See also the AL - 05 Big List.
Welcome to the AL - 02 Big List.
This list has been an attempt to keep up with everyone in either political party who has been credibly mentioned (in public or private) as a potential candidate for Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District since Rep. Terry Everett (R - Rehobeth) announced that he will not run for re-election.
Both parties’ qualifying period ended April 4, 2008. Three Democrats and six Republicans qualified for the primary race, and they are listed below. The primary is June 3.
The Political Parlor will update the Alabama Line (found in the sidebar) for the race, though perhaps not as fast as you like since input from a wide array of people is sought.
| Democrats |
Republicans |
IN
Bobby Bright, Montgomery Mayor
Cendie Crawley, Dentist, Troy native
Cheryl Sabel, Alabama NOW President
OUT
William Boyd, Montgomery Mayoral Candidate
Seth Hammett, Speaker of the House
Jimmy Holley, State Senator
Jimmy Lunsford, Troy Mayor
Gary McAliley, Pike/Coffee Co. DA
Wendell Mitchell, State Senator
Scott Ninesling
James Perdue, Crenshaw Co Probate Judge
Cooper Rutland, Union Springs Atty
Ron Sparks, Agricultural Commissioner
Terry Spicer, State Representative
Glen Zorn, former Florala Mayor
|
IN
David Grimes, State Representative
Jay Love, State Representative
John W. Martin, Retired Army (Dothan)
Craig Schmidtke, Dothan oral surgeon
Harri Anne Smith, State Senator
David Woods, President, WCOV-TV (Montgomery)
OUT
Greg Albritton, former state Representative
Wes Allen, former candidate for Auditor
Kenneth Boswell, Enterprise Mayor
Bobby Bright, Montgomery Mayor
Terry Butts, former Supreme Court Justice
Jim Byard, Prattville Mayor
Steve Clouse, State Representative
Mark Culver, Houston County Commissioner
Larry Dixon, State Senator
John Giles, former Christian Coalition of AL President
Jack Hawkins, Troy Univ. Chancellor
Jimmy Holley, State Senator
Tim James, Greenville businessman
Troy King, Attorney General
Ben Lewis, State Representative
Barry Mask, State Representative
Charles Nailen, Dothan businessman
Steve Pelham, former Everett staffer
Jim Sullivan, PSC President
George Wallace, Jr., former PSC Commissioner
Dot Waller, Autauga County Bd. of Ed.
Greg Wren, State Representative
|
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#2019 You are clueless! Do you not know that people are talking about and laughing at this pitiful and deceitful campaign you and you staffers - and your candidate are running? Ya’ll are suffering from a bad case of tunnel vision. Do you really think that people are buying into to your slams on Bobby Bright as Mayor. He was just reelected with close to 60% percent of the vote among 7 candidates and after a campaign run against him on fear of crime. People saw through it then and will now. Everywhere I go I hear people say they want him as their congressman but hate to lose him as Mayor. You are a joke!!!
Comment by Anonymous — August 30, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
Dear Post 2018 - that garbage has been posted before and no one gave it any thought the first few times either. Does Bright want to talk about his record? Does he want to talk about who is financing his campaign? Does he want to talk about that there is no such thing as a Blue Dog Democrat as proven through voting records? Does he want to say who he supports for President? NO to all.
Ahhhhhh, the City of Montgomery, full of high crime, bad schools and high taxes. What a great record indeed. Bright would be right at home in Washington, DC then. Luckily, he will not get that opportunity.
Comment by Anonymous — August 30, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
I just ound this post from a few days ago. HOW COULD ANYONE think Jay Love is ready for Congress? I had heard over the past months that he was a real lightweight (mostly ignored because he was a rubber stamp) in the AL Legislature. I did not however know how bad it was! This is a MUST READ!
POST: I keep reading posts on saying that Bright has no record and that Love’s experience has prepared him for Congress. I decided to take a look at Love’s record in the Legislature, and the findings are astonishing. (I looked only at the bills Love sponsored and not the ones he co-sponsored since any legislator can sign on as a co-sponsor of a bill.) In the six years Jay Love has served in the Alabama Legislature, only ONE bill he sponsored has been enacted into law! He has a 4.3% success rate on the bills he has sponsored. Furthermore, only 3 of the 23 bills Love has sponsored have made it out of the House of Representatives.
