John Hannah Drafted for GOP Primary?
John Hannah, a two time All-American for the University of Alabama and an NFL first round draft pick in 1973, may be drafted again. The pro football Hall-of-Famer tells the Parlor he is considering a Republican run for Alabama’s 5th Congressional seat occupied by retiring incumbent Bud Cramer.
“Someone I know, a Republican I’ve known, asked me if I would consider it. I said, ‘Aw man. I would look into running for it. I would think about it.’”
He declined to identify who has asked him to run for the seat.
“I’ve never been very political my whole life. I’m going to talk to a few people before I weigh in. I haven’t even started to figure it out.
“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no. I have to think on it. I want to figure why they would offer me something like that. I’m not sure I would even want to do something like that. I have never even thought of running for anything in my whole life.
“I have to weigh the goods and the bads.”
An individual has contacted the state GOP on Hannah’s behalf to get the appropriate papers for Hannah to run for the seat.
The description for John Hannah & Associates as found in the html for their website reads, “John Hannah & Associates serve as an advocate for businesses, nonprofit associations, universities, hospitals, and other organizations, to build and maintain positive relationships with their ‘public.’”
I wished him the best as he worked out his decision on whether to run for the AL-05 seat.
“Thank you. Throw some water on that fire.”
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They call this a “Trial Balloon.” I believe it will float like Lead.
Comment by Led Zeppelin — March 18, 2008 @ 11:42 am
Talk about desperate.
Comment by Orrin Hatch — March 18, 2008 @ 11:47 am
About as desperate as the Heath Schuler candidacy in NC?
Comment by JD — March 18, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
Does he live in the district?
Comment by Anonymous — March 18, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
As much as Bobby Bright lives in CD 2
Comment by JD — March 18, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
Bright does now live in CD 2. Sorry, JD. He moved.
Comment by Paine — March 18, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
Paine, if I were you, I would not be advertising that fact about my candidate of choice.
Comment by Will — March 18, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
Will, I don’t have a candidate in that race, since I don’t live in CD 2. I just wanted to correct the misinformation. Out of all the candidates in that race, I do have several that I consider friends, but closest among those would be Harri Anne Smith. I think that the people of that district are lucky because there are actually at least 4 or 5 candidates running that I believe would do a good job for the district in Washington, and, yes, I think Bright is one of those.
Comment by Paine — March 18, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
John Hannah’s name ID would be sky high. John Hannah is a fine man and he has supported conservatives in the past. Run John Run!!!
Comment by John Killian — March 18, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
Rev., I don’t think his name ID would be 6%. Tom Butler, Republican for House.
I hope the dems do put up Griffith b/c he can be beat and Susan Parker would be hard to beat.
Comment by Anonymous — March 18, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
Given Hannahs name id and the fact he played for the Bear. Those two factors right there would make him extremely tough to beat.
Comment by dan t — March 18, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
Sorry Paine, I thought it was about living in the district, not driving through. Oh, that right, he moved after he heard of the opening. Well the South is used to Carpetbaggers.
Comment by JD — March 18, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
Bobby Bright has said he ws going to move to “town” (from Wynlakes, way out east) for a long time.
His youngest child (daughter) graduated last year and is a freshman at Auburn.
The nest emptied last August so a move within just a few months is actually pretty quick IMO.
Comment by SIW — March 18, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Does playing football at Alabama for the Bear qualify one for Congress? I wonder if those that say Obama doesn’t have the experience believe Hannah does.
I’m sure Mr. Hannah is a fine man. But, go online and do a little research into his political donations and business associates.
For instance, how will Republicans in Alabama feel about the man being associated with Ronnie Gilley (through John Hannah Entertainment LLC) who is promoting electronic bingo (a.k.a. gambling) in the Wiregrass (Country Crossing). This is a project Randy Brinson from the Christian Coalition just held a rally to protest.
I wonder how that will sit with the conservative base.
Comment by Trvld — March 18, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
Playing at Auburn, qualified Fob to be Guv.
Comment by JD — March 18, 2008 @ 8:10 pm
and look how that turned out!
Comment by Anonymous — March 18, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
According to newsmeat.com, a website that tracks political contributions, Hannah gave $1,000 to the Libertarian National Committee in March of ‘07. He also gave $1,000 to Mitt Romney last June
Comment by Anonymous — March 18, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
don’t forget about the Indian casino he is pushing for in Dekalb County
Comment by Anonymous — March 18, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
Doesn’t sound like Hannah is up to the task. He might be a potent candidate on name ID/background, but it takes a hell of a lot more than that, especially with a dysfunctional NRCC. The big difference between Hannah and Shuler is that Shuler never said “I have never even thought of running for anything in my whole life.”
He might make a strong candidate in a couple of years, but he probably has to do a lot more preparation first. Given the short election season, this won’t be his time.
Comment by points — March 19, 2008 @ 12:48 am
While living in the congressional district a congressman represents may not be a requirement, it should be a plus factor for a candidate.
However, living in the district an Alabama legislator represents is required by Section 47 of the Alabama Constitution and I have yet to see any proof the Senator Wendell Mitchell lives anywhere other than in Senator Larry Dixon’s SD25 rather than SD30.
Fob James first term as I recall wasn’t all that bad (also see http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_james.html), but during his second term and his campaign for another he seemed to have lost his enthusiasm. One thing I’ll give him credit for though is that he was the only Alabama governor to have ever advocated the adoption of the initiative process that I refer to as I&R @ www.doctoriq.com according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute @ http://www.iandrinstitute.org/Alabama.htm. He has the distinction of being the only person to serve as Alabama’s governor as both a Democrat and a Republican, and the only one to have ever attended the same church I did in Chattanooga when he was a student at Baylor Military Academy……… if one can call that a distinction.
Comment by Don — March 19, 2008 @ 8:16 am
I don’t know why the link to the I&R Institute doesn’t work from here, but I just copied and pasted it on the address bar and it worked.
http://www.iandrinstitute.org/Alabama.htm
Comment by Don — March 19, 2008 @ 8:24 am
In an eariler post, I urged John Hannah to run. However, the post on the gambling connection does make me nervous. If Wayne Parker runs, conservatives will have a strong candidate.
Comment by John Killian — March 21, 2008 @ 10:44 pm