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By most accounts, Bradley Byrne’s first full year as chancellor of Alabama’s two year college system has been a successful one. And, that success has tongues in Montgomery and other areas of the state wagging with talk that Byrne is one of the leading, if not the leading candidate, for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010. So, I thought I’d ask the question everyone seems to want to know. But first I thought it might be interesting to find out what Bradley Byrne has learned about Bradley Byrne in the last year.
“I’ve probably learned, even more than I already knew, just how imperfect I am,” said Byrne contemplatively. “Care to expound on that,” I inquired.
“I knew I was imperfect before I started, but when you get into a process like this you have a lot of people who are paying very close attention to what you’re doing and providing criticism along the way. Sometimes they’re right. And it would be very tempting for me to say all the criticism leveled at me is wrong, but I think there have been sometimes that people have said some things that were negative about my performance where I had to stop and listen and learn.”
“And, I’ve stopped, listened and learned. I realize there are some things that we could have done differently and better. So I guess I’ve learned that I need to pay more attention to things like that and learn how to get better.”
At this point I should have asked for more specifics, but as happens when one has another question just begging to be asked, I let it rest there and moved on to the question Byrne’s probably been asked a million times lately. “I have to ask this question. You know what’s coming. Where are you in the decision process about 2010?”
“I have not made a decision about it,” Byrne said frankly, quietly with assuredness. “Frankly, I haven’t thought that much about it. I’ve been so busy doing what I’m doing that I just don’t have time to deal with it. I’m well aware that people are already maneuvering in both parties for the governor’s race in 2010. I think it’s way premature, personally, and I’m just going to move on what I think is the appropriate schedule for me and not on what other people think ought to be the schedule for me. Frankly, I just don’t worry about it.”
“I understand that there are people that would like, for various reasons – some of them good, some of them not so good, to push me into a decision early and I am just not going to let myself be sucked into that. When it comes time, I’ll do it. And just because I say that I’ll do it, that means I’ll think about it. That doesn’t mean I’ll actually run. I may decide that this is the best thing I could possibly do and stick with it or I may decide that I’ve done the best thing that I could possibly do and go ahead and retire and come home to the Eastern Shore here or, depending upon discussions with my wife and my children and my friends, we may decide to do something else, I just don’t have time to sit down and have those discussions and think it through right now. When the time’s right, we’ll do it.
I nudged Byrne a little more, “Other than your family, which of course will be paramount to any decision you make, what’s going to be the most important consideration about what you decide to do?”
“Number one, you’re right – family. If it really didn’t work for the family, then we wouldn’t do it. That’s a no-brainer. And we have a good enough, a strong enough relationship within our family that we can have that discussion and we’ll know what the right decision is. I don’t have any doubt that there is going to be a need for someone, with something like my background and my approach to government, being in the governor’s office to replace Governor Riley. That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be me. But, I guess, beyond my family, the other thing is electability. I don’t believe in going off on a fool’s errand. Just because people come up to me from time-to-time and say, ‘I wish you’d run for governor,’ doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily electable.”
“Now you’d have to go through a lot more thorough analysis than that to make that decision and sometimes electability gets down to being in the right place at the right time and sometimes you are and sometimes you’re not; and, I don’t know where any of us are going to be when it gets down to that point because things change, politics changes. What may seem like the right thing to do today may not be the right thing to do two years from now or a year from now.”
“This presidential election’s shoving things around in the state. There’s no question in my mind that the leading contender for the Democratic nomination is Congressman Davis. He would be very hard to beat in a Democratic primary. If he chooses to run for it, I think he’s the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. He is a very smart, articulate guy and will run a very effective campaign. And I don’t think people saw that a year ago. So that’s just one example how in a year’s time things can change a great deal and you’re probably going to see some other things change next year – who knows what they’re going to be right now. So, we’ll see what happens. In the meantime I have a pretty important job to do and I’m going to keep doing it and doing it well.”
Byrne’s said before he didn’t have any desire to leave Alabama, even to become a United States Senator. “That hadn’t changed,” Byrne said with a chuckle. “There may have been a time in my life 20 years ago where something like that would have interested me. It doesn’t interest me AT ALL, Byrne said emphatically.”
“And I think there’s so many important things for us to be doing here in Alabama in state government, I really do. We have good people that represent us in Washington. We’ve got good senators and good congressmen, we’ve got some retirements coming here that I know are going to be a loss for the state, but I just don’t feel like it’s a great need for our state.”
“But I do think there’s a great need in our state for strong leaders on the state level. I think that’s been a problem that’s plagued us for a long time. And now that we’ve seen a true, new South, progressive governor in Governor Riley, we all understand we want to keep that. We want to keep going in that direction. If I’m going to do anything, it will be in that area, it will not be in trying to go to Washington.”