This begs the question, if Love has such a miserable record in the Legislature, why should expect anything better when he gets to Washington? I am sure someone will blame Love’s record on the Democratic leadership in the Legislature. However, if Love is such the leader he is touted to be, then why has he not reached across the isle to try to get his bills passed? And if he has not done so in Montgomery, why should we believe he will do differently in Washington?
In case you are wondering, the only Love-sponsored bill that was enacted into law provided for a one-time lump sum payment to state retirees in the amount of one dollar per month for every year of service.
Here is a listing of the bills sponsored by Love and their final status during the respective legislative session (note – Special Sessions are not included if Love did not sponsor a bill):
2003 REGULAR SESSION
HB427 – Read second time in the Senate
HB572 – Pending committee action in house of origin
2004 REGULAR SESSION
HB209 – Indefinitely postponed in house of origin
HB399 – Indefinitely postponed in house of origin
2005 REGULAR SESSION
HB130 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB435 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB441 – Indefinitely postponed in house of origin
HB693 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB778 – Pending committee action in house of origin
2006 REGULAR SESSION
HB290 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB308 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB366 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB367 – Indefinitely postponed in house of origin
HB576 – Indefinitely postponed in house of origin
HB616 – Pending committee action in house of origin
2007 REGULAR SESSION
HB277 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB278 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB520 – Enacted
HB757 – Pending committee action in house of origin
2008 REGULAR SESSION
HB144 – Read second time in Senate
HB145 – Pending committee action in house of origin
HB388 – Pending committee action in house of origin
2008 SPECIAL SESSION
HB36 – Carried over on motion by Love
After posting this, another post suggested that I intentionally omitted Love’s co-sponsored bills because I wanted skewed results. The rationale behind my decision was that a sponsor is the originator of the bill and the one who actually files the bill, whereas a co-sponsor is a legislator who is supportive of a bill that was filed by another legislator (in other words, “me too.”) Thus, in my opinion, the sponsor has more incentive to work for the passage of the bill. However, I went back and looked at the bills that Love co-sponsored. In his 6 years in the Legislature, Jay Love has sponsored or co-sponsored 247 bills. Of those 247 bills, only 11 have been enacted into law, or 4.45%. So that post was right, Love did come out better on the bills he sponsored or co-sponsored, but only by .15%. As an interesting aside, Love has never gotten a local bill he sponsored passed, which typically are the easiest bills to get passed.
Another post suggested that Love was 23 times more qualified than Bright, referring to the 23 bills that Love had sponsored. The problem with that argument is as a Legislator you can pretty much introduce the best or worst idea as an introduced bill. The real work is getting a bill through your house of the legislature, working the halls of the other house of the legislature (or finding friendly members of that house that will do the work for you) to get your bill through that house, and getting the governor to agree not to veto or pocket veto (which Governor Riley did to one of the bills co-sponsored by Love) your bill.
In regards to the implication that only legislative service is the only experience that counts, let’s take a look at the career paths of Alabama’s recent Congressional delegation:
Bob Riley served on the Ashland town council before going to Congress. Robert Aderholt served as a Haleyville municipal judge and an aide to Fob James before going to Congress. Jo Bonner served as Sonny Callahan’s chief of staff before being elected to Congress. Terry Everett was a newspaper owner and farmer before being elected to Congress. Bud Cramer was the Madison County District Attorney before being elected to Congress. Artur Davis was an assistant U.S. Attorney before being elected to Congress. Jeff Sessions was a U.S. Attorney and Attorney General before being elected to the Senate.
Of our current Alabama delegation in Washington, Richard Shelby, Spencer Bachus, and Mike Rogers previously served in the Legislature. Rogers has been recognized as the 402nd most effective Congressman. And let’s not forget that Earl Hilliard went to Congress from the Alabama Legislature.
Thus, it appears that most of our better Congressmen and Senators have had careers paths that did not go through the State House. While we have had some good ones that previously served in the Legislature, some of our worst ones have come from the State House also.
