Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

Continued…

#10.

Blogging legislators. Rep. Randy Hinshaw (D - Meridianville) and Rep. Cam Ward (R - Alabaster) agreed to blog here at the Political Parlor for the duration of the legislative session. Soon after, Rep. Mike Ball (R - Huntsville) and Rep. Patricia Todd (D - Birmingham) agreed to follow suit at Between the Links and Birmingham Blues, respectively. The legislators accepted the challenge with candor and grace. The Huntsville Times took notice with a big article on a Sunday in March (though it inexplicably misidentified the owner of this blog).

Thanks, Representatives Hinshaw, Ward, Ball, and Todd, for insiders’ perspectives. More information is good.

#9.

Apology for slavery. The legislature passed an apology for slavery. (Full text of apology here.) More Alabamians would benefit more from an increase in minimum wage for the first time in ten years, a tax structure that doesn’t tax the working-poor at a rate higher than any other state’s (pdf), or a state constitution that enabled good government instead of shackling it. But we didn’t get those things. We got the apology, and that had its own importance.

#8.

Constitution reaches 799 amendments. The longest constitution in the world got longer by five amendments passed this year by the legislature and then by a majority of the 9.6% of the voters who turned out. How many times would you fix your car before you decided you should start over with a new one?

#7.

PAC-to-PAC transfer bill dies in Senate - again. A bill to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers has passed the House for five consecutive years. Because both parties declared legislative platforms that supported passage of the bill, surely the sixth time would be the charm. No.

The bill to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers has become a symbol, a symbol of the legislature’s inability to give the people what they want (and to follow through on what the legislature says it wants), a symbol of the state government’s unwillingness to deny campaigns one of the washing machines used to launder campaign donations.

The papers and the blogs bemoan the death of the bill. Every year we excitedly run toward it like Charlie Brown getting ready to kick the football at last, but every year the Senate plays the role of Lucy, jerking it away from us. It’s not as if the bill is the end-all, the Holy Grail, the magic that will make all state politics good, just, and transparent, but it is a small positive step that continues to elude us.

The word is that there will be a legislative special session in the fall dealing with issues of ethics and transparency. Perhaps Lucy will bring the football.