Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

The Alabama Ethics Commission was created in 1973 to promote “trust and confidence in government for Alabama.” While the Commission has the authority to investigate alleged violations of the Alabama Ethics law it has never been allowed to subpoena documents and records pertinent to those investigations. This has left the Commission in the position of battling public corruption with one arm tied behind its back.

Most states have an ethics code for government officials, and Alabama is no exception. One major difference, however, is Alabama is the only state in our country that does not grant subpoena power to its Ethics Commission. After being subjected to a steady stream of public corruption over the years I believe the people of Alabama would agree that perhaps it is time to join the rest of the country in strengthening our Ethics Commission.

Without the necessary tools to access documents and dig deeper into alleged wrongdoing, the Ethics Commission is a commission on ethics in name only. Many cases over the years have been dismissed by the Commission on the grounds of insufficient evidence. This was no fault of the staff at the Ethics Commission but was instead a reflection of the powers granted to this organization. How can any law enforcement agency looking into allegations of financial graft without being given the ability to look at the necessary documents that would reveal the truth be effective?

Trust in Alabama state and local government is at an all time low. The people of our state have been subjected to the slow trickle of news about public corruption for too long. There is a common belief that there is no way to adequately ensure that public corruption is kept in check. While the vast majority of people who are in public service are good people, like every other part of our society, there are those who need to be subject to strict scrutiny. By giving the Ethics Commission the power to subpoena the necessary documents to properly investigate public corruption, we are moving one step closer to restoring confidence in state government.

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Happy New Year 2009! I hope that this New Year brings with it some needed changes in our state government but much like those watching the economy; my “consumer confidence” is low. That being said, it is time to set our state’s New Year resolutions.

First, on behalf of the entire Alabama House of Representatives I wish, no beg, the State Senate to please engage in a productive session. This is not finger pointing but just a realization of what everyone is already talking about, that the Senate is currently fractured into multiple groups with little sign of coming together any time soon. Some state senators have been advocating for a session that avoids some of the issues that have locked down the entire process in the past. I hope those senators from both sides of the aisle prevail in 2009.

This New Year also brings about an economic climate that we have known seen in a couple of decades. I hope that we can all resolve in Montgomery to make the necessary cuts in state spending to balance the budget while still preserving those services most vital to our children like the Kids First Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.

Not only does the economy require us to cut state spending it also means that we must develop a tax policy that puts more money in the pockets for people to spend. Two-thirds of Alabama’s economy is based upon consumer spending and we need to encourage more of it. How about raising the tax credits for families with two children and also eliminating the tax on groceries in the New Year without raising new taxes?

Alabama has always held out a reputation as being tough on crime but we still allow convicted murders to make money off of the crime they committed. In 2009 we should work to eliminate this practice where victims are held in less regard than the profiteering of criminals. If we are truly dedicated to making sure those who commit heinous crimes are punished then surely we can eliminate their profit making habits while they serve their sentence.

Finally in the New Year I would like to see our state take on an issue that it has long been neglected. When you drive a car in Alabama you should be held responsible when you damage another car in an accident. Sounds simple enough but under current Alabama law many drivers involved in car accidents end up not having insurance and providing false addresses to officers at the scene. These drivers are now found and the victim of these accidents is stuck with a bill they should not have to pay.

While there are other issues that need to be addressed by Alabama’s state government in 2009 I would like to at least see us use these relatively non-controversial goals above as a starting point. Some productivity out of Montgomery would indeed make for a Happy New Year.

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I cannot help but laugh at the suggestions by some Jefferson County officials that the entire state legislature needs to come to the rescue of this local government.

Regardless of where you stand on their current proposed solutions I have to scratch my head about the logic of this suggestion. After years of corruption, sweetheart deals, and overall poor judgment the legislature is now being asked to come in and fix the mess Jefferson County finds itself in.

Now granted not every local official in Jefferson County is some bad person. I served in the legislature with both Jim Carns and Bobby Humphrys and I can tell you that they are both honest, hard working public servants. I am glad they are on that commission or I cannot imagine how much worse things would be. That being said I think the majority of people throughout our state look to the problems of Jefferson County and say “you made that bed now you must sleep in it.”

