Sen. Steve French, Sen. Zeb Little, Rep. Ken Guin, and Rep. Cam Ward will be blogging here during the 2010 Legislative Session.

Ten Minutes in the House, Senate Moves On

Riley and her friend Caroline joined Julie on the campaign trail in Isabella this past weekend.

Here is a quick preview of the upcoming week in Montgomery. This week will be a standard legislative schedule for the House. We will be in session on Tuesday and Thursday with committee meetings scheduled for Wednesday.
The House will take up a ten minute calendar this week. A ten minute calendar is [...]

Where are the Budgets?

Quietly members of the House are growing more and more concerned about the status of the budgets. Today will be our 16th legislative day out of 30 possible meeting days for this session. Usually by this time the House has passed either one or both of the budgets.
When the Governor presented his universally agreed, [...]

Gonna Miss You Beck

Before we get into all of the heated debate this week on gambling, budgets, and the likes I wanted to pause for a moment to remember a dear friend. Rep. Warren Beck’s sudden death really hit a lot of people in Montgomery like a lightning bolt.

Warren and I were elected at the same [...]

Session at Halfway Point

We are now at the halfway point of this legislative session in Montgomery. The much anticipated debate over gambling never materialized in the Senate last week despite the loud protests from both pro and anti-gambling forces on the front steps of the State House. As many of us suspected, the proponents of gambling [...]

Gambling and PACT Program on Deck this Week

We are now about to begin another week in Montgomery. The much anticipated debate over gambling never materialized in the Senate last week. As many of us suspected, the proponents of gambling just did not have the votes to push for a vote in the Senate so it was delayed until further notice. [...]

The American Village

Lt. General Hal Moore & Cam Ward

Often times the legislative session seems to dominate all the headlines in our state political talks. Taking a bit of a break away from the session I had a great opportunity to enjoy the American Village’s 10th Anniversary celebration on Monday. The American Village is one of those rare places in Alabama that, if [...]

Legislative Recap- Committee Action Tells All

This week in the legislature has been somewhat uneventful with the exception of some committee activity on high profile bills.
In the Senate, the gambling legislation started to make its way into position for a vote by blazing through committee. Not that this bill was ever going to die in a pro-gambling stacked committee but, it [...]

Week Starts with Gambling Debate

Spent some time campaigning this weekend before heading back into session again

Spent some time campaigning this weekend before heading back into session again

After a weekend of campaigning it is back to work in Montgomery again. As I have been moving around my district I am getting more and more questions about the gambling debate.

It appears that I spoke too soon last week when I [...]

Working in the Bubble

I often hear a lot of talk about the bubble of Montgomery. From time to time I am reminded about this and it could never be more glaring than the current debate regarding gambling. As the news media and political ads have taken to the air debating Governor Riley’s raid on Victory Land and Country [...]

Sprinting Through the Process

During each my last eight years in the House I have a routine where I like to move all of my bills early in the session. My reasoning for this is that somewhere around midway through the session the process gets snagged on some issue like gambling, sales tax on groceries or some proposed tax [...]

From Ethics to Guns

Last week the legislature saw a lot of legislation surrounding the issues of ethics and transportation. This week we move on to another hot button topic for Alabama citizens- guns. State Representative Jeremy Oden has sponsored for the second year in a row legislation to allow for short barreled guns to be owned in [...]

House Passes PAC to PAC and Ethics

The House finished our second week of work with a couple of notable pieces of legislation passing. Rep. Jeff McLaughlin passed his bill to pass PAC to PAC transfers. Jeff has passed this bill out of the House every year I have served there and it always gets re-worked once it goes to the [...]

House Productive on First Full Day for Bills

The House had a typically productive day yesterday. I say typically because this early in the session is primarily devoted to legislation that has previously passed the chamber.
The only real controversies to arise yesterday dealt with Rep. Jim McClendon’s ban on text messaging and legislation I was sponsoring for a 7th year in a [...]

Leg. Session - Week 2

The second of legislative sessions tend be some of the more boring. Everyone is glad to see each other again on the first week of the session and by week two that fun has worn off. Since only resolutions can be passed in the first week it makes for a somewhat more ceremonial [...]

State of the State Address

Governor Riley gave his last State of the State address last night to a packed crowd in the old House Chambers of the Capitol. He pushed some of the same themes that he has been discussing over the last few months. It was a good speech and I agreed with most of his proposals [...]

Daily News

Daily Headlines, Wednesday, 3/17/2010

Montgomery AdvertiserEnd date for state’s PACT plan may be 2011

Montgomery AdvertiserWoman hit with rock in car on I-20 dies

Montgomery AdvertiserSchool uniforms may go systemwide in Montgomery

Montgomery AdvertiserSuperintendent supports middle school concept in Montgomery

Montgomery AdvertiserJoe Reed [...]

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Legislative Dispatch

Change

I wish my friend Hinton Mitchem godspeed and good luck after his retirement from public service. Hinton, on Monday, announced what many had suspected — he will not seek re-election. I remember meeting Hinton for the first time while I was a student at Auburn University. He served the people of his [...]

Ten Minutes in the House, Senate Moves On

Riley and her friend Caroline joined Julie on the campaign trail in Isabella this past weekend.

Here is a quick preview of the upcoming week in Montgomery. This week will be a standard legislative schedule for the House. We will be in session on Tuesday and Thursday with committee meetings scheduled for Wednesday.
The House will take up a ten minute calendar this week. A ten minute calendar is [...]

Purple Dot Connection

MARCH MADNESS

TOP TEN INDICATIONS OF MARCH MADNESS

10.  Eric Massa inviting us to ask the 10,000 Navy men he served with whether he is gay.

9.  Larry Langford hitting the jackpot 33 times in one day and not remembering it.

8.  Ron Sparks being able to make payments on a $500,000 loan with an income of $80,000.

7.  Artur Davis [...]


Back in the Day...

Union Avenue in Ozark in the 1920s

Vintage postcard