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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Sorry about the grammar in the above post for some reason part of my text was left out.
Comment by Ozark231 — October 12, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
All you who think Smith is so anti-tax are wrong she voted for to allow people in Jefferson, Mobile and other counties across the state to raise your taxes in Houston, Dale, Montgomery,
Autauga, Elmore, etc. Check your latest property tax bill most of you are now getting and you will see an increase from whatever millage you had before to 10 mills. She Voted for it. At least Ammendment 1 did not pass.
Comment by Ozark231 — October 12, 2007 @ 1:38 pm
I work in Montgomery and most pepople up here think Jay Love will be one of the two in the run-. I heard him speak two weeks ago and he seems to be a fairly intelligent guy. I don’t know much about his voting record but Ammendment 1 is never mentioned here anymore. From what I have heard Smith is well known in Dothan and Geneva county but no one up here has a clue who she is.
Comment by Tom — October 12, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
I have read the threads and agree that it will be an issue for Nailen and Love. However, this is an election for federal office and on federal issues. Amendment one was a purely state matter. Agreed, though, that is will come up. I don;t see it as a huge factor however. I rather hear them discuss true federal issues such as immigration, national defense, government spending, taxes at a federal level, “family value issues” and then specifics to district 2 like agriculture, military base protection, and the overal economy of district 2.
Comment by Anonymous — October 12, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty, Pike County Guy: Amendment 1 WILL be an issue in this primary. I have zero doubt because I am certain some candidates will be using it.
I also think that in THIS district - where so much of the GOP electorate are LANDOWNERS and whose land holding are often FARMLAND and TIMBERLAND - that Amendment 1 WILL be an effective issue against pro-tax hikers such as Love and Nailen.
You can’t just wish it away - or talk it away.
Comment by Hmmmmm — October 12, 2007 @ 11:43 am
MH will agree with anything anti Nailen, she has proven that from all of her posts. Amendment 1 will not be an issue in this race. Do you not realize that voters have very short memories? besides, Jay Love is the one with a VOTING RECORD on amendment one, Charles Nailen does not hace such. believe me, Love will not make an issue of amendment one not will any other republican in the primary.
Comment by Pike County guy — October 12, 2007 @ 11:04 am
Excellent comment. I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Comment by MH — October 12, 2007 @ 10:43 am
I think Riley had an advantage that other pro-tax candidates do not; he was the INCUMBNT GOVERNOR. When’s the last time an incumbent Alabama Governor was knocked off in the priimary? That would be NEVER.
In the fall he had Lucy Baxley who did not take a position on Amendment 1. However, Lucy is a DEMOCRAT and was unable to effectively use anti-tax attacks on Riley. If Riley had been a DEMOCRAT and had proposed Amendment 1 he would have NEVER won reelection.
If you think support of Amendment 1 won’t hurt congressional candidates in this district, you don’t understand the voters here. Pro-taxers like Nailen, Love, Grimes, etc. are at a big disadvantage right out of the box - they WILL have to try to explain their support of big taxes to people who voted 3-to-1 AGAINST Amendment 1.
Comment by Amendment 1 — October 12, 2007 @ 7:44 am
People talk about amend 1 and harri anne, nailen, etc. Do you guys not recall that Riley has run for office with no problem on this issue. he was re elected after amendment 1 and it did nothing to really hurt him. and in terms on a no name in politics…it gets old when the only candidates people think can win are those already in office..that is false. look at Terry Everett and Bob Riley. Both unknowns when running for their Congressional seats.
Comment by Pike CountyGuy — October 11, 2007 @ 8:36 pm
Re comments 104 & 106, thank you, Jr.
Wes Allen has confirmed for me that he is giving “serious consideration” to a run for the 2nd Congressional District seat. I have added him to the list.
Comment by Danny — October 11, 2007 @ 3:19 pm
I agree that Nailen has the money. I left him off because he cannot win the election. His BCA (elitist/tax hiking/County Club GOP)status combined with no political experience is too much of a burden to overcome.
Comment by Actual Legit Candidates — October 11, 2007 @ 10:09 am
“Actual Legit Candidates” left out one that can raise and self finance without worry, Charles Nailen of Dothan. Smith, James and Love can do the same but unsure that Mask has that ability.
