Cam Ward in the Parlor

Rep. Cam Ward (R – Alabaster) stopped by the Political Parlor to announce his candidacy for the open seat in Senate District 14 in 2010. The incumbent in SD 14, Republican Hank Erwin, will be running for Lt. Governor in 2010.

You know Rep. Ward from his blogging here in our Legislative Dispatch section (along with Democratic House Majority Leader Ken Guin this year). While a number of state legislators have taken to blogging on various sites in recent years, Rep. Cam Ward deserves credit both for being among the first (he and Democratic state Rep. Randy Hinshaw blogged here during the legislative session in 2007) and for his longevity (he has been blogging regularly at the Parlor for three legislative sessions now).

Jumping right in…

This is a big step for you.

I am very excited. It’s kind of neat that one of the things I’m doing with the announcement, that I mentioned in the press release that I sent out, is that I am going to do an interview with you on Doc’s Political Parlor. The biggest reason for that more than anything else is because so much of defining me in the legislature in the last few years has been through the blog. It is kind of a running story down in Montgomery now, “Hey, Cam, you do all the blogs. You do the blogging a lot.” It’s very funny.

It feels like it has been on balance more positive than not for you. I suppose you wouldn’t have kept at it otherwise.

It has really been fun. It has just been a lot of fun doing it. I guess the interesting thing is the dialogue you get back and forth. I guess you always get roughed up sometimes but it has really been the best way to communicate. I mean I couldn’t ask for a better medium. It used to be that blogging and websites, that used to be one of things that maybe you did it or maybe you don’t, but now if you don’t you’re out of luck. You’re just not in the mainstream of voters anymore.

You are announcing your candidacy in three other stops.

I’m going to go to Clanton. Centreville. Ending up in Helena. District 14 covers Chilton County, almost all of Bibb, western Shelby, and then a small part of Jefferson.

I have been in the House for 7 years now. I’ve been Vice Chairman for the House Republican Caucus. Really enjoyed my role in the House. I felt like I have slowly but surely taken on more of a leadership role which has been good. And now I’m just ready to take it to the next level.

What would you say that you are most proud of from your tenure in the House?

Most proud of? I think two things. One, of course, is my work with the Autism Task Force because of the number of families all around the state that have been affected by that. That is one of my biggest. The other is that quite frankly, although I have been a principled conservative, I have also been willing to work across the aisle on important issues. I think that’s important. Sometimes I think we don’t have enough of that in state government.

State issues are state issues whether you are in the House or the Senate. But are there issues or concerns that are different, that have a different emphasis, a different nuance? Or is going from the House to the Senate essentially the same game on a different field?

I think you have a lot of the same political issues. Obviously the Senate as an institution is very different. They are much more deliberative in the Senate. I mean, they are designed to be that way. I do think that as a whole Montgomery has become more of a… the atmosphere has become much, much tougher in Montgomery as a whole in all of state government over the last several years. And in some ways that has been a bad thing. I think that I have been one of those people who can change that. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be running.

Can you say a little bit about how the Senate is designed to be more deliberative?

Our legislature was designed similar to Congress. We don’t have the same numbers, but it’s designed very similar in that the House members are much closer to a smaller constituency. Therefore oftentimes a populist issue or something like that will race out of the House only to be slowed down in the Senate. The U.S. Senate is the same way. Often what that means is that they take more time to debate and deliberate an issue. Now sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s absolutely frustrating for a lot of people. And I can understand that. I have been on both sides of that.

In Washington, the term lengths [of U.S. Senate compared to House] are different, which may contribute to the Senate being more deliberative, but in Alabama the term lengths are the same.

They are the same length. At the same time, your committee structure is different. Your operating structure is different. The Senate doesn’t have just one person in charge. In the House, the Speaker of the House is in charge. It’s a much more structured environment, and the Senate is a lot less structured. It requires more individuals to serve who are able to sit down and talk with one another while at the same time making forceful arguments for your point.

I imagine you are very excited about this.

I’m very excited about it. It’s a great opportunity for me. It’s also a great opportunity for what I can give back to my district and this area. I already represent a large part of it because I represent Bibb and western Shelby. Chilton is going to be a new area, but I am going to spend a lot of time down there. I am looking forward to visiting with people.

The biggest things that I am going to be talking about are… one, is ethics reform which I have been pushing pretty hard for the last few years. Ethics being giving the Ethics Commission subpoena power. Also changing the way we have disclosure in our ethics laws such as online campaign disclosures, requiring more online access to ethics reports. You know, bring more sunshine into what we are doing. I think that in itself helps improve the ethics in our state.

And then the other issue I’ll be talking about of course is economic issues which are first and foremost on everybody’s minds right now, and the need to quite frankly be careful with our spending. There’s a propensity out there right now, where a lot of people are saying, “Let’s go spend spend spend and that ought to help cure whatever is wrong with our economy.” I really think we have to be very, very careful before we get into that mindset because we could be creating a situation in the future that none of us are going to be very happy with. And I hope that the leadership I’ve given this area in the last seven years and my service down there would make me a steady, strong person to lead in this Senate district on these issues I just talked about.

Can you say a little bit about the Republicans and the stated goal of taking both houses of the legislature in 2010? What are the chances?

Oh yeah, I think there is definitely a real chance. Oh yeah. Mike Hubbard has been working extremely hard to get that done as party chairman and of course as caucus chairman. Yeah, I think there is a very real goal of picking up both the House and the Senate as the majority.

Now a lot of it is going to depend too on the political environment out there [in 2010] and nobody really knows what that is.

But I can say this, and I say this a lot to my fellow Republicans. I think we can take over. But I think at the same time that as the Republican Party, we are going to have to say, “We are not just going to be the party of no.” We are going to have to show what we stand for and the positive ideas we have, too. If we can’t do that and we’re just merely saying, “We’re not Democrats,” that’s not a recipe for a permanent majority.

They [voters] don’t want to hear us say how bad their ideas are. We have to offer up an an alternative. That’s why I have talked about ethics a lot. Put our campaign finance disclosure online. Let’s give subpoena power to the Ethics Commission and make these laws stronger. Those are positive real proposals. They may not pass or people may not like them, but at least people know they have alternatives out there.

What would you most want your replacement in the House, a freshman representative, to know going into the job?

It’s the most stressful… it’s a very stressful environment. But if I could give anybody one piece of advice, I would say, “Learn to have a lot of patience, and know that you are going to make mistakes so you have to laugh at yourself sometimes.” I know on the way I tripped up and made mistakes here and there. At the same time I just think, “Yeah, you’ve got to laugh at yourself.” You really do because nobody’s perfect and it’s a stressful environment, but I have found that those people who are willing to do that and can poke fun at themselves tend to be a lot better legislators.

We are in a serious business. It is serious, but at the same time we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously.

That is one thing that is cool about the blog because you can type it out there, and anybody from anywhere can… you know, it kinda keeps it real…

People will let you know how they feel, sometimes harshly.

And that’s fine… if you get your feelings hurt easily you don’t want to run for office.

Do you think you’ll get a stiff primary challenge?

The general won’t be as tough as the primary because it’s a very, very Republican district, but I’m sure we’ll definitely get a Republican primary challenge. I’m the only Republican legislator in this Senate district, so it won’t come from a legislator, but you know there a lot of other officials out there, and I’ve been trying to touch base with them. I haven’t heard of anybody yet, but at the same time I’m sure there will be, being an open seat.

I appreciated Rep. Ward stopping by and the opportunity to visit with him. We can continue to keep up with him in the Legislative Dispatch section of the Political Parlor. His campaign website is here.

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• Ward Announces SD 14 Candidacy