The Birmingham Mayor claims a Birmingham residence as his primary home, but Birmingham Weekly’s Kyle Whitmire is not so sure. He makes five early morning visits to Larry Langford’s other home in Fairfield. Care to guess how many times out of the five visits he finds the Mayor’s car there? Hint: more than four.
Over at the Post, there is an interview with Cherokee County Superintendent Brian Johnson which can serve as a proxy for school superintendents statewide.
There is still much uncertainty over how many teaching jobs will be saved by the economic stimulus package and the need for more cuts in spending.
A good quote from Superintendent Johnson:
“I think a misconception is that this stimulus money is going to take care of all of our needs, and that is not the case,” he said.
Across the state, some systems have made cuts and entered the perilous waters of school consolidation.
Would not be surprising to see school consolidation come up in the legislature as public resistance to closing their school takes root. Might also see a few superintendents either making rock soup or deciding on a career change.
Todd Strange was able to parlay his impressive financial advantage (easily over seven times more money raised than fundraising runner-up Michael Briddell at $502,195 to $64,504 in the last pre-election report) into a victory with no run-off over five other candidates in today’s special election for Mayor of Montgomery.
The Republican County Commission Chairman garnered 52.9% of the vote. Briddell, who served as executive assistant to previous mayor Bobby Bright, also finished second in the votes department at 32.8%.
I gather, at least anecdotally, that the race to replace Bobby Bright as mayor of our capitol city is not engaging many folks.
The main question appears to be whether frontrunner Todd Strange can possibly get enough votes today in a 6 person field to avoid a runoff.
Lost in Montgomery has a take here, the Montgomery Independent looks at the candidates here (thanks to Left in Alabama for the links), and you can see the Montgomery Advertiser’s coverage here (thanks to Lost in Montgomery for the link).
The Caputo Report has the story that the entire Jefferson County House delegation is co-sponsoring the bill from Rep. Paul DeMarco (R - Homewood) to provide a county manager for Jefferson County.
Eight candidates have filed to run in our capital city mayor’s race. Byron Berry, Jamel Brown, Michael Briddell, Willie Cook, Jon Dow, Jay King, Scott Simmons and Todd Strange turned in the paperwork, but Berry and Brown may not have the 340 certifiable signatures of Montgomery voters required to qualify.
In reports filed Monday, Todd Strange has raised over $309,000. Michael Briddell is a distant second in fundraising at $10,600. Former Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright has endorsed his Briddell, his former executive assistant, to be his successor, but fundraising advantages like that allow Strange to jump on the air first with ads like these two.
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Montgomery County Commission Chair Todd Strange announced last week his intention to run for mayor of Montgomery. He has raised over $100,000 already.
According to the Montgomery Advertiser:
Strange said he wants to keep the campaign positive, which is one reason he hired the same team of people who worked with [outgoing Mayor Bobby] Bright during his congressional campaign. He said he wants his mayoral campaign to have the same tenor.
He may have gotten Bobby Bright’s team, but he didn’t get Bobby Bright. Bobby Bright is backing Michael Briddell, Bright’s executive assistant, for the job.
The 101 count federal indictment of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, William Blount, and lobbyist Albert LaPierre includes charges of “conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns in connection with a long-running bribery scheme related to bond and other financial transactions of Jefferson County, Alabama,” according to U.S. Attorney Alice Martin in a press conference just now.
The indictment was unsealed this morning, and you may read it here.
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The big story out of Birmingham this morning is the arrest of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford on federal charges. The rumor mill has wondered when something like this would happen, and Langford has been said to be “lawyered up” for some time now. A Birmingham wag wants to know if they arrested him at his home in Fairfield. (Birmingham Weekly’s site is reporting that he was arrested at Birmingham Budweiser, “where he has served as a public relations executive in the past.”)
A Birmingham politico tells the Parlor that Langford may continue as mayor until/unless he is convicted. If that happened, City Council President Carole Smitherman would become mayor for three months or until the next scheduled election, whichever comes first.
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Here is a map of the data I presented here last week.
The darker the purple, the greater the percentage increase in the number of votes cast for president in 2008 compared to 2004. Grey indicates that fewer votes were cast in 2008 compared to 2004.
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Here is the map of which counties voted more Democratic or Republican for president in 2008 than in 2004, from the NY Times. This is a visual representation of the same info I presented last week (here and here) though we used slightly different methods of getting there so there are small differences at work.
This information and tons of other interesting data are available at this interactive map at the New York Times website.
One note about my lists of Alabama counties voting more Republican and voting more Democratic: I noticed after the fact that I was missing Calhoun and St. Clair Counties from both lists. Turns out that neither went Democratic or Republican in greater percentages in 2008 than in 2004.
