Artur Davis in the Parlor, Part Three

This is the third and last part of an interview with Congressman Artur Davis (D – Birmingham) conducted Friday after he announced his plans to run for Governor in 2010. Part One is here. Part two is here.

Our legislature has been bogged down for going on three years now. What kind of tools and options would a Governor Davis have on hand to attempt to break the logjam?

Well, some of it is frankly a personality conflict. There is only so much a governor can do to resolve that.

I think that it will be very important to forge a good relationship with [Speaker of the House] Seth Hammett. I think Seth Hammett is a very constructive force in Montgomery. I think it would be very important if I were Governor to forge a very close working relationship with him, and to really make him a part of the team, if you will.

I have some specific thoughts I won’t get into because they involve individual personalities, but I think there are certain people who might be very effective to bring into an administration to deal with the legislature and take on the role of being liaisons. That’s not a strong enough word, but something like that . Again, I won’t name names, but I have some people in mind that I think would fill that role very well. I think staffing does matter in that regard, because they [legislators] have to have people sent to them that they are comfortable with.

Some of it is about charting the right agenda and being very specific and bold about that agenda early on. The absence of a gubernatorial agenda creates room for legislative havoc. I think it would be very important for a new governor to be bold about several items early on and to challenge the legislature to get to that place.

There’s also another practical thing. Let’s find some things they want to do and see if we can do them right out of the box. Let’s try to find some areas where there is broad agreement but for whatever reason the devil has been in the details, and let’s see if we can move right off the bat in those areas and try to build a sense of consensus. You’ve got to, first of all, show that you can get things done by building a pattern of things getting done. So people can say, “Well, okay, two months ago we solved this problem so let’s not give up here.” That’s how I would look at it broadly.

What might your cabinet look like generally and specifically?

Two things I would like to see.

Tennessee has a cabinet level officer that deals with alternative energy. That’s a very good idea, having someone on a cabinet level who focuses on alternative energy strategy for Alabama, recruiting alternative energy producers to come here, maximizing what we already have, working to make sure that the things we do in this state are consistent with what are going to be a lot harsher and stricter federal laws when it comes to carbon emissions. We need someone who is doing that full-time. That’s no longer a combination of a bunch of offices. We need a full-time person working on that.

If there is a way to get in that in the budget to do that and create that entity, I would do it. And frankly given how many extra positions we have right now at the sub-cabinet, I’m pretty sure there is a way to move the money around and do that.

I have always thought that there may be some room to consolidate the state Banking and Insurance Commissioners into one person. And I do have some thoughts about that given some things that are happening in the economy right now, the interplay between the two. Consolidating those two into a Financial Services Department would, I think, be a helpful event and, candidly, a selling point to also attract someone to do the job. As Gov. Riley would tell you, as Walter Bell would tell you, it’s hard to persuade people to do either of those jobs. If you combine the two of them it might be easier to persuade someone to do it because of the interesting policy challenge there.

I think that those are certainly two thoughts I have about the shape of the Cabinet.

I suppose it is premature to talk about people that you would like to have at your side in Cabinet roles.

Right. (Laughs.) Right.

How much money do you think it will take to run?

Depends on a variety of things. This campaign is already getting free media coverage. Fox [Channel 6 in Birmingham] carried what we did live. That’s the equivalent of a $30,000 ad buy. If you bought five minutes of time in a midday newscast on Fox that would probably cost you at least $30,000. Every network in the market was there today. I think there is a lot of interest in this campaign. I think because there is a lot of interest in this campaign, not just mine, but the whole 2010 dynamic, there may be more free media than we are accustomed to.

This is the earliest a major campaign has started in a long time down here. Gov. Riley announced he was running in October of 2005. Moore announced in September, 2005. Lucy announced in September 2005. Frankly, if I were not running, Jim would not announce until probably July or August or September himself. Because it’s a campaign that beginning earlier than normal and there is more coverage, it’s hard to assess what the dollar amount will be. Because normally the dollar amount is having to fill in the gaps caused by public inattention to the race by the press not covering it. I don’t think that will be a factor this time. Obviously where the polls are a year from now will drive the race. If the polls are one place that will necessitate one strategy, if they are another place you may not have to go up until April. Right now anybody who thinks they know the answer to that question is just throwing out numbers.

The general? If the general polls competitively, it will be funded competitively.

You don’t have a ballpark figure in mind?

There are so many factors that drive it. The primary is more unpredictable than the general.

It’s hard for me to see a race for less than 10 to 17 million in the general and that’s counting every source of expenditure: nationals, DGA, RGA, DNC, RNC, plus candidate committees. I’m thinking that’s 10 to 17 million for the general, but the primary, I think that free media dynamic is much more meaningful in the primary.

There will be a lot of free media coverage in the general but particularly if this early voting thing happens, that will necessitate that you have ads running all through the early voting period. There are unintended consequences of early voting. I won’t weigh in on this publicly yea or nay, but there are some things people should remember. Early voting favors the candidate who is ahead and has the most money. Now if you are confident it’s always going to be your guy, or your gal, okay, but that’s not always going to be your candidate.

If there had been early voting in 06 Bob Riley might have won 63-37. If we had early voting in Alabama, Jay Love might be in Congress right now. For that matter, Wayne Parker might be in Congress. Early voting tends to favor whoever has the most money, whoever is running the most negative campaign, because if you are running a negative campaign you’re not just knocking someone down in the polls, you are taking votes away from them.

Normally you don’t worry about an ad that goes up on October 15th, if you can get up by October 17th with a good response. Well, you know what? Early voting, that ad on October 15th cost you some votes. So there are a lot of unintended consequences to early voting, and I don’t want to see Alabama Democrats buy into the idea too casually that, well, because it helped Democrats in 08 that it will always help Democrats. That is a very contextual question.

And I have heard a lot of good people like Oliver [state Rep. Oliver Robinson] who think that oh, early voting helps Democrats. No, not always. It helps the candidate who is ahead and has the most money. That happened to be a Democrat in 08 but it won’t always be.

In Part One, Congressman Davis talks about some top priorities of his administration, education funding, what his legacy might be, and more.

In Part Two, he talks about Obama’s numbers in Alabama, the potential GOP field in the Governor’s race, and more.

Related Articles:

• Artur Davis in the Parlor, Part Two
• Artur Davis in the Parlor, Part One
• Artur Davis Announces His Gubernatorial Candidacy Today
• Artur Davis and the Curious Timing
• Anzalone-Liszt Poll for Artur Davis and 2010 Governor's Race