new ideas when she ran a moderate primary race against former Gov. Siegelman that was short on issues, we suggested that she might very well listen to some good ideas.
Today at press conferences in Montgomery, Birmingham and Huntsville, Ms. Baxley, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, proved she can listen and champion good ideas. She called for raising the minimum wage in Alabama by at least $1 an hour and proposed an initiative to get every Alabamian online.
Ms. Baxley said workers making the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour have to spend one day's pay to buy a tank of gas.
"It's the only fair thing to do," Baxley said. "People who put in an honest day’s work should earn enough to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. It is morally unacceptable that anyone working 40 hours a week still earns $5,000 less than the federal poverty line for a family of four."
She indicated she will propose a bill to raise the state minimum wage one dollar an hour by 2007.
While the federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, 18 states and the District of Columbia have a higher minimum, with the highest being $7.63 an hour in Washington state, according to the Associated Press.
Baxley said her first official act as governor would be to order the property tax reappraisals to be every four years. That's the way property was reappraised in Alabama until Riley's revenue department changed the system to once a year, which Baxley said caused many Alabama residents to pay higher taxes.
And she proposed the development of a public-private partnership in the spirit of Alabama’s Rural Electric Administration to bring the internet into every Alabama home.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau study, Alabama ranks 48th in percentage of households with a computer, and 46th in percentage of households with Internet access. Working with the federal government and top technology corporations like AOL, Dell, Apple, Microsoft, and local internet providers, Get Alabama Online would open the door to an electronic global economy and community with low-cost packages including a computer, printer, desktop software and internet access, she said.
Ms. Baxley will face the incument Republican Gov. Bob Riley in the Nov. 7 general election.
At the press conferences and in a press release, Ms. Baxley listed her top nine priorities:
1. Overturn annual property tax appraisals by revoking the executive order signed by Governor Bob Riley.
2. Raise the minimum wage in Alabama as has been done in 44 other states.
3. Create a Cabinet-level office of Inspector General to root out waste in state government.
4. Get all of Alabama on-line by developing a public-private consortium with technology companies.
5. Ban PAC-to-PAC transfers. Period.
6. Fight illegal immigration by increasing penalties for employers who repeatedly hire illegal immigrants and prohibit employers who hire illegal aliens from receiving economic development incentives.
7. Develop a small business insurance pool to ensure that employers can provide affordable health insurance to their employees.
8. Return discipline to the classroom by giving teachers the tools they need and encouraging greater parental involvement.
9. Investigate price gouging at the gas pump and promote the local production of ethanol and biodiesel by providing tax incentives and credits to Alabama growers, producers and distributors of bio-fuels.
AP: Baxley Calls for Raising the Minimum Wage in Alabama
Lt. Governor Lucy Baxley will kick off the campaign season with a series of events across the state of Alabama announcing her core campaign issues on Wednesday, Aug. 16.
The tour will kick-off at the Broadview Media Center in Montgomery, followed by a noon event at Birmingham’s Harbert Center Library Room. At 3:15 Baxley will hold the make an appearance at Huntsville’s Museum of Art.
A five minute satellite feed with highlights of the Montgomery event will broadcast three times starting at 10 a.m. At each event, Baxley will speak for 20 minutes followed by 15 minutes of one-on-one interviews.
For years, Governor Bob Riley has denied any connection to out-of-state casino money. But information revealed today in a Birmingham newspaper proves that his campaign benefited from at least hundreds of thousands of dollars coming from the Mississippi Choctaw Indians, laundered through Riley’s former aide and convicted felon Michael Scanlon.
“It’s time for Bob Riley to come clean,” Lt. Gov. and Democratic Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley said in a press release.
“For years he has denied that Mississippi casino money came in to his campaign, but now we have proof that it did," she said. "This is just one more instance of Bob Riley’s continued pattern of misrepresentation where his words and his actions just don’t match.”
Riley denied an earlier report that Mississippi casinos spent $13 million on behalf of his campaign, but has refused to disclose any further information about the extent of his involvement with out-of-state casino interests.
“Riley’s political spin may work with his friends in Washington, but that dog don’t hunt in Alabama,” said Jeff Bridges, spokesman for Baxley. “Ralph Reed refused to answer questions about his connections to dirty Mississippi casino money and he lost. Now Bob Riley is doing the same thing. Alabama working families deserve better than Riley’s false denials."
Riley has a choice to make, he said.
"Riley can either continue to mislead Alabama families, or he can tell the truth about his connections to out-of-state gambling interests. Tell us the truth, governor.”
The Birmingham News finally got around to reporting something on the scandal in today's newspaper - on a Saturday in August when most of the news is still focused on terrorism and war. We take the liberty of rewriting the headline so readers can actually get an inkling of what the story is really about.
Lobbyist's Interest in Riley Campaign Documented by Senate Committee
Privatizing Your Voter Identity
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
- William Shakespeare
by Glynn Wilson
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Aug. 8 - For all the sound and fury over the Alabama voter database being played out on the inside pages of the state's newspapers and incomprehensible little blurbs on television news, there may be a more sinister story behind the story that goes far beyond mere partisan politics. And it's no conspiracy theory.
Get this. There is a master plan that is ongoing to privatize every aspect of voting in the United States and tie voting lists to crime networks, terror watch lists, even so-called "eco-terror" watch lists. Do you believe in a clean environment? You may be a suspect - and disenfranchised from voting.
Do you worry about the Bush administration's NSA spying on you? What about the prospect of identity theft?
Well, here's another worry to add to your list.
And this information does not come from just any left wing pundit or blogger.