Calhoun voted 33.3% for Kerry and 65.9% for Bush. It voted 33.2% for Obama and 65.8% for McCain. St. Clair voted 18.7% for Kerry and 80.6% for Bush, and it voted 17.7% for Obama and 80.1% for Bush. (And both had increases in votes for “other.”) That’s why neither one sorted out in my spreadsheet as voting more Democratic or more Republican.
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What Alabama counties had the largest increase in voters for President from 2004 to 2008? What counties had fewer voters in 2008 than in 2004?
Here’s the complete list based on 2004 data from the Secretary of State website and 2008 data from USA Today.
Here are the Alabama counties whose voters voted Republican for President in greater percentage in 2008 than in 2004 (plus one county with no change) - in order from largest change in percentage to smallest.
| 2004 | 2008 | GOP | |||
| County | % Kerry | % Bush | % Obama | % McCain | Difference |
| Jackson | 42.5% | 56.8% | 30.7% | 67.7% | 11.0% |
| Cherokee | 33.6% | 65.5% | 23.7% | 75.0% | 9.6% |
| Lawrence | 44.0% | 55.2% | 35.3% | 63.4% | 8.2% |
| Marion | 29.6% | 69.8% | 21.1% | 77.4% | 7.6% |
| Franklin | 36.8% | 62.7% | 29.7% | 69.0% | 6.3% |
| Cullman | 22.9% | 76.2% | 16.6% | 82.1% | 5.9% |
| Lamar | 28.4% | 71.1% | 22.8% | 76.6% | 5.5% |
| Marshall | 26.8% | 72.3% | 21.3% | 77.8% | 5.4% |
| Etowah | 35.9% | 63.3% | 30.2% | 68.6% | 5.3% |
| DeKalb | 29.4% | 70.0% | 23.7% | 75.2% | 5.1% |
| Walker | 31.8% | 67.6% | 26.0% | 72.7% | 5.1% |
| Cleburne | 24.0% | 75.4% | 18.0% | 80.5% | 5.1% |
| Fayette | 30.1% | 69.2% | 25.0% | 74.0% | 4.8% |
| Colbert | 44.3% | 55.1% | 39.2% | 59.6% | 4.5% |
| Lauderdale | 39.4% | 59.7% | 35.1% | 63.4% | 3.6% |
| Blount | 18.3% | 80.9% | 14.6% | 84.2% | 3.4% |
| Clay | 28.8% | 70.3% | 25.6% | 73.5% | 3.2% |
| Washington | 38.1% | 61.4% | 35.0% | 64.5% | 3.2% |
| Winston | 21.5% | 78.0% | 17.6% | 81.0% | 3.0% |
| Covington | 23.4% | 76.0% | 20.5% | 78.9% | 2.9% |
| Limestone | 31.4% | 67.8% | 28.5% | 70.5% | 2.7% |
| Morgan | 30.1% | 69.1% | 27.6% | 71.5% | 2.4% |
| Chilton | 22.6% | 76.9% | 20.7% | 78.6% | 1.8% |
| Geneva | 20.1% | 79.3% | 18.3% | 80.9% | 1.6% |
| Randolph | 31.3% | 68.1% | 29.6% | 69.2% | 1.1% |
| Bibb | 27.5% | 72.0% | 26.6% | 72.6% | 0.6% |
| Coosa | 41.1% | 58.1% | 40.9% | 58.4% | 0.3% |
| Coffee | 25.4% | 73.9% | 25.2% | 74.2% | 0.3% |
| Crenshaw | 30.9% | 68.7% | 30.9% | 68.7% | 0.0% |
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Here are the Alabama counties whose voters voted Democratic for President in greater percentage in 2008 than in 2004 (plus one county with no change) - in order from highest change in percentage to lowest.
| 2004 | 2008 | Dem | |||
| County | % Kerry | % Bush | % Obama | % McCain | Difference |
| Montgomery | 50.4% | 49.2% | 59.4% | 40.2% | 9.0% |
| Jefferson | 45.2% | 54.2% | 52.1% | 47.3% | 7.0% |
| Dallas | 60.2% | 39.5% | 67.1% | 32.6% | 6.9% |
| Monroe | 38.5% | 61.2% | 44.7% | 54.9% | 6.3% |
| Bullock | 68.1% | 31.7% | 74.1% | 25.7% | 6.0% |
| Pike | 36.5% | 63.0% | 42.1% | 57.4% | 5.7% |
| Mobile | 40.7% | 58.7% | 45.3% | 54.1% | 4.7% |
| Escambia | 30.8% | 68.7% | 35.4% | 64.0% | 4.6% |
| Lowndes | 70.3% | 29.7% | 74.9% | 24.8% | 4.6% |
| Sumter | 70.4% | 29.2% | 74.9% | 24.7% | 4.6% |
| Chambers | 41.0% | 58.5% | 45.5% | 54.0% | 4.4% |
| