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State Finance Director Jim Main (R) has decided not to run for the Supreme Court seat opened up by Harold See’s retirement. I suppose no one is more appreciative of Main’s flirtation with candidacy for this position than Arthur Ray.
Main’s full statement, released this morning, is below.
For Immediate Release
January 4, 2008
STATEMENT FROM STATE FINANCE DIRECTOR JIM MAIN ON THE RACE FOR SUPREME COURT ASSOCIATE JUSTICE
Montgomery – State Finance Director Jim Main on Friday released the following statement regarding the upcoming race for retiring Justice Harold See’s seat on the Alabama Supreme Court:
“With qualifying for the 2008 Alabama Republican primary ballot opening today, potential candidates across the state are faced with making hard decisions. I am no exception to that fact.
It is no secret that the state’s General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets will face serious fiscal hurdles in the coming year. Finding solutions to these financial challenges will require undivided attention and sound judgment.
Because of these financial factors, I have decided I can best serve my state and my governor by focusing my efforts on our complicated budgets, not campaign ballots. Therefore, I will not be a candidate for associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in the upcoming elections.”
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Where’d the press release come from? I didn’t get it.
[...] Danny has the press release. The best part: I have decided I can best serve my state and my governor by focusing my efforts on our complicated budgets, not campaign ballots. Therefore, I will not be a candidate for associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in the upcoming elections. [...]
Dan,
Either the statement has not yet been released through the GOP or perhaps it will not be as it is something of “non-news.” Dunno. I got it from someone who knows Main.
Shaw may be too liberal on many fronts for the Roy Moore/Tom Parker wing of the Republican party. He won’t pass their test on tax/constitutional reform and has a moderate record on criminal justice issues (has he voted to overturn one too many conviction while on the Court of Criminal Appeals).
Meanwhile, I have to wonder whether this makes it more likely that Doug McElvey will get in the race, as he was originally approaching candidacy from a moderate, appeal to all sides, candidate (a Lyons/Woodall/Harwood mold) rather than a civil justice idealogue, which is what Greg Shaw must at least pose as to receive the ACJRC endorsement. There is considerable discomfort from solid law-and-order Republicans with the Skip Tucker wing of the party, to which Jim Main might have appealed.
Just to clarify, I was saying Main might have appealed to the discomforted law-and-order Republicans, not the Skip Tucker wing. Obviously.
What exactly are “solid law-and-order Republicans”?
The radical wing!
bhmhomeboy: Republicans (like Lyons/Wooddall/Harwood) who think that sometimes when a business, or its owner (like Ashland, Inc, or William Ware, D.O.) is found by a jury to be responsible for harming an individual (like Jack Cline or Johnnie Timmons) they ought to pay the consquences, even if it disappoints their donors and puts money in a trial lawyer’s pocket. Because that’s the law.
please forgive my typo on Justice Woodall’s name.
Is that the same Woodall that used to be a sore-neck State Farm lawyer?
I don’t know which Woodall you are referring to, but the Justice Tom Woodall most people is an excellent jurist and one of the most fair-minded and evenhanded judges in this state. Justice Woodall has always called them like he sees them and follows the law, regardless of the parties or the lawyers that appear before him. He might make mistakes in applying the law (he grew up in Mississippi), but he doesn’t kowtow to any special interest group and has no agenda on the Supreme Court except to uphold his oath of faithfully applying the Constitution and laws to the cases that come before the court. Roy, you should be ashamed of resorting to name-calling of such a good and worthy public servant.