Alabama's very own elected Secretary of State Nancy Worley, who has been under fire in public of late in a controversy over the deadline to implement the Bush administration's Help America Vote act, says the Republicans taking control of the state voting list is just the tip of the iceberg about to break off and sink American democracy.
"There is a grand scheme on the part of corporate America to take over the whole system of elections in this country," Ms. Worley said.
And she said some states have already begun tying the voter list to crime network databases and terror watch lists, making the issue of simply registering to vote a matter of concern for those who are worried about personal privacy.
Columnist Greg Palast has written about this trend.
"In response to the ugly racial purge of voters in 2000, George Bush signed the Help America Vote Act - which requires every state to create a centralized voter database just like the one that made the mass purge of voters in Florida possible," Palast wrote. "This Orwellian transformation of voter protection into voter predation, coupled with the new laws requiring voter I.D. cards and data base checks means that the 2006 and 2008 elections may already be over. But you'll have to wait until then to find out whom the data-meisters have chosen for you."
Spies and Lies: Steal Your Data, Steal Your Vote
"Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain't nothing," Palast writes. "You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration."
The Spies Who Shag Us
The issue is about to come out into the open right here in Alabama.
For starters, due to the way the state doles out contracts for voting systems, a company called Election Systems and Software (ES&S for short) already has contracts to provide the voting machines used in Jefferson County and much of the state. The company also has the contract to print the ballots.
And, the company has the contract to train all the poll workers in the state - a job that heretofore was overseen by the probate judges in each county, handled by the elected country registrar and ultimately surpervised by the elected secretary of state. No more.
For all the sound and fury from Republicans about less government and lower taxes, it seems a bit odd that tax payer money would be funneled to private corporations on something as fundamental to government as every aspect of voting itself.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, a Birmingham Democrat, has written U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez a letter complaining about the blatant partisanship in having a court hand over control of the voter list in Alabama to Republican Gov. Bob Riley on the eve of the 2006 elections.
"It is impossible to ignore the partisan colorations of the court's intervention," Davis said. "To the voters all over the state this has a partisan look to it."
District Judge Keith Watkins recently named Riley as a so-called "special master" to oversee the creation of a statewide voter registration database by Aug. 31, 2007. At a special hearing last week, Watkins, a Bush appointee, denied requests from the Alabama Democratic Party and the mostly black Alabama Democratic Conference to intervene in the case.
Rep. Davis Writes AG Gonzalez, Says Riley's Partisanship Showed in Voter Database Fight
If you value your right to vote in America, you might want to engage on this issue and let your voice be heard in Montgomery and in Washington, D.C.
The concern should not just be that one party now controls almost every branch of government. The concern should be that this one party, the Republican Party, is farming out control of your voting identity to a mega-corporation that has only greed and control as its goal: Profiting from your vote and keeping in power those politicians who share their greed.
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Secretary of State Nancy Worley, one of the most popular elected officials in Alabama, continues working in spite of the public controversy over the voting database. |
Get this: The new guy running Gov. Bob Riley's campaign, Bill Johnson, once ran for the U.S. Senate in Missouri against John Aschcrof. He got 4.6 percent of the vote after coming out for the legalization of drugs and prostitution.
The Mobile Press-Register reported he ran as an independent, but the blogger at Alabama Politics blog says he was the Libertarian Party candidate, but the link he provides doesn't work.
Johnson has apparently worked with Riley since his days running for Congress. In 2002, Johnson was instrumental in Riley’s gubernatorial campaign and was later appointed to ADECA by the governor.
Jeff Vreeland claims to have spoken with "many people who work on Riley’s campaign" and they are "excited that Bill Johnson is back on leading them."
Johnson, an alumnus of John Carrol High School in Birmingham and Spring Hill College in Mobile, is known as a "colorful character." He left medical school to be join fights as a so-called "freedom fighter" or mercenary in countries involved in war and revolution, including Nicaragua and Afghanistan, according to profiles on the Web. Which means he was either CIA, a free-lance agency man, or surely a bit crazy.
The Register also claims that Johnson refused to pay taxes for 14 years of his life because he didn’t recognize the authority of the federal government.
Funny stuff in Montgomery. I'll be checking in personally in Montgomery Monday and Tuesday, and may even test out the LocustFork.Net canoe in the Alabama River and give it a run...
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley and the New York Times editorial board weighed in on the growing election fight in Alabama over control of the statewide voter database.
“We’ve got a problem, we’ve got to fix it, and it would best be fixed by a non-partisan party," Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley’s said of a court's assignment of Republican Gov. Bob Riley as the “Special Master” in the voter database project. "If this responsibility is to be in the hands of any person currently on the ballot, it should be delegated to a Democrat since by law those duties were assigned to an official elected as a Democrat. Assigning those duties to the governor, who is seeking re-election, comes across as a power-grab which further adds to the image he is gaining by flaunting his big money ties. Elections, like state government, belong to the people.”
At least one person on the editorial board of the New York Times is keeping up with developments here enough to come to the right conclusions about it. We thought they had forgotten we exist. Where are the newspaper's in the state?
NYT: Strong-Arming the Vote
President Bush’s Justice Department has been criticized for letting partisanship guide its work on voting and elections. And party politics certainly appears to have been a driving force in a legal maneuver it just pulled off in Alabama, where it persuaded a federal judge to take important election powers away from the Democratic secretary of state and give them to a Republican governor. The Justice Department says it is trying to enforce the election law, but that is unconvincing. There are plenty of ways to enforce the law without creating the impression that it is tilting the electoral landscape in favor of Republicans.