What does this all mean? I believe the question that voters have to ask themselves on November 4th is do they want an effective statesman or an ineffective partisan politician. For the past 16 years, Everett has served the 2nd CD, with 12 of those years in the majority party. Yet with all that experience, he NEVER chaired a house committee. Do Alabama and the 2nd CD deserve a more prominent place in Congress? You bet! Will Alabama and the 2nd CD have a more prominent place in Congress with Jay Love? The track record in the Legislature doesn’t indicate so. If anything, Love’s track record indicates that the 2nd CD will have one of the least effective Congressmen if Love is elected. In other words, Alabama and the 2nd CD will have an ineffective partisan politician with Love instead of an effective statesman who will get the job done.
Comment by Antisthenes — August 26, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
This says SO much!
Comment by Anonymous — August 30, 2008 @ 10:13 am
I see Bright’s camp has been on here again. Amazing how when they show up there are three or so of them posted back to back. Nice try. And for the past post…please keep saying that. Tell us just how much Obama will help our income and be good for energy! What a joke. Obama and Obobby - what a team!!!!
Comment by Anonymous — August 30, 2008 @ 7:51 am
All 02 Voters will be reminded daily from now till Nov. 4 why we all should seek change in Washington politics to eliminate partisan politics as usual:
(Read on) to see why change is needed now!
In the past 8 years, median household income in America has decreased by over $1,000, while medical premiums have doubled and gasoline prices have tripled. The number of new jobs created per year has shrunk from 1.76 million to 369,000. In 2000, we boasted a $230 billion federal budget surplus. In 2008, we carry a $410 billion deficit. The United States’ trade deficit has nearly doubled.
No one has to tell the middle class that they are worse off today than they were 8 years ago.
How are we going to dig out of this economic mess? In a word: science. Obama’s economic plan will turn our nation’s greatest crisis - energy - into an opportunity. Creating 5 million new jobs in technologies and renewable resources will replace lost manufacturing jobs. Putting 1 million hybrid cars on the road by 2015 will retool the auto industry, so that Detroit can be competitive again. “This election is not about Republicans versus Democrats,” said former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. “It’s about the future versus the past.”
Comment by 02 Voter — August 30, 2008 @ 6:34 am
Heard everyone at the fish fry ignored Love, and were there to see Riley Bob and his real BFF Mike Hubbard.
I heard Jay had to go up to people and tell them who he was and what he was running for.
Heard the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Rob Riley and Jay’s Dad tried to pay for Subway Sandwiches for everybody, but the meat was rotten, so they went and fried some fish.
Heard Bill Canary’s wife wn’t indict any of them for illegal campaign spending because Karl Rove told her they need Love to vote for the next big spending bill in Congress.
Everyone in the entire Wiregrass knows Jay Love is the fakest “Conservative” they’ve ever met, and Bobby’s gonna win 60-40 in Houston County.
Comment by Anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
I have been watching this race for sometime now. I am a businessman and lifelong resident of the wiregrass. At first when I heard about Bright, I was not sure about him because he was running as a Democrat. I generally vote Republican on national races. But, I was so offended by the ridiculous negative attacks in the runoff and the shallow political tricks such as “Christian Conservative Values” that I opened my mind to the possibility of Bright. I heard him speak at a civic club in Dothan, and I was very impressed. For those of you who have not met him, he is without a doubt the first candidate I have seen in these parts who is truly geuine, a real stateman type. I talked to a banker friend of mine who was at Hunt’s last night and he had the same reaction. I was told that Bright had a great crowd, the place was packed ($500.00 per plate.) My buddy who was there said Bright was positive, mature and really connects with people. In fact everyone I talk to down here who knows him says what an honest and decent person he is. Every time I see Jay Love in the media he seems immature and programed. Also, It seems he is deceitful such as his attack on Bright on tv last night when now we know the truth. Did’nt he do the same thing to Harri Anne? I checked with my friend in attendance on the Milton McGregor thing, and that is a lie from the Jay Love camp. He also said there was a paid staffer from the Love campaign there recording Bright’s event. The media was there as well and allowed in. She was discovered at the beginning of the event and allowed to remain even though it was a private fund raiser. This is how I see it: I would rather have a man who is honest genuine and has moral fiber AND a backbone than a party puppet any time. For those of you who have not seen Bright in person, you need to. When he is in town, you need to go hear him.
