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Associated Press and Dana Beyerle have versions of the “Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb might run for Governor” story that you saw here Wednesday.
Beyerle adds the extra detail that she has talked about the possibility of running with Roger Bedford and Ron Sparks, potential Democratic primary opponents. AP was nice enough to mention that the rumor was “popping up on political Web sites” this week.
Her candidacy is still unlikely from this perspective though Republicans have their fingers crossed that it happens. Cobb would have to resign simply to run in a non-judicial race, a Republican would become Chief Justice (appointed by Riley), no Democrat would be left in appellate court, plus more Democrats in the gubernatorial primary means more Democratic money spent against each with more potential primary mayhem. The idea is a winner all the way around for the GOP no matter what else happens. For that, Cobb gives up what she has for a shot at the Governor’s mansion – if she can win the primary, and that alone is no gimme.
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I don’t think Republicans should be too eager for to run.
If she actually got the primary not she would be much tougher than Davis, Bedford or Sparks.
She could be winner, but getting past the primary esp. without the party being busted up would very hard for Cobb.
thought for the day: where is sparks? no word since he announced, so what is going on? mustache got caught in something and he can’t free himself? or…is there a push to get him back out of the race, sue bell in the race, leaving a cobb v davis showdown? hmmm, probably not, but hell, conspiracy theories abound in this state, so why not one more…
The SparksStache!
Why not just have Sparks and Folsom resign too? Then we can give the Republicans all of our statewide offices instead of just a portion.
Dylan
Your theory about getting Sparks out of the race and Cobb in is not to far out there. I said before that Cobb will not run but…… if she does, she will have cut deal with Sparks and he will get out of the race.
She’s their best shot. She’s the only one who inspires any feeling. Davis must think he’s Obama. But he doesn’t have the strength and the TV charisma. And that can’t be taught.
I think Cobb is waiting for AEA polling to come in. She has an open ear, but won’t do it if the polling shows uncertainty.
If she does it, and gets past the primary, she will be the next Gov. Question becomes, how does the Dem party look afterward?
#4–Great Idea! Works for me.
Susan,
Aren’t you a professor paid by taxpayer and student tuition monies?
If so, I’m tired of your partisan dribblings on what amounts to my time. Get to work on something other than the promulgation of right-wing propaganda before I have to send Alice Martin over there to scrub your timesheets.
certainly there are some sparks faithful out there that can give us an update on his whereabouts. he could do a 24hr video webfeed to keep us posted, in the spirit of ‘dega, he could call it “stache-cam,” that might resurrect his fledgling campaign
oh, and ron, one more idea, next summer you definitely need to throw together a free concert, a la city stages, bonaroo etc…”Stache Bash 2010.”
Unlike Sparks, Bedford and Folsom, Sue Bell would actually have a shot of beating Davis in a primary.
That no comment from Artur sounds like he’s scared or at least worried about having to go through a tough primary instead of the cakewalk he’d have against Sparks.
no way in hell she will run for gov…..she is just enjoying the talk of it.
# 9–no, I’m not.
#9, you are wrong. but i bet for a fleeting second you felt like you had a winning argument. sucks to be so very proud yet sadly mistaken. if those damn facts just wouldn’t get in the way, shoot #9.
The rumors about Justice Cobb seem very misplaced. People forget that she is a party loyalist with a deep sense of responsibility to the courts and the people who elected her to do a job. Her core of sincerity and honesty won’t let her leave the job she agreed to do behind, even if she is concerned that Davis can’t win the general election. BUT, I’ve seen no indication she has that concern and think this rumormongering is being generated by Repubs who see the writing of a Davis victory on the wall and are frantically casting about for anything to give them hope.
ha, jehosophat! since we’re still in april, nice april fools try! if the “rumormongering” were from republicans, then hubbert wouldn’t be quoted in articles! Write this down, jehosophat, no one, i mean no one, is worried about artur “how conservative can i be today” davis winning. it’s a numbers game, and he’s on the losing end. and then there’s that whole voting record thing, but hey, that was in the past right?
This trial balloon is already sinking. To Cobb’s surprise, her trial lawyer allies are adamantly opposed to her running and so are some of her allies in the women’s community. interesting lesson here: Davis, who supposedly has no inside game, has lined up a lot more insider support than the bloggers appreciate, and Cobb is getting blocked off.
The word now is that Cobb runs only if in her poll, Davis is a lot weaker than he has been in AEA or Anzalone’s polling. Specifically, she is trying to test her theory that she is running even or close to him with black voters. Good luck with that.
I doubt Cobb runs, but I would not be so quick to assume her strength as a candidate. Anyone who head Davis’ speech at the Harbert Center a few weeks ago knows that when he is on his game he is a far more compelling speaker than anybody else in Alabama politics. Cobb has a good story but having seen her give numerous speeches, she is not a rival of Davis in that regard. Matters because Democratic primary politics is still a retail sport in Alabama and a lot of Democratic activists will see these candidates on the stump.
18&19 – glad to see Davis staffers working late.
Sounds like there is a desperate search among the Democratic “leaders’ to find domebody, anybody who can beat Davis. Clearly they don’t think Davis can win in the general.
Or they don’t want him to win? Hmm maybe too much paranoia for a Friday.
I got to say 18 and 19 sound like people working for Davis.
Best speaker of anyone?! Cobb will run only if she thinks she can run even with black vote?!
Apparently, she has Davis worried!
19: Since when do gubernatorial candidates win based on the speeches they give? I’m not convinced that he’s any better of a speaker than she is (they’re both pretty good), but you’re either judging in another era (pre-television) or on the wrong level. Neither 24 hour cable networks, nor Alabama TV stations, are going to broadcast speeches by any of the candidates for Governor.
I could be wrong, but as one of the few people who talks to the Davis camp and the anybody but Davis camp (ABD), I get a strong sense that the ABDs seem more worried that none of their candidates can beat Davis than Davis’ people seem worried about Cobb, Sparks, or Bedford. Who knows who’s right?
Cobb is one Davis is reall worried about.
I suspect if she runs, the Hubbert and so forth will get Bedford and Sparks out the race.
Giving Cobb a one on one with Davis.
Basicly giving the primary voters the choice of someone who would be the favorite over any of the Republicans or someone who would lose to any of the Republicans.
Conditions for Suebell are as good as they’ll ever be if she harbors any desire to run for the state’s highest office. I personally doubt she runs, but I hope she does.
I hope she does too. I’ve been missing that song.
The primary is tricky, because there is no way to tell who comes out. A run-off, though, would probably be very small turnout and perhaps very much older and white. Has anyone heard Davis’ argument for the general? I would think that after Obama and Figures, he would have some pause.
Davis has a huge which makes him ignore reality.
What Davis would tell you is that Obama winning proves he can win.
Even though in a good year for the Democrats Obama was crushed by McCain.
What Davis says about that is that Obama did not focus on Alabama.
Davis needs to focus on reality.
But he’s got his backup plan – job for him with Obama.
So either way he wins. He simply is too selfish to concern himself with how this plays out for the Democratic party and more important for Alabama.
Her 1 vote on the Supreme Court is completely insignificant. Too much is being made of her 1 vote. I think that is Republicans trying to talk her out of running cause they are scared of her.
Thank god he is selfish. Hope he sticks with that. What is jim spearman running for? Here he’s a peach of a candidate
Yes Davis is extremely worried about Sue Bell entering race for several reasons. She takes away a lot of his business donor base and her getting in would likely put Sparks and Bedford on the sidelines.
I have no idea if the Davis haters or the Davis is the best thing since sliced bread crowd is right. But one guarantee: a race between Davis and Cobb would be ferocious–the myth in some circles that they are friends is about three years out of date, each has been badmouthing the other for a while because each one sees the other as a threat to their goal to be governor.
Having said all that: the Davis team would be wrong to think that that it will matter to very many voters that Davis has an intellectual or oratorical edge over Cobb. It won’t, all that will matter is which candidate becomes the more inspirational figure to Democratic voters. Will blacks rally around Davis more than white women rally around Cobb? Which of their compelling personal stories will come across better?
Reality check to the hate Davis crowd: Davis has obstacles with race, but anyone who thinks that he is not a very skilled campaigner with many different kinds of audiences is in the river called denial.
Reality check to all dems: the intensity of this race is either going to make the winner stronger or it is going to hand the Repubs the governor’s race. 50-50 call today.
Question to #18- if Davis runs so strongly in AEA polling, why has Dr. Hubbert been so actively recruiting other candidates, rather than lining up behind Artur? I presume you are talking about the stale, 6-way Democratic primary sample that had Davis getting about 35% of the vote with a 55% African-American sample in a Democratic primary? Maybe no one other than the Davis camp thinks that translates to running strongly, particularly when moved over into the November column, with the potential for negative impact on down-ballot races. And, to #19, the race won’t be won on the stump – it will be won on radio, TV and grass-roots activism. That translates into $$$.
I love how that one guy got his facts wrong but trashed Susan. If you hide behind anonymity that’s fine (I do) but to rag on someone who’s not for a job they don’t even have is pretty sorry.