Top Ten Election Winners: #7
In the state’s November elections, some winners and losers are worth noting. In our Top 10 Winners, we are up to number seven.
#7. Jefferson County Democrats
If state Democrats were handed an election night bouquet representing net gains in county courthouses around the state, Jefferson County was one of the larger roses.
Jefferson County Republicans campaigned aggressively. GOP Sheriff Mike Hale’s radio ads wanted voters to vote straight Republican to clean up “dishonesty and corruption in the county.” Billboards urged voters to “vote straight Republican.” And they had high hopes for the coattails of a popular GOP governor who carried the county.
In the end, of 11 contested judicial races, the Republicans put up eight incumbents, lost three of them, and did not win any of the open seats. The Democrats won six of the eleven races without even a single Democratic incumbent running to retain a seat. (Incumbents won the two non-judicial races: GOP Sheriff Mike Hale and Democratic Circuit Clerk Anne Marie Adams.)
The highest vote getter in the county in any race was Democrat Sherri Friday in Probate Court Place 2. (One Republican judge told a friend of mine, “You do not want to run against an over-the-mountain Democrat.”) At Probate Court Place 1, Riley appointee Mark Gaines fumbled so badly that the Birmingham News, who had endorsed him, editorialized that they were “deeply disappointed” by his “misleading and unfair allegations about his opponent, Alan King,” and that he “deserved to lose.” (And he did.)
About 15,000 more voters in the county (representing about 15% of the turnout) voted a straight Democrat ticket than voted straight Republican. And at least one county official is already making a little noise about switching from GOP to Democrat before the next election.
Marty Connors, former state GOP chair, noted the Democrats’ successes in the state’s courthouses after this election:
Connors did lament GOP losses in local seats, calling those “the real grass-roots level” that indicates the depths of a party’s true strength and public standing. “If there’s anywhere that we turned back the clock, that’s it,” he said.
Both parties produced bright spots on election night, and this was one of the brighter ones for the Democrats.
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That is actually one of the billboards that got on my nerves more than anything. If there’s one thing that I’m against, it’s voting for a person based solely on political party affiliation. That’s not exactly a great campaign platform. “Vote for me! I don’t really stand for anything, but hey, I’m a Republican!”
Comment by Alabama Moderate — January 15, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
Well, then you must also be against the campaign tactics of the Jefferson County democratic candidates. Straight democratic bloc voting in Jefferson County accounted for about 75-80% of the votes democratic candidates received in the 2006 election.
Comment by Anonymous — May 17, 2007 @ 2:02 pm