While no local or state government for the matter is perfect you don’t see proposals being suggested to assist Mobile, Huntsville, or Montgomery. While these cities do have their share of challenges you don’t see a daily drip of corruption headlines in their media markets. People have sympathy for helping a community whose leaders are doing the best they can with what they have. Unfortunately the public indictments and corruption headlines in Jefferson County make it clear that the general public throughout our state do not feel the least bit sorry for Jefferson County’s dilemma.

There are some good leaders in Jefferson County and I hope that their opinions will rule the day but any suggestion that it is time for the entire state legislature to step up to the plate to save the Jefferson County government makes it seem like April Fool’s Day instead of Christmas.

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When Governor Riley declared proration on Monday he was announcing what many of us already knew, state budgets are in for some lean years. Alabama, like most states and congress, budget based upon projections of revenue for the budget year. There have been calls for many years to revert to a system of prior year budgeting. This is a process where your budget for the next fiscal year is based upon the amount of revenue you actually received in the previous budget year. Under this system any additional monies you receive can be applied toward the agencies where the greatest needs exist. You would never go into proration under such a system but there has always been a tremendous amount of resistance to such a change in the budget process.

As I said above Congress has the exact same system in place where they budget based upon projected revenue except they are allowed to run deficits so they have become pretty lax in caring about how much revenue they have. Congress has sold me on the idea that we do not need to go to a system of deficit spending. Look where this has gotten us with our multi-trillion dollar national debt.

The budget cuts Governor Riley announced on Monday are the deepest cuts to state budgets in over 40 years. The rainy day accounts will soften the blow somewhat but these accounts will all be emptied after this year and will have to be repaid by the state. So if the economy does not turn around soon, not only will we be faced with additional budget cuts but we will also have to make repayments of debt owed to the rainy day accounts. However you slice it, state government is in for some lean days ahead.

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Tomorrow the Electoral College will convene in every state capitol across the country to formally ratify the presidential election that was held in November. Alabama’s 9 electors will meet in old House Chamber at noon to cast our ballots. This will be the first and likely my only time that I will get to participate in this process. While it is a forgone conclusion that Alabama’s 9 electors will all vote for John McCain it is always an interesting ceremonial tradition that has been carried on in American since its founding..

Interesting side notes on this event. Electors have not always followed through with their committed pledge to vote for the candidate that their state voted for. In 1976 an elector voted for the Libertarian Party candidate for president while another elector actually voted for Ronald Reagan in 1976 four years before he was on the ballot. In 1988, an elector who was a Democrat so disliked his nominee that he actually voted for the Democrat vice-presidential nominee Lloyd Bentson to be president. While these obscure votes never change the outcome of the election they are amusing.

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I have written on a couple of occasions about the national economy and its impact on state budgets. Today Money Magazine released an interesting analysis of the effect that the economic down turn is having on individual state budgets. The study revealed that 43 state budgets are facing shortfalls next year with average deficit gap standing at 7.2% of state budgets. Georgia and Arizona lead the way with an almost 12% budget deficit and Alabama is on the lower end of the scale with a 5.5% budget deficit. It shows that all of the state governments are really in the same boat when it comes to budgetary problems. In dollar terms Alabama’s budget deficit comes out to be about $458 million while Georgia’s is $2.5 billion. As the federal government contemplates more bailouts for everyone and their mother the deficit they are running in Washington will be pushed off to the states for us to make up the difference.. This is bound to increase our budget strains over the next couple of years. Since state governments have to run a balanced budget every year unlike Washington, we will not have the luxury of deficit spending. As this study revealed most of the country is in this boat together and before we start looking at spending more on federal bailouts perhaps we should look at how we are going to pay all of this money back and try to maintain some semblance of fiscal sanity.

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Who gives money to a candidate and how much they give should be readily accessible to the public. While this sounds like common sense a national report was recently released and AGAIN Alabama was ranked near the bottom of the list in regard to campaign financial disclosure. The biggest reason for this ranking was our failure to have online campaign disclosure. The report cites Alabama’s failure to make it’s campaign disclosure process more user friendly for voters to research.

I have written about this subject many times in the past and in fact the first bill I ever introduced in the legislature back in 2003 dealt with bringing more sunshine into the campaign disclosure process. While I have brought this bill up every year in the House I have never been able to successfully pass out of both chambers.