I’ll have more of my discussion with Mr. Byrne about his first year as head of the two-year college system and everyone’s favorite subjects, taxes and the Alabama Legislature, in an upcoming post.
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I met him several years ago, bright, moderate and hard working. Might be a bridge to far for the Alabama GOP machine.
Bradley Byrne would be an excellent candidate and an even better Gov.
Byrne in 2010.
Bradley Byrne’s political stock will crash with the investigation of DOJ politicization that will come in 2009. His leaking grand jury testimony and USA plans about the JC investigation to the AO news, they have removed it from their web page but it has been backed up and archived, will be enough to kill his political carrier.
I agree … Byrne in ‘10
Can you imagine Byrne vs Folsom in a debate?
I agree that Bradley Byrne is a very impressive person. He is bright, articulate, and very hard working. He will make a very attractive candidate for Governor. That being said, I note the following. I have heard that Byrne used to hold office as a Democrat and, while a Democrat, very enthusiastically went after Republicans. Is there any truth to that? Does anyone think that (if true) this will adversely impact any future run for Governor as a Repub.
Mullet there are a lot of GOPers here in the south who use to be Democrats and a lot of them went after GOPers pretty hard back then. US Senator Richard Shelby is one that comes to mind.
Byrne was a Dem when he was first elected to the State Board of Education, so I am not sure in what manner he “went after Republicans” in that capacity. It would seem his Dem days are far enough back in time that it shouldn’t be much of an issue — it wasn’t for Fob or Windom, among others. Although Byrne is untested in a statewide campaign, he is uniquely situated to campaign on the “Three E’s” of a Governor’s race: Ethics, Education and Economic Development.
Helen said:
By most accounts, Bradley Byrne’s first full year as chancellor of Alabama’s two year college system has been a successful one.
Well Helen, I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word sucessful “IS”.
Byrne has certainly been successful at arressting and indicting Democrats, African Americans and Granny’s.
Evidently he’s also been successful at using his position for political gain since “tongues” all over the state are wagging about what a great Governor he would make, even establishing his campaign slogan of “Ethics, Education and Economic Develepment”.
I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word “Ethics” IS too.
In the two-year scandal, we’ve had people plead guilty and others found guilty — and most likely more to come. What amazes me is that so many Democrats in AL like homeboy find it horrible that this corruption was uncovered and that people — crooks stealing from the taxpayers! — are being held accountable. Dem or GOP — lock up the crooks!
Wow, bhmhomeboy, I had no idea that Chancellor of two year colleges was a position in the Department of Justice. Since the arrests of which you speak were carried out by the DOJ, I am left wondering how you blame Bradley Byrne for their being executed.
Of course, as usual, bhmhomeboy has decided to ignore the flagrant corruption that permeated throughout the two year college system. Former Chancellor Roy Johnson has pled guilty and turned state’s evidence. How can anyone be surprised that such a development has led to further indictments? Contrary to popular belief, not every Democrat who is charged with a crime is a victim of a political prosecution. In fact, Sue Schmitz’s claims of political prosecution were laughed out of court.
The matter at hand, namely Byrne running for Governor in 2010, would be wonderful news for the state GOP and the state in general. Bryne would be the sort of Governor for which Alabama would never have to apologize. He further represents a reformer of the highest calibre, a mantle the Alabama GOP must seize if it ever wants to take the state legislature. Bryne, in short, would be a giant leap forward for both his party and the state of Alabama.
Look very closely at the posts left by Pelican Jim. There, in black and white, is the Alabama Democrat Party’s spin on the community colleges. This is all a conspiracy, DOJ hit job, out to get Dems. A year from now, the question will be how successful was the propaganda campaign. Look very closely. It’s frankly in nearly all of his posts. There’s something very telling there.
Or is it Pecan? You get the idea …
“Pecan Jim Spearman” hmmmm, very interesting…
There is some flagrant corruption permeating all right.
Anybody read the “Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) and the Office of Professional Responsibility’s (OPR) Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring in the Department of Justice Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP), June 2008″ available here:
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/index.htm
All a defense attorney will have to do is have the report entered as evidence, probably will read it to the jury. Then, ask just a couple of questions: How many of the attorneys who worked this case were hired under this illegal Republican system of promoting for ideology over merit? And, why in the hell is this a federal case any way? This is really small time stuff even if true. My guess is that from this point on they will all ask for jury trials and there will be no convictions. Maybe a few hung juries, but no convictions.
Old Cloverdale – I can imagine Folsom against Byrne in a debate. Just like everyone thought old “Big Luther” would take Folsom to the woodshed in the debate in 2006, but Folsom came out ahead on most scorecards. Look for it to happen again. That is probably why Byrne is saying Artur Davis is the odds-on favorite in the Democratic primary. That would be Byrne’s (or any Republican’s) best chance of winning.