Qualifying Ends
What good stories or observations do you have now that the qualifying period is over?
I see that John Amari, once a former Democrat, is now a former Republican as he has qualified as a Democratic candidate for Jefferson County District Court Judge. Amari was elected to the state House as a Democrat, served as a Republican state Senator, and ran unsuccessfully for Public Service Commissioner as a Republican (losing in the primary to Perry Hooper in 2006).
Speaking of former Democrats who are becoming former Republicans, I see that J.T. Smallwood has qualified (as many expected) for re-election as Jefferson County Tax Collector as a Democrat. Smallwood was elected to his current term as a Democrat, but held a press conference in 2006 to announce he was switching to the Republican Party and subsequently ran for the state GOP Executive Committee.
Gaynelle Hendricks has qualified to challenge Jefferson County Tax Assessor Dan Weinrib in the Democratic primary. Hendricks is the wife of former Birmingham City Councilor Elias Hendricks; she lost a contentious primary battle with Patricia Todd for the House District 54 seat in a challenge that had to be decided by the State Democratic Executive Committee.
Update: With a reader’s help, corrected some details in the third paragraph.
Related Articles:
(R) Jeff Sessions (1-19)
(D) Vivian Figures (33-1)
(D) Artur Davis (1-49)
(R) Mike Hubbard (13-1)
(?) David Bronner (OFF)
Republicans Vicki Fuller and Jeff Caddell might be sleeper candidates for the Collector and Assessor
Comment by Anonymous — April 7, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
One thing interesting I see is that Jennifer Champion decided not to run for tax collector, which she had originally planned to, and chose to run for county treasurer instead. It is highly probable that she did not want to bring possible attention to the situation with the qualifying in ‘06, but that was not her fault and she seems like a very nice person. I wish her the best.
Comment by Anonymous — April 7, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
Tina Gordon, late of NASCAR and Sticks and Stuff ads, is running for County Commissioner in Cherokee County as a Democrat.
Comment by walt moffett — April 7, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
STICKS AND STUFF
STICKS AND STUFF
crap
all I’ll hear in my head all nite now!
Comment by Blue Dot — April 7, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
Considering all the publicity surrounding the scandals in the two year college system, Byrne’s attempt to clean the system up, and subsequent actions in the legislature and the judicial system to stop what Byrne is doing, it seems to me that the races for seats on the state school board should be on someone’s radar.
All the activity in opposition to Byrne’s actions seem to be orchestrated by Paul Hubbert. It could well be that Hubbert is pulling out all stops by also trying to gain control of the state school board.
One would expect AEA to pick a Democrat to run against Stephanie Bell in District 3, but at almost the last minute on Friday Troy W. “Skip Smithwick, Jr. from Sylacauga qualified to run against Bell as a Republican. Smithwick’s ties to education (thus AEA and Hubbert?) may indicate that Hubbert wants to make Bell spend so much money in a Republican primary that she won’t have sufficient funds to defeat her Democratic opponent, Judy West Bell from Jacksonville, in the general election.
Does anyone know anything about Smithwick?
Comment by Don — April 8, 2008 @ 5:35 am
Dr. Mancuso (Decatur) is running as a Republican for the 5th congressional district seat. He used to be a Democratic Representative.
Comment by DB — April 8, 2008 @ 6:53 am
Amari, or “The Italian Stallion” as he was known during his senate days in Monkeytown, has become a laughingstock. What wasn’t mentioned was that he ran in the GOP primary in ‘98 against Steve Windom for Lt Gov. After he was defeated in that, he turned around and helped the campaign of Democrat Lt Gov candidate, Dewayne “Somebody I love’s gonna get a beating tonight” Freeman.
Amari ran in 2002 for his old senate seat against French, his successor, and got beat like a drum for all his old trial lawyer ties.
I guess he figured that since he couldn’t even beat anyone as pathetic as Hooper, Jr., he might as well jump ship and run in the party where his heart and mentality really lie.
Comment by Scorpius — April 8, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
At least Danny did not post a pic like this re Amari
http://johnkillian.blogspot.com/2008/04/boy-georges-of-alabama-politics.html
Comment by blue dotter — April 8, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
Kudos to JohnKillian for calling spades spades.
JT or John or John Timothy or whatever Smallwood decides is accurate for his nom de plume is going to face a lot of questions this election cycle.
Not the least is: Is there nepotism in promoting a civil domestic partner?
Comment by Scorpius — April 8, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
[…] Doc’s Political Parlor: Qualifying Ends […]
Pingback by links for 2008-04-08 — April 8, 2008 @ 5:36 pm
I think Scorpius is being a little hard on Amari. I generally vote straight ticket, but Amari is one of the few candidates who always stood up for labor (whether he was republican or democrat). Looks like I’ll be splitting my vote this November.
Besides, does party affiliation even matter in a small judicial race?
Comment by Homewood Republican — April 23, 2008 @ 3:07 pm