Alabama is one of many states that have been late in meeting a federal requirement to create a computerized statewide list of voters. Secretary of State Nancy Worley says the delay is due to factors outside her control. Her critics disagree. But whatever the reason, the Justice Department has every right to try to speed things along. The trouble is, rather than work with Ms. Worley to get the job done, it decided to go to court to take away her authority and hand it to Gov. Bob Riley.
Sadly, a federal judge agreed yesterday to do just that, in a one-sided proceeding that felt a lot like a kangaroo court. The Justice Department and the Alabama attorney general, Troy King, both argued that Governor Riley should control the voter database. Mr. King, a Republican, was appointed to his job by Governor Riley after serving as his legal adviser, and when Ms. Worley realized that Mr. King would not represent her interests, she asked him to let her hire a lawyer to argue her side. He refused. The Alabama Democratic Party tried to intervene in the case, so it could argue against giving control of the voter rolls to the governor. The judge, who was recently named to the bench by President Bush, would not let the Democrats in.
The Justice Department’s request to shift Ms. Worley’s powers to Governor Riley is extraordinary. Normally, the government would seek an order telling a state official what to do, or it would ask to have a nonpartisan person appointed as a special master. And the Justice Department’s aggressive stance stands in stark contrast to the forgiving approach it has taken to Republican secretaries of state. After Katherine Harris removed eligible voters from the rolls in Florida in 2000, and Kenneth Blackwell tried to block eligible people from registering in Ohio in 2004, the Justice Department made no effort to limit their powers.
Controlling the voting rolls can yield important advantages, as Ms. Harris proved in 2000. The Justice Department’s actions in Alabama appear to be less about enforcing the law than about wresting control of the voter rolls from the opposition party, and making a Democratic secretary of state who is up for re-election in a few months look bad.
It would not be the first time the Bush Justice Department seemed to play party politics with elections. Political appointees approved the pro-Republican Congressional redistricting plan in Texas and a voter ID law in Georgia, despite objections from staff lawyers that the plans violated the Voting Rights Act.
The Justice Department has enormous power over state elections. It is important that this power be used in a way that appears - and is - nonpartisan. Undercutting a Democratic secretary of state, and taking the extraordinary step of handing her powers to a Republican governor, meets neither test. The Justice Department is giving the impression that it is less concerned that elections be lawful and fair than that they come out a particular way.
Unfortunately, the NYTimes Op/Ed section is not free online, or we would have just provided a blurb and a link. In the interest of educating the people of Alabama about this issue, and under Fair Use educational guidelines of the U.S. Copyright laws, we therefore ran this editorial in it's entirety.
We are planning a trip to Montgomery very soon to check in on this story and others. There's obviously some funny business going on in the state capital. And the elections are now only three months away. Pay attention and get ready to vote, people.
It's hot and humid outside anyway, a good time to stay indoors in the AC and catch up on some news through the Internet.
The local AP story (yes, you have to accept the cookies to read the al.com version, but at least it doesn't cost you anything, unless you go out and buy the paper): Judge Rejects Democrats' Bid, Names Riley Head of Voter Database
by Glynn Wilson
July 30 - Secretary of State Nancy L. Worley sometimes gets frustrated as a lone Democrat with an office in the old historic Alabama Capitol. She is surrounded by Republicans who have no shame when it comes to partisan politics.
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Secretary of State Nancy Worley at work... |
So when she made the news again this week, smeared by the corporate press and media in a misleading story about what is going on with Alabama's election system, she did what any honest professional would do. She continued working doing the job she was elected to do.
In case you missed it, Worley was threatened last week by Gov. Bob Riley and Attorney General Troy King and accused of not fully implementing the Help America Vote Act. The Alabama Democratic Party called the move an unconstitutional Republican power grab.
The state's newspapers and TV stations ran with the story and ignored the press release issued by the very Secretary of State who was under attack. And they call themselves "fair and balanced?"
"This has been a two-year battle and the real politics and greed are beginning to surface," Ms. Worley said when asked about the situation.
For the record, here are the facts:
U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins ruled on July 21 that Alabama achieved a "reasonable level" of compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and ordered Secretary Worley to continue with her plan to make the state's current voter registration system as reliant and efficient as possible for the November 2006 election.
The decision ended the U.S. Department of Justice's case against the state of Alabama and Secretary of State Nancy L. Worley in her official capacity for not fully complying with one aspect of HAVA: the requirement that the state implement a centralized, statewide voter registration database.
Judge Watkins also ruled that the court would adopt Secretary Worley's proposed plan to implement a statewide voter registration database before the 2008 primary election, and would only modify the plan’s timeline and "non-substantive provisions." The court will appoint a so-called "special master" to ensure that all relevant parties, including Alabama’s local election officials, work with Secretary Worley's office to accomplish the goals set forth in the plan.
"Furthermore, because of the Secretary of State's understandable reluctance to commit to the achievement of HAVA compliance within the court's specified time frame, particularly where compliance is contingent on others not within the control of the Secretary of State, the Court hereby gives notice of the appointment of a "special master," Judge Watkins wrote in his decision.
Secretary Worley said this weekend that she looks forward to the appointment of a special master by the court.
"The implementation of a statewide voter registration database that helps eliminate voter fraud is one of my top priorities as Alabama Secretary of State," she said. "My staff and I will do everything in our power to see that Alabama implements such a system, and we look forward to receiving support from the special master in order to guarantee our success."
Now, that should put the story to rest.
We urge Ms. Worley and everyone else involved in Alabama's elections to ensure a transparent process. We also urge the use of a system that provides a clear paper trail. The last thing Alabama needs is a computerized voting fraud controversy or a hanging chad debacle like Florida had in November 2000.
