Posted by Who the hell does Ron Sparks think he’s fooling? Because he’s certainly not pulling a fast one on anyone who’s been paying attention to the political circus going on in northern Alabama over the past week. Let’s review the evidence.
and concludes:
It was bad enough that Sparks flirted so openly with this race, only to turn around and decline the opportunity. It’s so much worse to spin yarns about how he never considered leaving the gubernatorial race at all.
Read it all here at Swing State Project.
As for me… I figured Sparks had to be all-but-committed to the AL-05 race to whisper even a word about entering it. Otherwise, why would he open himself up to renewed charges of being a waffler about what race he’s entering? Turns out that is not a rhetorical question: why is he opening himself up to such charges?
Word behind the scenes is that Sparks has received assurances that he will have the money he needs for his gubernatorial campaign. But a Democratic insider had made the point to the Parlor that “If the anybody but Davis contingency was formidable, then Sparks would be dwarfing Davis in money,” but we aren’t seeing indications that is the case. What will be different now? Is there some other money pipeline that is opening up?
The Artur Davis campaign has some fun with the issue in an online video it released yesterday. I am having some trouble with embedded video at the moment, but you can see the video here.
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2010 Senate Elections
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IMHO: “If the anybody but Davis contingency was formidable”…they would’ve found someone other than Sparks.
Formidable or not, the “anybody but Sparks” crew does have access to money…how much they’re willing to throw into a losing race remains to be seen.
Its a myth that the power players in Democrat party are not behind Davis.
That’s why Sparks is going nowhere. The AEA and the Trial Lawyers made the decision to go with Davis a long time ago.
After Folsom dropped out, Davis became the Democrat establisment’s clear choice. Davis would the public to think that he is not a puppet of the AEA and the trial lawyers but that’s just what he is.
Kristopher, they do have money. But they don’t really care who governor is. Their concern is who controls the Legislature. That’s why that crowd always focuses on legislative races.
I think the explanation is pretty simple: flirting with this earned Ron Sparks a lot of free media for announcing nothing more than that he was still running for governor of Alabama. All most people heard (or read) about this was that Democrat party bosses in DC wanted Ron Sparks to run for congress but he decided to stick with Alabama. No one outside Montgomery politicos will have paid much attention to the rest of it.
princeliberty,
So Joe Reed’s temper tantrum was what exactly? I think you’re wrong in lumping the AEA leadership and trial lawyers together. The AEA leadership below Hubbert/Reed is split on Davis (as BCA is split amongst a number of candidates) and the Davis likely does have the support of many trial lawyers (though Julian McPhillips has held fundraisers for Sparks).
It is not a myth that Hubbert and Reed are less than thrilled with Davis as a candidate. It is also not a myth that Hubbert has given money to Sparks.
I agree with anonymous that the AEA dollars are going to go into holding the legislature, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility of other money coming into the campaign.
samford dem is totally correct. this was all about sparks getting free press….period.
lol..kinda doubt that the reason he strayed…all sparks had to do is mention gambling and he gets all the free press he wants…
sparks does not get much free press about a lottery or other gambling issue. it is bill johnson who gets free press because he is willing to say and do about anything for it.
Ronnie Sparks simply does not have the political knowledge to know he’s screwing up each and every day! A lost ball in high weeds! In his two previous wins as Ag Commissioner, ALFA footed the bill for his campaign, did his leg work, and he woke up the morning after as the winner. He’ll wake up the morning after this one, as lost as a goose in a whirl wind!!! He’s not going to have a group to do it all for him this time. He just don’t get it!!! He’s let ALFA blow smoke up his @$$ so much for the last eight years, he’s started to believing that he’s a real player. What a shame.
2010 – Johnson is getting all the free press cuz’ the gov keeps handing legitimate issues to him. Johnson’s not the one who signed the $13 million no-bid contract to company with no business location, website, phone, etc. – Riley did that. Johnson’s not the one who put Riley’s kids on the Jefferson County and State payrolls – he just called Riley out on it.
Johnson’s not the one who got Byrne’s Autauga county leader to pass that resolution banning Johnson from speaking to the GOP club there, Riley did that. I wonder how that club is going to feel about that resolution when they find out that they when they were bragging that Riley got “gov of the year” and “most courageous” gov it was for trying to pass the largest tax increase in Alabama history.
Keep spouting those lies, anon, and maybe someday someone will believe them other than folks who are already pissed at Riley over gambling — but it’s doubtful. Nothing you said is true.
Anonymous:
Riley lead negotiator:
http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/122017052260160.xml&coll=2
Riley son Rob gets fat county contract:
http://blog.al.com/archiblog/2009/02/archibald_fire_up_the_prius_an.html
Riley named “governor of year” & “most corageuous” for the largest tax increasse in Alabama history(look under amendment 1):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Riley
If you need me to, I’ll post all the links about Riley’s son-in-law Rob Campbells firms contracts with Jefferson county and the state.
[...] there was another race he could have hopped into. If Sparks switched to the AL-05 race, he would have likely turned into [...]