Candidates running for office should be required to file their campaign disclosure forms online and those forms should be made easily available to the public. Many years ago when I was a Deputy Secretary of State in Alabama, the state began a process of having campaign financial disclosures scanned onto a web site for the public to access. Back in the 1990s that was a pretty big leap forward for Alabama however the state is still using that same system today. This antiquated means of disclosing who is contributing money to our political campaigns really provides little useful information to the public. With an online filing system the public could research who is giving money to which candidates and who else they might have given money to in addition to how much they have passed through political action committees. Having this information available at the click of a mouse for the general public would give the voters yet another tool in determining their choice on election day.

As the political campaigns we run continue to move into the internet I believe it is imperative that we open up the process campaign funding for everyone in our state to see. I look forward to pushing this bill again in 2009 when we go back into session.

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There are a couple of state and national elections on the horizon that could give a lot of insight into the future of political tides around the country.

First, the Alabama special election to replace former State Senator (now congressman) Parker Griffith. While Democrats will make a lot about this election being a toss-up seat going in, the fact of the matter is that this district leans Democrat. Of course this does not mean Republicans won’t contest the seat. It is winnable for Republicans and a win would here would be big. I would expect a couple of my colleagues on the Democrat side of aisle to take a serious look at the race and be very competitive as well. On the Republican side I have already heard about a couple of Republicans who are in the private sector who are looking at the race.

The national election coming up which will gain the most attention is the US Senate seat in Georgia which is a run-off election for incumbent Saxiby Chambliss who failed to get over 50% of the vote in the first election. Every Republican who is looking at running for president in 2012 will pour in good will to this district. Even John McCain, fresh off his presidential thumping, has gone to Georgia to help the incumbent Republican senator.

These “off season” elections often provide a clue into state and national trends. You can look at them and see if there is a true re-alignment of the national political culture taking place or if we are still in an environment where all politics is local.

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I am sure there is an answer to this question but I really would like to know how this came about. There have been several attempts over the years to abolish the ABC Board but they get nowhere. I just don’t see why a state should be in the competitive market place selling alcohol. It’s not the morality I question I just wonder if this is really a proper role for government. I suspect it is designed as a revenue measure for the state and also a means of protecting one group or another from competition. I don’t know that this is the case but I have just always been curious why we as a state protect this institution the way we do.

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this they are definitely welcome.

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As a kid I remember watching the end of the 1976 GOP National Convention. While I was just a kid at the time I loved watching political conventions. Yes, I was warped child. Anyway I remember watching Reagan give this great speech when he lost the nomination to Ford. He talked about the need to debate where our party was going and what our future course would be. He also spoke of taking time to heal old wounds that were a result of a bruising election cycle. The Alabama Republican Party could use this advice as well.

We just finished an election that in my opinion was a mixed bag. First, we won some big victories in Alabama, some we were supposed to win and others that were real upsets. While bragging about holding on to court seats is nice the truth is those were seats we should have held on to but the real success was on the grassroots level. For example, stunning election victories at the county level in Walker and Randolph county may not seem sexy to the political pundits in Montgomery or DC, they are a sign the GOP is alive and well in Alabama. On the other hand Shelby County saw the largest increase in votes for a Democrat in over 20 years. Of course the Obama still only won 26% or something of the vote but an increase nonetheless.

With all of this said I have watched as different factions in the Republican Party have taken turns using sledgehammer to criticizing one another and point fingers at the loss of Jay Love and Twinkle Andress’s race. Others have said everything is fine with no problems at all. As Reagan said, it is a time to debate and a time to heal. Yes we should debate the future of our party, both philosophically and how we run our campaigns. I have blogged about both of these before so I will not go into that here but suffice it to say there is plenty of room for debate- healthy debate. There is always room for improvement but we must find a way to do this in a civilized manner that will lead to the healing of bitter party wounds. These wounds are a result of many different reasons but I don’t think personal finger pointing will ever heal these hard feelings. It will take some real leadership to sit down and discuss our honest differences. We cannot be afraid to say that we are not happy with the direction our party is going in but all of us as Republicans need to offer contributions to solving these problems not just unfiltered personal criticisms.

By the way, for my Democrat readers, you have been through this before as well and like all parties will deal with it again. Just part of the election process I guess.