The Alabama Democratic Party filed an intervention in United States District Court today to prevent Gov. Bob Riley from assuming voter registration duties over the democratically elected Secretary of State, Nancy Worley.
"Republican Attorney General Troy King has once again placed politics over principle and partisanship over professionalism and is using his constitutionally empowered office to launch a Republican power grab," the party said in a press release. "King, along with the Bush Justice Department, has singled out Alabama because our Secretary of State is an elected Democrat."
In addition to Alabama, 19 states have faced similar obstacles in fully implementing the Help America Vote Act including Illinois, New York and California, which have publicly indicated that they will not be compliant.
Yet it appears the Justice Department has only targeted states where Democrats administer elections, according to the statement.
"What Republicans can't do at the ballot box, they are trying to do through the courts," Alabama Democratic Party Chair Joe Turnham said. "As an Alabama Democrat elected statewide, Republicans have targeted her for defeat."
Worley received more votes than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican, including Bob Riley, in the June 6 primary.
"Republicans realize they must further attack and besmirch Worley in order for their preferred candidate Beth Chapman to have a chance in November," Turnham says. "Chapman's own record in regard to election administration is highly suspect, as she has publicly spoken out against reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This extreme position puts her in direct conflict with Alabama's two Republican senators and President George W. Bush."
At a July 15th meeting, the Alabama Republican Executive Committee unanimously urged the U.S. Congress to refuse to authorize the original version of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, although it was approved by both Houses of Congress recently and signed into law by President Bush.
Turnham objected to the appointment of Bob Riley as a "special master" due to his obvious political self-interest in the 2006 elections and his total lack of experience in administering elections.
"The full resources of the Governor's office and the Secretary of State's Office should be available to any special master the judge approves," Turnham said. "But it is entirely inappropriate for Bob Riley to assume that responsibility in middle of a nip-and-tuck race against Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley. The integrity of our election administration is at stake and Alabama voters need to have full confidence that elections are run by individuals with expertise and without a personal, partisan agenda."
In addition, the Rev. Jack Zylman of Birmingham says this is the same administration which has been trying desperately to force U.S. voters to use insecure voting machines from Diebold that have no paper trail, from a company known for corruption and owned by a Republicans.
"After all the harassment of Democratic elected officials and candidates that the Bush Justice Department has dragged into court, we now see that this cynical, corrupt department is attempting to take the supervision of voting in Alabama and give it to Bob Riley," Zylman said. "This is the same Justice Department in the same Bush administration that has given us (at least) one stolen election and possibly another."
As usual, the local press and media coverage of this issue has been less than comprehensable.
AP: State Election Job May Switch from Worley to Riley
Where are the editorials and columns calling this power grab what it is? Does the Alabama press care about fair and accurate election results?
Ralph Reed Becomes the First Abramoff/Scanlon Crony to Fall
Will Bob Riley Be Next?
Conservative voters in Georgia rejected prominent Republican lobbyist and operative Ralph Reed Tuesday in his race for Lieutenant Governor, due in large part to his connections with out of state Indian casino money.
Like Bob Riley, Reed’s connections to gambling interests were revealed in a report by U.S. Senator John McCain’s Indian Affairs committee.
"Ralph Reed refused to explain or apologize for his unethical and deceitful tactics, and the voters in Georgia punished him for it," Alabama Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Spearman says in a press release. "If Bob Riley and the Alabama Choctaw Party continue to stonewall and refuse to tell the truth about their connections to this same Indian casino money, then Alabama voters will reject them as well. Bob Riley benefited from the same operation that his fellow Republicans have called 'manipulating Christians for casinos'."
McCain’s report quotes William Worfel of Louisiana’s Coushata Tribe as saying that the Mississippi Choctaw Indians spent $13 million "to get the Governor of Alabama elected," laundering the money through a lobbying firm run by former Riley spokesman and convicted felon Michael Scanlon and his partner Jack Abramoff.
At least one Alabama newspaper has called for Riley to publicly explain his relationship to ex-Riley aide and felon Michael Scanlon and account for the money funneled to his campaign by the Mississippi Choctaw Indians, although most of the mainstream press in Alabama continues to promote the chamber of commerce myth that Bob Riley's Alabama is booming and he's somehow responsible.
"How much money did Riley get from the Alabama Choctaw Indians?" Spearman asks. "As a candidate for our state’s top office, Bob Riley has a covenant with Alabama voters to answer this and other questions about who really in charge of the Alabama Governor’s office."
AP: Reed's Defeat Raises Questions on Future
If a preacher secretly accepts a bucket of money from a saloonkeeper to organize a temperance rally at a rival saloon and maybe send in a gang of church ladies to chop up the bar with their little hatchets, this would strike you and me as sleazy, but others are willing to make allowances, and so Ralph Reed's political career is still alive and breathing in Georgia, according to an opinion column in the Balimore Sun by NPR's Garrison Keillor.
"He has bathed himself in tomato juice and hopes to smile his way through the storm."
The facts are fairly simple.
Mr. Reed left the Christian Coalition in 1997 as it was sinking, and he was paid by Jack Abramoff to organize opposition to a gambling bill in the Texas legislature, which would have opened the door to competition for Mr. Abramoff's client casinos in Louisiana.
So Mr. Reed got the good Christians of Texas to bombard the legislature with phone calls and letters denouncing gambling, for which Mr. Reed was paid millions of dollars in gambling money, by way of Mr. Abramoff's bagman, Grover Norquist.
Mr. Reed also helped defeat a state lottery and video poker in Alabama, in behalf of casinos in Mississippi. In Alabama, he told Mr. Abramoff, he had "over 3,000 pastors and 90,000 religious conservative households."
