Top Ten Who Lost: #8
When we look back at our recent state elections, some wins and losses stand out as more notable than others. Next on our list of the Top Ten Who Lost:
#8. John Tyson, Jr.
John Tyson, Jr. looked to be a strong Democratic candidate for Attorney General. Good reputation, strong credentials, and a reputation for working to prevent crime before it happened, not simply prosecuting crime after it happened.
But then he looked weaker than expected in the Democratic primary against Larry Darby. Darby is an atheist and Holocaust denier who wants to “reawaken white racial awareness” and who also gathered a surprising 44% of the vote in the primary.
Apologists said that one reason was because Joe Reed and the Alabama Democratic Conference refused to endorse Tyson because of how Tyson handled the prosecution of former Mobile school board member David Thomas, Jr. (They believed Tyson was more aggressive in prosecuting charges against the popular black Board member than he was in the prosecution of charges against Jack Tillman, former sheriff of Mobile County, who is white.) Others said that since Tyson expected to win the primary against the extremist Darby, Tyson conserved his campaign funds for the general election campaign against incumbent Republican Troy King. Tyson was not especially well-known statewide, and he did little to raise his profile before the primary. Still others claimed that Darby had an advantage in the race between two little-known candidates because he came first on the ballot.
Whatever the reason, Darby’s strong showing surprised many Alabamians. No matter though. Tyson had the credentials, and now he had the party’s nomination.
Tyson ran a strong campaign, had positive commercials, and every newspaper but one who supported a candidate endorsed Tyson over the incumbent Troy King. Many (for example, here) believed Tyson would win despite being outspent by a 2 to 1 margin. On election night the Democrats did better than many expected, claiming the Chief Justice and Lt. Governor’s spot, among others. But Tyson, who some believed would be one of the strongest Democratic candidates, lost to Troy King by a 53%-47% margin.
Troy King ran a negative ad featuring a murdered woman’s daughter who claimed that Tyson as Mobile County DA was slow to prosecute the murderer. In the ad, she said that Troy King’s office took over the case and got an indictment in four days.
While Tyson had some points to be made on that case (the murderer had confessed, he was a suspected serial killer who was providing information on other cases until King’s office stepped in), King’s ad was hard-hitting. Tyson could have also lost support because of his commercial made in response that may have pushed back too hard on the daughter.
Troy King may also have connected with his criticism of Tyson for having so many convictions through plea bargains. While this criticism arguably reflected that King did not understand that plea bargains are common practice and/or it highlighted King’s prosecutorial inexperience, it may have played well with voters who expected the system to work differently. Perhaps also Tyson received less support than he hoped to get from the black community because of the flap with Joe Reed and the ADC over David Thomas, Jr.
Whatever the reason, on a night when the Democrats did better than expected, Tyson stands out as one who did worse than they hoped.
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I am no longer atheist, having filed a statement with the Montgomery County Probate Judge shortly after the 6 June 2006 primary. Further, your analysis is short-sighted and inaccurate in that you ignore the fact that I ran a solid, positive pro-Alabama, pro-States Rights, pro-individual rights campaign. I was willing to speak publicly about matters most citizens speak about in small group settings, but are afraid to broach publicly due to fear of being branded as anti-Politically Correct.
Comment by Larry Darby — December 21, 2006 @ 9:32 am
[…] A commenter at the Parlor asked about Democratic lightning rod Larry Darby, the Holocaust denier and once-but-no-longer-atheist who ran for Attorney General in 2006. Darby told the Montgomery Advertiser in 2006 (link no longer available) that he would run for AL-02. He told the Parlor recently that he is reconsidering that though he “could beat any Democratic candidate.” He added, “It’s tempting to run for the sake of forcing the Marxists who own the Democratic Party into a position of trying to prevent me from being on the ballot.” […]
Pingback by AL-02 Race News » Doc’s Political Parlor — November 29, 2007 @ 1:42 pm