Posted by Just as we expect many potential candidates to take a look at the first wide open governor’s race in many years, we may see many considering a run for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by retiring Justice Harold See.
Jim Spearman, executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, and Mike Hubbard, chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, expect lots of lawyers and judges to give the race a look because open seats on the state Supreme Court don’t come up very often.
Republicans currently hold an 8-1 lead on the Supreme Court, and See’s seat is the only one on the court up for election next year.
A Sunday article from Phillip Rawls of AP looks at who may or may not be running. On the Democratic side, Deborah Bell Paseur is definitely running, Kimberly Drake is considering, and Sharon Yates is definitely out, according to the article.
Likewise, Republicans Kelli Wise and Ben Hand are considering a run, and several other GOP names are sifted through.
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Paseur can and should be the Dem nominee barring a major surprise. Drake ought to save her family’s money for a run a few election cycles later, maybe for one of the appeals courts. She doesn’t have what it takes for a run for the See seat. On the GOP side, the same could be said for Hand and Zeigler from the 2006 primary bloodbath.
Interesting that not many of the Republican incumbents in the article will categorically rule themselves out. I sense there’s a chance some could be drafted for a run if it looks like Wise will be unopposed. Why weren’t the new appeals judges (T. Moore, S. Welch, T. Thomas) not asked by the AP about their plans? And as long as we keep hearing Roy Moore’s name dredged out of the muck each election, I’d add that I doubt we’ve heard the last of Drayton Nabers.
We’ve heard the last of Drayton Nabers. He has a cushy job with a big silk stocking law firm and he’s about 112 years old.
Yeah, those “of counsel” spots really are cushy, and they do tend to soak up former officeholders. But Nabers didn’t lose by much in ‘06, and he’s not quite hit the century mark. I’d put him at 10-1 against a run, but not 100-1.