He enlisted these Baptists in a fight against one saloon while he was on the payroll of another.
Continue reading "A Peach of a Scandal in Georgia" »
The final results are in.
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley buried former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman in the Democratic Party primary race for governor, 60 percent to 36 percent.
Gov. Bob Riley creamed Judge Roy Moore in the Republican Party primary, 67 percent to 33 percent.
Baxley received 278,417 votes to Siegelman's 169,253.
Riley got 306,383 votes. Moore got 153,376.
|
> | | File photo by Glynn Wilson | | Secretary of Stte Nancy Worley got more votes than any other candidate in the June 6 primaries... |
All the statewide results are available here, as long as you are willing to allow the Newhouse-Advent-al.com news site's cookies on your computer.
In other races of interest, Mobile District Attorney John Tyson beat holocaust denier Larry Darby 56 percent to 44 percent in the Democratic Party primary for attorney general, the state's top law enforcement post. But it should interest analysts to see that Darby garnered 162,628 votes in Alabama, a clear indication that there still exists a wacko fringe in this state. Tyson received 210,981 votes.
In spite of being attacked by the Birmingham News in the paper's endorsement of her opponent, it was good to see that Nancy Worley won the secretary of state race by a massive landslide. She received 76 percent of the vote, and got more votes than any other candidate in any race in Alabama, including Bob Riley. She won 315,157 votes to former employee Ed Packard's 100,271.
In the controversial Republican Party primary race for Supreme Court Chief Justice, Drayton Nabers beat Judge Roy Moore clone Tom Parker 61 percent to 39 percent, 250,493 votes to 158,385.
It also appears that Alabama still has a few more Democrats than Republicans. In the governor's race at the top of the ticket, 465,023 people voted for all of the Democratic Party candidates combined, compared to 459,759 who voted for one of the two Republicans.
Feel free to post your comments on the governor's race or the elections in general. All you need is a Typekey password.
Or, e-mail them to Editor and Publisher Glynn Wilson at fast2write(at)charter(dot)net ...
 | | File Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lucy Baxley tries to become Alabama's second woman governor... |
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley easily beat back a GOP primary challenge from Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore on Tuesday, while Democratic former Gov. Don Siegelman lost his comeback fight against the state's first female lieutenant governor, Lucy Baxley. Alabama voters also passed a ban on gay marriage by a 4-to-1 margin.
With 32 percent of the precincts reporting, Baxley led Siegelman by 61 percent to 35 percent in the Democratic primary.
In the Republican primary, Riley led Moore by 64 to 36 percent.
It was enough of a margin in both cases for concession speeches by 10 p.m.
Here's the early AP story:
Baxley, Riley Take Primary Victories in Alabama Governor's Race
The Washington Post national AP story:
Check the Regional Political Roundup for more headelines.
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | A couple of volunteers do some last minute campaigning for Alabama Senate candidate Linda Coleman in front of a suburban Baptist church used as a polling place, thanks to the Bush Justice Department... |
by Glynn Wilson
Don't you just hate it when pundits advise people to "just vote?" This is usually followed by something like "do your civic duty."
So about half of the Americans population takes that to heart and dutifully shows up at the polls on election day, often making bad choices.
Don't you just also hate it when politicians say they "trust the people" to make the right decision?
"The people" or "the masses" by and large - present readership excluded of course - tend to be more like sheep. Especially in backward states like Alabama, they tend to show up and vote for who their preacher tells them to vote for, or who their family members and coworkers seem to support.
Some people, a little higher up the brain chain, are influenced by things like meeting a candidate in person, or if a candidate publicly support something they really want to participate in, like the lottery.
In spite of standing trial in federal court as this is written, former Gov. Don Siegelman has an incredibly hardcore base of supporters in Alabama. This surprised me when I moved back home from DC and before that New Orleans, because quite frankly, I had no idea so many people were such "fans" of any politician in this state. I mean, how can you be a fan of what this state looks like politically, unless you are blissfully happy working at Wal-mart or on the assembly line at one of the new auto-plants?
Gov. Bob Riley seems to be liked OK by most people, but not because of his charisma or force of personality or brilliant ideas about how to govern. It's the economy stupid.
People on the religious right seem to like standing by Judge Roy Moore, but only because he seems to be willing to stand up courageously for something they believe in, the Ten Commandments.
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley seems to be well-liked in some quarters, but literally hated in others. I could publish some of my e-mail of late calling her "dumb" or "ignorant" and saying things like "she doesn't have both oars in the water."
But I think I will refrain, because there is one fact that I believe is the most important thing to remember for any Democrat in Alabama as they go to the polls on Tuesday: A vote for Don Siegelman is a vote to destroy the Democratic Party in this state and hand the Republicans a one-party state for many years to come.
It's nothing personal. I like Don fine, and believe his claims about a political prosecution. But I do not think handing the party's nomination to someone in the middle of a federal corruption trial - no matter the eventual outcome - will be good for the party or the state.
I do not know her well, but I believe Lucy Baxley is a reasonable person who would listen to good ideas if elected. I could be wrong.
If she is half as incompetent as the Siegelman e-mail support group claims, she will lose to Bob Riley in the general election anyway.
Sometimes it is better to lose one election in order to win the next one. Maybe the Democrats can find a stronger slate of candidates in 2010. I hope they are working on it. They seem to have lost the enthusiasm of most young voters on the left who are technologically savvy and into protecting the environment.
The peace left also seems to think we need another party in this state. Unfortunately at this juncture, there is no base of support to launch the Green Party here. Too many uneducated sheep.