Comment by ClayM — October 11, 2007 @ 10:02 am
When all is said and done, I think these possible candidates have reasonable shots at raising the necessary money and actually winning the election:
Harri Anne Smith
Tim James
Jay Love
Barry Mask
Comment by Actual Legit Candidates — October 11, 2007 @ 7:59 am
I like Sen. Smith, but MH, come one, this is a political blog, not Harri Anne’s personal attributes website. Please contribute something else to the dialogue besides unconditional admiration for her.
Did any one follow the Montgomery council run-offs? Both incumbents (Janet May and James Nuckles) were soundly defeated. Bright couldn’t be more happy, as Nuckles never liked Bright and Janet May seemed as if she was ready to bludgeon the mayor several times over the past 4 years.
Comment by John — October 10, 2007 @ 11:09 pm
Not a comment by Wes at all. Just thought this was supposed to be a thorough, up-to-date list, regardless of anyone’s opinion. Just trying to help out.
Comment by jr. — October 10, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
Wes’ father is a nice man. Wes has no credibility. He has no business at all as a serious candidate for congress. He needs to have some actual LIFE EXPERIENCE before he serves in any leadership capacity.
Comment by Wes? — October 10, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
You need to add Wes Allen to the list; his father (Rep. Gerald Allen) is already putting out feelers in Montgomery. Wes lives in Troy, works at Troy U. and just ran for Auditor last year.
Comment by jr. — October 10, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Good comments MH. Harri Anne does care about her constituents.
Interesting thread about Barry Mask and Riverfront in Montgomery…had not heard that.
There was an artcile in the Montgomery paper and the Dothan paper recently about the race and Nailen was quoted both times. He does seem to be looking at this hard and could be an interesting candidate. Whether he or Harri Anne, the Wiregrass needs a strong candidate to take down these typical Montgomery politicos!
Comment by INFORMEDVOTER — October 10, 2007 @ 11:13 am
I apologize for the typos in my above post. My fingers seem to have a mind of their own this morning. I’ll try to do a better job of spell checking in future, but it is so difficult to proof your own work.
Comment by MH — October 10, 2007 @ 9:45 am
Don,
Thanks for the comment you posted for the ‘blog challenged’ voter referencing my comment #58. I am so glad to see that someone can see through the haze of sleight of hand and misdirection that the Nailen supporters seem to be using to make it appears as if their ‘candidate’ has any potential. Perhaps I am naive, but I believe the voters of this area are too smart to fall for it and the Nailen supporters on this thread are a vocal, but extremely minor faction, rather than a legitamate cross section of the constituency.
As for some of the other recent comments to my posts:
It cracks me up when people say Smith doesn’t answer her phone. When she ran for her senate seat this last time, her opponenet amde that same accusation…yet his telephone numvber was not even listed in the phone book. I guess it is easy to accuse others of not answering their home phone (which probably rings off the hook all day long and into the night), when your own phone number is unlisted.
I know Pookie would love for me to post the Senator’s record on here so he doesn’t have to look the information up himself, but as I told him before, this is not my website. It would be rude to take up a lot of server space (which, incidenatlly, would also slow down the rate at which the thread loads for all of us) with a lot of data that is a matter of public record. And I’m sure that no mattter what I wrote, Pookie would swear someone else was responsible for it. That is the funny thing about politics…nothing happens in a vacuum. No ONE person is responsible for any single piece of legislation. Our forefathers wrote our government that way on purpose…it is called a system of checks and balances. Whether a representative introduces a bill themselves, or works behind the scenes to get it pased, it takes teamwork. Smith has shown she is a team player.
And while I am on the subject, she has never tried to take credit for getting the funding for Enterprise schools. Yes, she was in Enterprise, jut like she went to the coast after hurricane Ivan, and she wasn’t trying to stir up votes, etc., down there. Many of the families in this area are large and spread out, crossing many jurisdictional lines. If you have ever done any genealogical research on the local families, you know that most of us with well entrenched roots to this area have family all over the Southeastern US….from Virginia to Missisppi and beyond. I suspect that the reason Smith went to Enterprise was to lend moral support to someone she knows, is related to, or has some connection to. It’s just the kind of thing Harri Anne would do…like going down to the coast after Ivan to lend a hand, an ear, a shoulder. She truly cares about the people, not just their votes.
Comment by MH — October 10, 2007 @ 9:42 am