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On November 4th, voters all across America came out in record numbers and told us they want our country to go in a new direction. It was painful to watch the election-night electoral map where several traditional “red states” like Florida and Ohio turned blue, and some blue states became even bluer. It was hard to imagine that the electoral count was 364 to 163.

Hand it to Democratic primary voters this political season. They finally nominated someone palatable enough to win the general election. Barak Obama is a charismatic figure with great oratory skills and a top-notch campaign team. His liberal views aside, he clearly ran a superior campaign. While Obama’s popularity cannot be questioned, George W. Bush’s lack of popularity cannot be ignored. Our nominee, John McCain, faced insurmountable odds as he ran against Obama’s policies and away from Bush’s voter approval rating. It was the prefect storm that brought about our defeat.

How did a president, once embraced by Republicans and Democrats alike, lose his way? The main reason is that our party became everything we ran against in 2000—bigger government advocate, runaway spending proponent, global policeman and intruder into our private lives.

While it seems trendy to blame George Bush for all that is wrong with the world, he is not the lone culprit of a Party that lost its compass. The Republican-controlled Congress that was thrown from power in 2006 never saw a budget it couldn’t inflate or a bottom line it wouldn’t ignore. The spending spree during our Republican reign was an affront to all who joined the Party because they believed in Ronald Reagan’s smaller government message.

To make matters worse, Republican candidates failed to update their playbooks, and returned to using phrases like “tax and spend liberal” to define their Democratic opponents.. At a time when so many are making monthly choices on which bills to pay and which to put on hold, our candidates should have recognized that we have a middle class in distress. Americans are yearning to find leaders with answers over whiners making accusations. What our Party lacked in 2008 was offering positive, conservative solutions to the plight of ordinary citizens. We must also find a way to excite and inspire voters with candidates who have messages of hope and opportunity, guided by principles of less government intrusion into our lives. Our candidates need to articulate our vision and recapture the heart and soul of the Grand Old Party. If we do this, then we will once again become the majority party.

Hopefully, the Alabama Republican Party and our candidates in the future will learn from the election of 2008. We must find a way to re-connect with the folks who elected us—advocates for less government and less government spending. Labeling our Democratic opponents as liberals and expecting that to be enough will no longer win elections.

All is not lost because political parties are resilient things. The pendulum will swing back, and Republicans will have a chance to prove we are adept at winning and governing. If not, we will literally be singing the blues in elections for many years to come.

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The recession we are currently facing across the nation is starting to have an impact here in Alabama. For most of the last two years as the economy began to slow down in other neighboring states, Alabama was immune for the most part. Our unemployment figures were low and even the housing market had not been as bad as other places. This is starting to change and here are some numbers to show the trend that we are facing.

In 2007, Alabama had an unemployment rate of 3.6% and now this number has climbed to 4.9% and is expected to break 5.3% by the March 2009. While this is still below the national average of 6.1% it is still starting to trend in a band direction. What is fueling this downturn- the national problems in the housing market are starting to final trickle down to us and the automotive industry is finally feeling the pinch of high gas costs. When gas costs more people are less inclined to buy new cars. Pretty simple but the state economic woes actually go a little deeper.

While Alabama’s tax revenue has seen several years of above average growth (over 4.3%) we are now facing a severe decline in revenue. In 2008, the state budget grew by an anemic 2.4%. This is barely in line with cost of living adjustments and inflation. The biggest and most worrisome number though is the fact that sales tax revenue in Alabama actually declined by .05%. This is the first time I can ever remember seeing these numbers actually retract instead of grow. The primary reason for this decline is quite simply in tough economic times consumer spending on luxury goods drop. Nearly 2/3 of the US economy is based upon consumer spending. When it drops we all feel the pinch with lower economic growth, higher unemployment and lower corporate profit.

Time will only tell how much this downturn has on our state but I think we need to realize that there is definitely about to be a pinch on our 7 year economic boom that Alabama has enjoyed.

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After what seems like an eternity this election has finally come to an end. It seems like we started this process a decade ago. Today when I went into the polling place in Alabaster I was reminded of something that so many of us in politics forget about- after over a billion dollars in advertising, the power of this election came down to those folks I saw in line with me. The teacher in front of me and the young guy with an iPod in his hand behind me were the power players today.