If Riley does win a second term, I suspect he will face the same general fate as President George W. Bush in his second term. The economy will tank. There will be another natural disaster. More scandal stories will come out. Maybe all of the above.
An immutable law of American politics: The pendulum always swings, back and forth.
So go vote on Tuesday if you know who you are voting for and why. Otherwise, pick up a 12-pack of Yuengling and sit this one out. I'm considering it myself, since my vote in the local church would most likely be thrown out anyway. I may be the only person thinking about voting for a Democrat in this neighborhood. And, the Baxley campaign seems unwilling or simply unable to figure out how to update its Web site.
See you on the flipside of election day. Let us know if the outcome makes you happy or sad. Or don't.
We will, of course, be following the numbers and will post a story about the winners as soon as they become available.
Cheers and best of luck. We hope your favorite candidate wins.
Gov. Bob Riley has told the people of Alabama that he is concerned about the environmental and economic health of our state. He has the opportunity, right now, to show us he really means it. He has publicly stated that he will not allow open-loop technology in liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities to harm the fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico. The clock is ticking on his chance to stand behind his word.
Alabama is an adjacent state for two liquid natural gas facilities that are currently in the licensing process. As the governor of an adjacent state, he has the power to veto these licenses or to require conditions on their approval.
Natural gas is an important source of energy for our country and will be a source of revenue for Alabama's economy. But the technology is new and not all of the impacts are known. We do know that the new pipelines that are being built will go through areas already suffering from environmental and social effects of having heavy industry in their front yards. We also know that a healthy Gulf is crucial for tourism, commercial fishing, and protection of our natural heritage.
There are currently seven open-loop terminals proposed for the Gulf. All of the 36 other proposed and existing LNG terminals around the country are closed-loop. Why should Alabama have to absorb the cost -- in irretrievable natural resources -- so that ConocoPhillips can have a higher profit margin?
Each open-loop reheating system could use up to 200 million gallons of Gulf water each and every day to vaporize the natural gas for distribution into pipelines. The drastic temperature change, chlorination and physical damage caused by the process would destroy fish eggs and larvae by the billions. The cumulative impacts of these facilities would be a significant blow to both commercial and recreational fisheries. Open-loop LNG terminals are currently proposed in essential habitat for shrimp, redfish (red drum), king mackerel, red snapper, blue fin tuna and other important species.
The gas companies prefer open-loop systems because they are a few percentage points cheaper than closed-loop systems. The value of the recreational and commercial fisheries that stand to be lost are much greater.
If the governor fails to act, he is letting the gas companies get away with increasing their already record profits at the expense of our environment, recreational resources and livelihoods. Any increased costs of the closed-loop system will not be borne by the oil companies anyway; they will pass those costs onto the taxpayers and consumers.
We can pay 2 percent more for our natural gas now or pay much more later by having our seafood and recreational fisheries industries destroyed forever. The answer to that decision is an easy one
Only by acting to veto this or other open-loop LNG proposals can Gov. Riley show us he really means what he says.
Sandra S. Nichols
WildLaw, Montgomery
LocustFork.Net Independent Online News Endorses Lucy Baxley
Gleaming casinos, jackpot gambling joints, rip-off check cashing outlets and the shells of pawn shops dot Alabama's growing suburban sprawl, while the countryside is a virtual pine plantation, except for the shiny new Wal-marts and auto plants, where non-union workers punch a clock and sell China's cheap goods and work the assembly line.
There are so many unemployed, underemployed and underpaid people in Alabama - with no form of health insurance at all - that the official unemployment statistics do not take them into account. Neither do most of the candidates running for public office in the June 6 primary, with one possible exception: Lucy Baxley.
This is a good time to be governor of Alabama? Maybe if you keep a strong drink close at hand and sleep well at night oblivious of guilt at the crumbling thing called American Democracy on your watch.
Alabama's next governor will face serious challenges, more serious than any of the pundits yet know, because there has been no serious discussion of the coming economic crisis, which will inevitably affect the state's economy, or the global warming crisis, which will impact the state's coast.
Gov. Bob Riley may be lucky, according to the Birmingham News, but if he is reelected, he might turn out to be unlucky. We suspect there is more to the Abramoff scandal than has come out to date, although we know Bob Riley's campaigns have been connected with the Native American casino money scandals. No news outlet in Alabama or the country has yet fully explored this scandal and all its tentacles.
Former Gov. Don Siegelman has been talking about it, and former Justice Roy Moore did make a stab at spelling it out on his Web site early on.
There is no doubt truth in Siegelman's claim that the prosecution against him is political, although we suspect he is responsible for bringing some of his troubles on himself by the way he did business. Maybe he did business the only way he could in an office he inherited from Fob James, and before him, Guy Hunt. And let's not forget George Wallace. The remnants of his political infrastructure are still evident in this state, and it can be found - if you get off the phone and pound the bushes in Alabama's hinterlands.
Riley should share no credit for saving the state's four major military bases, since Bush would have saved them in any event, considering his historical if sorted connections to Alabama dating back to 1972. Riley did stand up in the aftermath of Katrina, and no news organization has dug up any significant dirt on him ethically, except for some minor stabs at documenting his campaign contributions and connections to Abramoff.
To his credit, he did sort of shame the Legislature into giving a tax cut to the state's poorest citizens, but his administration seems ill-suited to mounting a massive effort to re-write the state's antiquated Constitution. With a Democratic Governor and majority Democrat Legislature, perhaps that challenge could be accomplished.
Riley may be the far better choice for Republican voters, maybe the only choice, but many of the out of touch with reality religious fanatics will vote for Moore.
