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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Look at the numbers folks. Smith is spending all she has raised….fast. And what makes you think it is coming in, still, at a higher rate than it is going out? She raises enough to pay her consultants and run polls. Have we seen any other evidence of her campaign yet? Oh wait, I think I saw a small yard sign out near Slocomb.
Comment by superstar! — April 24, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
BBB - you state below that “Harri Anne Smith has a LOT more (cash) going out than coming in.”
That is a provably false statement.
So far Smith has raised - and ALL from donors; NO LOANS - over $250,000. She has spent less than half of that.
Your statement is so far from the truth one wonders if you even know any of the facts about this race. Perhaps your ignorance explains the bizarre claims you have made in other postings.
Comment by Joe Friday: just the facts — April 24, 2008 @ 11:22 am
The idea that the one candidate in this race - Harri Anne Smith - who has raised more money than all the toher candidates combined and is the only candidate who has actually SPENT LESS THAN SHE HAS RAISED FROM DONORS is the candidate in financial trouble (instead of Love, Woods, and Schmidtke, who have spent WAY the hell more than they have taken in) is so bizarre and ridiculous that it discredits those making the statements.
Anyone making this truly insane argument is either 1) retarded or 2) actively attempting to mislead.
I go with retarded as anyone with the sense God gave an amoeba would realize that saying the guy who can’t raise a dime is the really rich candidate won’t wash . . . .
Comment by Milton Friedman — April 24, 2008 @ 11:05 am
BBB you still do not get this. You seem to forget that Smith’s family OWNS A BANK. She can get loans even bigger than those the other candidates have taken out - IF SHE WANTED TO. She hasn’t had to as she has been RAISING MONEY FROM DONORS.
If one candiadte has 50+ individual (and different) donors who have given the maximum legal amount in thwe first quarter and all the other candidates COMBINED have FOUR, there is a significant and important difference in the level of support.
That support - from someone OTHER THAN THE CANDIDATE HIMSELF - is far far far far far (and that is not really enough fars) more important than red-ink cash on hand.
Cash on hand matters, but so does accumulated debt in relation to that cash.
I think this must be put bluntly for you to unxderstand, so I will be concise: your argument is idiotic.
Comment by Gray matter - get some! — April 24, 2008 @ 10:54 am
You guys don’t realize other candidates are not going to the bank to borrow - they are putting in their own resources. And MH, Harri Anne Smith has A LOT more going out than coming in. That is a problem. Thanks for noting that CASH IN HAND (i.e. money to spend) is important.
Comment by BBB — April 24, 2008 @ 10:22 am
The brain dead are certainly in force on this board. This is the first time I have heard anyone contend that it is better to go in the red than to raise money from actual supporters.
That simply does not make any sense in any universe.
Again, cash on hand is important, but when all of that cash is borrowed it is BAD. Period. Unspinnable.
One candidate in this race has raised more money than all the others combined. That speaks a lot louder than the empty argument of “hey I just got $500 on my title loan - I’m RICH!!”
Comment by WOW — April 24, 2008 @ 8:53 am
So, what happens when the candidates who are not getting large amounts of contributions tap out their resources? They can only go to the lending well so many times before that avenue dries up. Then what?
Smith hasn’t even started tapping those particular resources; she still has enough contributions coming in that she doesn’t need to borrow or dip into her own funds. Do you really believe contributers will line up to give money to a candidate tht has run out of lending options?
If the donors are smart, they will realize that if the support were there in the first place, the other candidates wouldn’t have needed to borrow or self finance their campaigns from the get-go. Contributions from individual donors equals votes, except for some people who hedge their bets by supporting multiple campaigns in expectation of backing the winner. Obviously there are not a whole lot of people who spread the money around, though, or the other candidates would be closer to Smith when it comes to contributions from private donors.
Comment by MH — April 24, 2008 @ 8:39 am
Yep, cash on hand matters.
Comment by PikeCountyguy — April 24, 2008 @ 8:02 am
Point is, Harri Anne Smith is low on cash. Yes, she raised more than other folks but other folks have more cash in their campaign accounts to spend because they have put some of their own in. Smith has, and is, spending so much on polls and consultants that she will soon go broke without adding more cash. A small event in Montgomery and Eufaula will not add another 200-300K. This will be a problem for her.
Comment by JohnJohn — April 23, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
MH - 710, Why? Ego!
Comment by JRay — April 23, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
That part is easy B3…it is the way folks are trying to make it sound like Smith is running out of steam, when in truth she has out-raised her closest competitor by 13:1….and that is without having to take out any loans, or dig deep into her own pocket.
And yet if you read the blog the last few days, it sounds like Smith’s campaign is broke. In point of fact, she is way ahead of anyone else as far as funding goes, because she has not had to take out any loans, nor has she had to self finance. Ergo, she is a long way from being tapped out and any inferences to the contrary are just so much smoke being blown up the voters’ skirts.
And I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me why a candidate would go deep into debt to win a job that pays less than the amount of that debt.
Comment by MH — April 23, 2008 @ 7:33 pm
You need cash to spend it MH - how hard is that?
Comment by BBB — April 23, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
The sun rises in the East and sets in the West….
I just want to see how you guys can twist that out of context or belie the logic of it. Y’all seem to do such a good job out of twisting everything else around….
Comment by MH — April 23, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
I think Harri Anne will be very happy this time next year still sitting in the Alabama State Senate. She hasn’t got what it takes fro Congress folks.
Comment by PikeCountyguy — April 23, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
I actually agree with some of what JohnJohn has said. I think Smith will need more cash and the other candidates are self financing to a degree - so she may have to as well as she is spending what she has at a fast pace. Cash on hand does matter - debt or not. And yes, we all know Smith can get a loan MH, that is not the point.
Comment by JT — April 23, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
My whole point is - elections costs too damn much - and Smith will have to borrow or give her campaign cash the way it looks right now…. others have done it for better or for worse and i feel she will have to as well to keep up. So all the posts on here about what a great position she is in I think are misleading. She needs cash on hand and it is being drained daily by all her consultants.
Comment by JohnJohn — April 23, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
MH, Are you suggesting that she would borrow money from a bank where she is in a postion to influence the approval/disapproval of a loan?
Comment by JRay — April 23, 2008 @ 11:45 am
JohnJohn, I agree that Smith will need more cash to keep up with her expenses. But why will the other candidates have easier access to funding than Smith. They can’t loan themselves much more before hitting the $350K limit, but she could.
Comment by JRay — April 23, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Smith isn’t ‘tapped out’…and even if she were, helloo! She is executive VP and a major shareholder of her family’s bank. If she needed to borrow money; she would have NO problems doing so.
Y’all crack me up the way you take a positive and try to turn it into a negative. I feel like I’m in a Dr. Seusse book where up is down and down is up.
Comment by MH — April 23, 2008 @ 11:37 am
You guys don’t have a clue. When Smith runs low on cash, you will see how things start working out. Money talks in politics…and I hate it is that way….but that is the reality. Races are expensive. Smith is running lower by the day and I doubt anything significant will come in as she has tapped all her major reources. Candidates self finance (loan) their campaigns money all the time. I guess you guys don’t pay attention to other races to see how folks do this all over the country. The whole point is, Smith will need more cash very soon while some of the other candidates have easy access to it.
Comment by JohnJohn — April 23, 2008 @ 11:16 am