Check out this news story posted by WWNT. They were there.
http://www.wwntradio.com/news/news.php/displayType/article/146/2008/08/wwnt-exclusive-coverage-of-bobby-bright-fundraiser-at-hunts-
Comment by Anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
The 02 district voters should be informed that nothing but lies continue to really fly about Bobby Bright from Love and his Love Camp. ( You got to see what his strategy is ) For him to send people to infiltrate a dinner held for Bobby Bright last night, then have the Kahonnas to tell blantant lies about Milton McGregor being in attendance is called I’m lying.
Hyprocrisy such as this should win him an
“I swear I will not tell the truth award” If this is his method of claiming to be a christian, then I don’t want any part of it. I’ll vote for Bright.
Comment by anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
hunts…..30 people…..wow. hopefully there was not another fbi raid of the place for gambling.
try landmark park and 270 folks showing up. get real bobby.
Comment by Anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
They probably need to move the convention to New Orleans. Then, Jabberwocker Jay can read, or hopefully read his script from there.
Comment by anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
To hear Jay Love say that the media was excluded from Bobby’s event is sad - here go the lies again. And for them to say this when a person representing their campaign was sitting there recording Bobby’s remarks and taking pictures (very openly) is so deceitful. There was a great crowd at Hunts Seafood for this fund raiser - Their additional lies about Milton McGregor being there just shows what kind of garbage we are going to have to endure for the next 67 days. Grow up Jay Love. You are not ready for prime time. See Wiregrass Live for the article and audio from the radio station that was present, interviewed Bobby and took pictures.
Comment by sick of half truths & lies — August 29, 2008 @ 3:06 pm
Obobby and Obama - what a team!!!!!!!
Comment by Anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
ahhhh rickytsokesnews the real unbiased view of dothan. yeah, right. what a thorn in everyone’s side. go cover harri all u want ricky.
Comment by Anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
I Do Not Usually Respond, But A Answer Is Deserved
www.rickeystokesnews.com
awwww not getting the coverage you think you deserve???….btw, this member of the “harri” crowd was at a ballgame watching my girl cheerlead…much more important than listening to or shaking hands with any politician…
Comment by CC Dollar — August 29, 2008 @ 9:56 am
Who cares about Hillary Anne these days. She is no longer a player. As for Hunts…..a bunch of old school democrats were there….no Republicans or business leaders in Dothan attended.
Comment by Anonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 9:54 am
The fish fry for Jay Love at Houston County Landmark park was well attended last night. Most everyone got to shake Gov. Bob Riley’s hand. Some took the opportunity to chat a little too long with the Gov. Quite rude.
Terry and Barbara Everett looked quite comfortable mixing with the crowd estimated at over 400. GOP Chairman, Mike Hubbard gave the opening remarks and got the crowd ready for the speeches.
I recognized people from Houston, Dale, Henry, Coffee, and Geneva Counties. The only former Congressional candidate who attended was John Martin, who received a warm greeting from Jay Love and Terry Everett. I did not see any of the Harri Anne Smith crowd. Could it be, they were at the Bobby Bright dinner at Hunt’s seafood?
Comment by Annonymous — August 29, 2008 @ 9:46 am
http://www.obobbyforcongress.com/
Comment by Anonymous — August 28, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
Roll call votes don’t lie…
Comment by Anonymous — August 27, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
Exactly - the Novak article states the facts…how so called blue dogs actually vote. Roll call votes don’t like folks. Bright will do the same thing…campaign as a conservative at home, then go to DC and vote with his liberal leadership.
Comment by Anonymous — August 26, 2008 @ 1:14 pm
History will prove that Robert Novak’s comments will apply directly to second district race. I believe Bobby Bright will win the race this year and if anyone bothers to look up his record after his first year in congress they will see that he will have voted right along the democratic party line. The ONLY way this will not happen is if he flips over to being a Republican after getting into office, proving once and for all he will do anythign to get and stay elected. The right person, a true Republican that stands for the values of the 2nd district, will be able to win in 2010 once he exposes the voting record of Bobby Bright’s first year in Washington.
Comment by average guy — August 26, 2008 @ 9:44 am