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Attorney James Anderson would be a democrat who could win.
The Democrats would be very wise to run him.
Wow, the Huntsville Times recommends Selma for a staycation. In my last trip to Selma (Spring 2008), I took notice that the downtown is dead and there didn’t seem to be anything to do. I don’t think I will take up the Times on their recommendation. (I guess you could stop by Hank Sander’s office at watch him “work into the night.”) :)
PL, you are exactly right. Anderson would be the strongest candidate for AG that the Dems could front, and he would be a vast improvement over our current AG. All signs point to James running, based on what I’ve heard on the ground.
I don’t know James Anderson well but find him likeable. What is the story on why he ran such a lackluster Supreme Ct race against Harold See in ‘02?
Anon, if you knew anything about Harold See, you’d know why Anderson struggled in 02. Anderson had very limited resources, and See was the darling of the BCA. He has always been tough to run against, and I am surprised Anderson did as well as he did. That was a losing proposition from the start, in my opinion.
I do know See and voted for him every time he ran, but the fact is he was 2-1 in his races, beating Ingram in a close race, losing to Roy Moore, and comfortably beating Anderson. See was very well regarded by the business community but equally disliked by the trial lawyers. Despite some early buzz, Anderson never seemed able to raise a lot of money or get a strong campaign rolling, and I wondered if there was a backstory there. It raised questions of his strength as a candidate, and I’m just not sure that I buy the explanation that See is a tough opponent.
See also beat Justice Kennedy in ‘94, but the vote totals didn’t reflect his victory.
I love how the Montgomery Advertiser conveniently omits that Luther Strange, Cam Ward, Patrick Byrne (son of Bradley Byrne), and others were also at the Chilton County Peach Festival Parade. If you are going to mention a couple of the candidates, you need to be fair and mention all of them.
any thoughts on who will win Sen-19?
Dunn has most of the endorsements
but I’ve heard its a dead heat going into election day.
who will turn out supporters?
Dunn, in a blowout.
I hope so.. Dunn is a quality lady whom I think has the best interests of “the county” at heart, and would be a bridge maker instead of a bridge burner.
The Montgomery Advertiser failed to mention Hank Erwin at the event too. Not only is he running for Lt. Governor, but that is also the district for his Senate seat!
You figure a big festival like that would warrant a better article than what was written. That is just poor journalism!
To Anonymous in #5-
I thnik it somewhat of a misnomer to describe the campaign Anderson ran against See in 2002 as “lackluster”. In fact, I remember that campaign as having some of the best television ads of that cycle, and Anderson actually having some momentum in that race until late money from the out-of-state business community overwhelmed him.
I am a firm believer that, in terms of elections, research and numbers tell a lot of truth, so let’s go to the historic numbers (since 2000) of Alabama’s appellate court seats. Due to the greater funding and attention, I have omitted the Chief Justice elections-
In 2000, there were 3 Supreme Court seats up for election. The Democrats lost all three : Ralph Cook 47.4 to Lynn Stuart 52.6; John England 45.8 to Tom Woodall 54.2; and Joel Laird 45.2 to Bernard Harwood 54.8. There were three seats up on the Court of Civil Appeals, and, again, Democrats lost all three: Roger Monroe 49.5 to Craig Pittman 50.4; Henry Steagall 48.5 to John Crawley 51.4; and Gene Reese 43.9 to Glenn Murdock 56.0. There were also three seats up on the Court of Criminal Appeals, and Democrats only lost two of those: Jimmy Fry 49.3 to Greg Shaw 50.7; and Aubrey Ford 44.5 to Kelli Wise 55.5, while Sue Bell Cobb defeated Alice Martin 51.2 to 48.7.
In 2002, the Anderson/See race was the only Supreme Court seat up, and Anderson lost 46.3 to 51.4. In the only Civil Appeals seat up Democrat Vicky Underwood Toles lost to Bill Thompson 42.7 to 57.2, and Democrats lost both Criminal Appeals seats that were up: Eric Funderburk 41.4 to Bucky McMillan 54.1; and Florence Cauthen 47.4 to Pam Baschab 52.4.
In 2004, there were again three Supreme Court seats up, and, again, Democrats lost all three: Robert Smith 44.1 to Tom Parker 55.7; Roger Monroe 40.0 to Patti Smith 59.8; and John Rochester 40.2 to Mike Bolin 59.7. In the only Civil Appeals seat up, Democrats also lost, with Sharon Yates getting 47.9 to Tommy Bryan’s 52.1.
In 2006, there were again three opposed Supreme Court seats up, and, again, Democrats lost all three: Gwen Kennedy 43.2 to Tom Woodall 56.7; Al Johnston 44.9 to Lynn Stuart 55.0; and John England 45.0 to Glenn Murdock 55.0. There were also three seats on the Court of Civil Appeals up, and, again, Democrats lost all three: Ray Vaughn 44.2 to Terry Moore 55.7; Kim Drake 47.2 to Craig Pittman 52.8; and Jim McFerrin 45.8 to Terri Thomas 54.1. There were also three seats on the Court of Criminal Appeals up, and, again, Democrats lost all three: Aubrey Ford 44.1 to Greg Shaw 55.0; Claude Patton 44.0 to Kelli Wise 56.0; and Deborah Paseur 47.9 to Sam Welch 52.0.
In 2008, there was only one Supreme Court seat up, and Democrats lost it, with Deborah Paseur getting 49.6 to Greg Shaw at 50.2. In the only Civil Appeals seat up, Kim Drake lost with 44.2 to Bill Thompson at 55.7. Democrats lost both Criminal Appeals seats, with Clyde Jones at 43.9 to Beth Kellum 56.0, and Aimee Smith 46.1 to Mary Windom 53.8.
So to review, going back to 2000, only Ralph Cook, running as a sitting Supreme Court Justice in 2000, and Deborah Paseur in 2008 have drawn a higher percentage of the vote than Anderson did in 2002, despite his being outfunded and running against the poster child for the business community and Civil Justice Reform Committee (the pro-tort reformers). That is out of the 11 Supreme Court possibilities to outpoll him. Throw in the 19 other Democratic candidates for the lower appellate courts, and and only 8 of those drew higher percentages, and, if I am correct, 4 were running for reelection when they did so. All in all, I think that Anderson’s 2002 effort deserves higher praise, although I understand there may be those out there that do not want him to be the Democratic candidate for AG in 2010, and would rather have Giles Perkins. I like them both, and Tommy Chapman, but would hope Democrats would look for the candidate with the best chance to win, which to me is looking for which of the three (or anyone not listed in Phil Rawls’ article) draws the sharpest and clearest distinctions with both Troy King and Luther Strange. I will leve that for others to debate – factually, I hope.
If Markeshia Ricks wrote the article you can expect it to be poor journalism.
Perkins is one of the savvier political operatives in the party, has national ties and would assemble a better campaign apparatus than Anderson. I doubt that either could raise the money to compete with the deals Troy King has cut with trial lawyers and Birmingham firms or with the pro business money that would pour in for Luther Strange. There is another side note here: it is unlikely Perkins would make this race if he believed 2010 was going to be a Democratic disaster. While it has not gone away and probably won’t, the Davis will doom the party line is losing some steam. Some of it is polling data, some of it is Dems realizing they won two congressional races even with Obama, and some if it is Dems realizing they held their own in the legislature and won chief justice and lt.gov. even with Baxley’s 41%.
Anon #14. Well done. Good points. I think Anderson would have an uphill battle in November but I sure do like him and think he would do a good job.
I still say Davis is doomed in the Governor’s race. But I do agree history has shown that the people tend to split the ticket.
It’s cut both ways. James was smashed by Don in 1998 but the Republicans still won the Lt Gov. and AG races.
So I don’t think Davis will doom every democrat running.
And Anderson can be the candidate with clean hands against the BCA candidate Strange.
(The Democrats won’t get the dream of running against Troy).
davis will be bad for the ticket – but it is true that people will split votes. i think it is very likely that davis will not get elected but folsom, jr. will, for example.
davis’s stand on the electronic bingo or the gaming issue is admirable, don’t you think??
ron sparks feels the same – why not praise him too, CC? Your typical litmus test on gambling is so admirable.
i do like ron..met him at bama jam..great guy!! seems alot more folks are on the davis train……what i really want is a republican with an open mind about gaming…
Probably won’t find that in Alabama. Maybe a Libertarian or Independent.
CC, byrne made some interesting comments, i thought, about the CC development. In fact, Gilley was gracious about it and said he would be into discussing the idea further. i thought that was a nice change on both ends…
For those of us not in the Wiregrass, what were they?