In fact, we have it on good authority that some of Baxley's supporters are planning to cross over and vote for Moore, since he would be easier to beat in November. We think this is a dangerous strategy, since electing The Ten Commandments Judge would be an absolute disaster for the state in every embarrassing respect. And Ms. Baxley may need every vote she can get to beat Siegelman in the primary. From our forays into the hinterlands, Siegelman generates serious hardcore support.
Ms. Baxley is a strong, intelligent and experienced candidate who has served well as lieutenant governor and state treasurer. Many think her former husband, Bill Baxley, should have been elected governor in 1986, when he became embroiled in the scandal caused largely by Mobile's Charlie Graddick and the Birmingham News that resulted in the fluke election of Guy Hunt, surely one of the dumbest hicks to ever hold public office in Alabama.
Critics have pointed out rightly that Ms. Baxley's campaign so far has been short on specifics, and we hope that Ms. Baxley will learn the lesson between now and November that Democrats cannot reach high office without taking clear stands on key issues. She has proposed a ban on PAC to PAC transfers, where the lobbyists hide a huge chunk of the political money these days. We suggest a bold step toward public financing of elections at the state level. That is the only viable method that has been studied and would work to clean up the corporate dominance and corruption of our national and local politics.
Ms. Baxley has promised a Cabinet-level position to help small businesses and an expansion of state health insurance benefits for low- to moderate-income families and children.
She has agreed to consider a new technology initiative as part of the small business plan, and she has said she will fight for a clean environment when the battles come up with Republicans. We will hold her to those commitments if she wins the primary June 6 and the general election in November. We expect she will win the primary, and give the general election a good run. So we whole-heartedly extend our endorsement to Ms. Lucy Baxley in the Democratic Party primary on Tuesday.
As the second woman governor of the state and the only independent woman not connected to Wallace and the like, she just might be able to lead Alabama out of the dark ages of American politics into what historians and journalists have longed for since the early 20th century: A New South.
by Glynn Wilson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 2 - Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley made a last minute foray into hardcore Arrington and Siegelman territory Friday as she campaigned for the Democratic Party's nomination for governor on Fourth Avenue North in Downtown Birmingham.
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley talks to Donald Witherspoon as she campaigns on Fourth Avenue North in downtown Birmingham |
The street is one of the few strongholds for African American business owners in the American South, and people here have a deep loyalty to former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, the city's first black mayor, as well as former Gov. Don Siegelman, who did much to court their support in his winning run for governor in 1998 and in 2002.
Donald Witherspoon, 54, who works at the Talk of the Town barbershop, said most folks in the neighborhood tend to support Siegelman, although they are looking for a Democrat who will work to get wages up.
"Gas is up. Everything else is up, while people are living on set incomes," he said, as Ms. Baxley shook his hand and asked for his vote.
When she went into the shop to court the other patrons, he said Ms. Baxley may have a chance of getting some votes in the city just by having the courage to show up and talk to people in person, to shake their hands and ask for their votes.
Ms. Baxley is pushing a small business development initiative as part of her platform. Her campaign in the primary so far as been fairly vague and general, void of grand promises, a strategy that could work since her primary opponent, Siegelman, is on trial for alleged corruption by the Bush Justice Department in Montgomery.
But she has promised to create a cabinet level office of small business development if she is elected in November. The office would be responsible for responding to complaints by small business owners. The office would provide technical advice and assist small businesses in resolving regulatory problems as well as reporting small business concerns and recommendations directly to the governor.
You can read about it on the Lucy Baxley for Governor Web site: Small Business Development Initiative.
When asked if she would consider including a technology initiative for small online business owners as part of her plan if she wins the primary, she said she would "absolutely be interested in that."
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Moses Jones, 76, a retired railroad worker, meets Lucy Baxley as he gets his hair cut. He said he will vote for Baxley, "In a heartbeat..." |
"Technology is the wave of the future," she said.
Alabama tends to be way behind the rest of the country in the number of people who have Internet access and know how to use it, and in businesses that engage in online commerce. It will take leadership at the state level to change this trend, in part because the media companies in Alabama are not exactly on the cutting edge. (The Birmingham News did not even bother to send a reporter or a photographer to cover her downtown visit, even though she was only a few blocks from their building for more than an hour this morning).
Another factor in putting Alabama citizens behind on the technology curve is the fact that colleges and universities in the state have been strapped with budget constraints due to an inadequate tax base. Gov. Bob Riley tried to fix some of that with the tax package he proposed in his first year as governor in 2003. But the yeehaw, anti-tax conservatives in the state managed to vote it down.
Presented with the opportunity, we also asked Ms. Baxley about her knowledge and stance on the environment.
It has become increasingly clear that a lot of readers here are disengaged from politics in part because Democrats tend to promote the same types of issues as Republicans, perhaps with even less vigor. They have been called "Republicans Lite" by a number of pundits, and they do not generate respect from the technology and environmental left.
That led a number of hardcore environmentalists to support Ralph Nader and the Green Party in the 2000 presidential election, a move that cost Vice President Al Gore votes and helped hand the country to George W. Bush and his Republican cronies.
While Ms. Baxley has made it clear she will run openly as a pro-business, Christian Democrat, she said she is educated on environmental issues and, if elected, she will fight the Republicans when the time comes.
"If you are looking for someone to fight for a clean environment," she said, "I can assure you I will."