It was a heavy turnout. As I mentioned in a previous post I think this turnout is one of the greatest products of this election. While suspect data will show that a large majority of this new turnout voted against my candidate, I am still proud to see so many people go to the polls for the first time. It tells us that regardless of the political debates we have in this country people still took the time to voice their opinion on this debate.

I would be very interested in knowing how this turnout affects state races in Alabama. Does John McCain carry coattails or do Democrats in urban areas tilt the tide of the state and congressional races despite McCain’s big win in Alabama.

Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. While I did not support him and might disagree with his policies he still the President of the United States and we should all respect him for the office he holds. For the last two decades our political process has gotten really good at personal attacks. I could list numerous ones leveled from both sides of the aisle during this election. Negative campaigning is not necessarily a bad thing but angry hatred for those who disagree with you is not healthy for the country.

A couple of things stand out to me in this election. First, Rasmussen Polls today showed that for the first time in many years both presidential candidates ended this election with an approval rating over 50%. Obama’s approval rating was 56% and John McCain had a national personal approval rating of 55%. That says a lot about the American people and their ability to see through some media’s negative view of everything and look at these two candidates for what they were- two decent people who disagreed philosophically on how to improve our country.

The second thing which I touched on above was the huge turnout across Alabama and the rest of the country. Some estimates put this number at its highest level in three or four decades. As this election moved from the issue of Iraq to Energy to finally the economy the electorate shifted with it and increased their intensity. These shifts have left my side on the short end of the election stick but the process has produced some good debates that should continue after the election.

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Tomorrow’s election promises to have the largest voter turnout since 1992. Some predictions are that Alabama will see a record 80%+ turnout. While I think statistics are going to show that a large number of these new voters are not voting for my party it does not matter. I think with so many things in our state and country going in the wrong direction, increased voter participation is a hopeful sign for everyone. It is a sign that regardless of why you are voting, at least you are taking the time to make your voice heard. As someone involved in politics in both elected and non-elected capacities over the years I might like what those voices have to say but at least they are being heard. This can only be a good thing. Interesting side bar- election turnout is always the highest in years of economic downturns. 1992 was a recession year which produced record turnouts due a third party campaign launched by Ross Perot. In the same vein 1980 was also saw massive numbers of voters go to the polls in response to an economic recession. Two questions remain for tomorrow’s Alabama election turnout. How much of it will be due to young voters increasing their participation and how will this turnout impact down ballot races throughout the state? In the 2004 election, turnout of voters under the age of 26, increased by 9% over the 2000 presidential election. That is larger than any other demographic despite the discounting of the so called youth vote. I predict that tomorrow we will see an 18-20% increase in youth voter turnout over the 2004 election. While I do not know how this impacts tomorrow’s election I think it is safe to say a whole lot more voices are going to be heard in this election than we have ever heard before.

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Last year I spent a great deal of time taking tours of schools throughout the state as part of my work on the Autism Task Force. One of the biggest issues I discovered was the need for more training to assist teachers in working with children who have special needs. Now this lack of training is not because the teacher does not want to get the training it is just that it can be expensive and often they have to travel so far to get the training it is almost impossible.

As the outlook for Alabama’s education budget continues to darken there is a real fear that many of the services that are needed for children with special needs will be neglected. Teacher training is one of biggest areas of concern. So with less money to use on teacher training how do we increase the opportunities for continuing education while not increasing the funding for such programs?

The answer to this problem is not an easy one so we must be creative in our solutions. Alabama’s ACCESS Distance Learning infrastructure, along with the eLearning for Educators project, offers real possibilities for bringing the training programs to the teachers in their homes. While ACCESS was originally designed to teach kids advanced placement (AP) courses in the classroom, I think it can also be used to provide teachers with access to the best practices in teaching throughout the country. Instead of having to get in your car and pay for a costly trip to a training course in a distant city, imagine if you could turn on a computer in your school and receive the latest training from an expert at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Autism Excellence. The teacher would receive continuing education credits for this training and it would cost little if any money to the school systems that use this service.

By August of 2009 Alabama is scheduled to have distance learning technology in every school system. With very lean budgets ahead of our state during these tough economic times we need to take advantage of the information technology and use these programs to expand services without the costs typically involved with such efforts. Teachers should be offered every opportunity to have the tools they need to teach our children, why not take advantage of an inexpensive format to do so?

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