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley campaigns in hardcore Arrington, Siegelman territory with less than a week to go before the Democratic Primary vote June 6 (notice the Arrington portrait in the top right corner). |
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lt Gov. Lucy Baxley solicits the support of Dennis Jemison II, 6, and his dad, Dennis Jemison, 42, who cuts hair at the Touch of Elegance barbership, as she campaigns for the Democratic Party nomination for governor Friday on Fourth Avenue North in Downtown Birmingham. |
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley will visit barbershops and small businesses in downtown Birmingham on Friday, June 2, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Green Acres Restaurant, located at 1705 Fourth Avenue North. Supporters and interested citizens are urged to turn out and meet her on a tour of business on Fourth Avenue North and Sixteen Street, where she will discuss her plans to assist small businesses in succeeding in the global economy.
This ought to be an interesting photo op, and a chance to ask some questions - for the poliltically engaged that is...
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat from Mobile, will be be interviewed on Alabama Public Television's "For the Record" show tonight at 6 p.m. The show will be rebroadcast at 11 p.m.
For the Record
Other candidates running for office in the June 6 primary have been interviewed on the show and those interviews are available on the Alabama Public TV Web site.
Former Judge Roy Moore will be interviewed Wednesday, May 31, and Gov. Bob Riley will be on the show on Thursday, June 1. Watch and learn...
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley picked up more endorsements this week in her run to be the second woman elected governor of Alabama.
The United Mine Workers Union endorsed Ms. Baxley in the Democratic Primary, as did the Birmingham News, the Montgomery Advertiser and the Talladega Daily Home newspapers.
"These endorsements are further evidence Lucy's campaign for the Democratic Party's gubernatorial nomination is cresting toward victory in the June 6 Democratic Party primary," said Jimmy DeButts, communications director for the Baxley campaign. "Lucy's vision for a better Alabama is resonating with hard-working Alabamians and gaining momentum."
The Talladega Daily Home touted Baxley's bridge-building talents and her pledge to serve all Alabamians:
"As Governor, she will use her people skills to build consensus and get bills through what can be a highly contentious, partisan Legislature," the paper reported. "She knows the political system and its players and has the ability to work to get measures through that will benefit the people of this state."
Baxley has also been enforsed in the primary by the South Baldwin County Democrats, the Alabama Police Benevolent Association, the Alabama New South Coalition, the Montgomery Independent, the Alabama State Employees Association, the Alabama Democratic Conference, the Tuscaloosa News, the Jefferson County Citizens Coalition and the Jefferson County Progressive Democratic Council.
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Former Gov. Don Siegelman |
The United Auto Workers union announced its support on Monday for former Gov. Don Siegelman in the Alabama race for governor, according to the Associated Press.
Ted Letson, chairman of the Alabama UAW's Community Action Program Council, says Siegelman worked hard to expand the auto industry in Alabama and to protect auto jobs already in the state. The organization also backed Siegelman in his 1998 and 2002 races.
Siegelman did not attend a news conference in Montgomery to announce the endorsement because his federal court trial started its second week today. But a spokesman for Siegelman says the endorsement was vital at a time when loyalty is at a premium.
Is it any wonder the unions are practically obsolete and virtually out of business? It can't help the reputation of a union to endorse a candidate while he is in the middle of being tried in federal court for what all the news organizations in Alabama call a "government corruption" trial.
Hey, we support unions and wish they would do more to rebuild their memership bases and work for viable Democratic candidates across the country. But we suspect this is no way to accomplish enhancing their image.
We still think there is a chance the feds could fail in their political attempt to jail Siegelman. But we suspect even if the case results in acquittal, Siegelman may still not be able to win the Democratic Party's nomination. And if he did win the primary, we doubt he could win the general election.
We're not sure Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley can win it either, but at least she's not tainted by a corruption trial, and she's not a Ten Commandments judge, if you know what we mean.
We are very rarely wrong in these matters, but we could welcome being wrong on this one.
There are two major problems we see with the trial and the primary.
One, Siegelman has changed lawyers several times and none of them were able to separate his trial with that of deposed HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy. It will also be hard for a jury to separate them.
Two, it is worth noting that Donald Watkins balked at participating in this trial. Hint. Hint.
We were the ONLY news organization to puiblicly predict Scrushy's acquittal in Birmingham, and a lot of people still owe us beers for that bet.
It's too early to bet on the outcome of the trial or the primary, because there is way too much trial left to go. Stay tuned...
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley |
The Alabama New South Coalition voted Saturday to endorse Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley in the Democratic Party primary race for governor, according to a press release from the Baxley campaign.
The coalition, founded in 1986 with the mission to advocate cultural awareness, economic development, education, peace and justice, held its annual spring endorsement conference in Montgomery this weekend.
"The Alabama New South Coalition is proud to endorse Lucy Baxley as the next Governor of Alabama," said the group's chairman emeritus, Hank Sanders. "The Alabama New South Coalition asks its members, their friends and families, and citizens who stand for equality and fairness for all Alabamians to support the candidacy of Lucy Baxley."
Baxley welcomed the support of the Alabama New South Coalition and said she looks forward to a united effort to win the Democratic nomination in the June 6 primary and leading the ticket in the fall general election.
"I am honored to have the support of the Alabama New South Coalition," Baxley said. "This endorsement is further evidence that our campaign stands poised to win the Democratic nomination and offer to the voters this fall a real choice for new leadership. I believe we share a vision to improve the lives of Alabamians. By working together, we can realize our dreams of a better Alabama. I am gratified that they have chosen to put their support behind my campaign, and I am pleased they are joining with me to spread our message across the state."
Baxley noted that she has a long working relationship with members of the Alabama New South Coalition and appreciates its endorsement of her vision to return honesty and integrity to state government, discipline and learning back into school classrooms, make certain healthcare is available and affordable for our working families, children and seniors, and continue to promote t |
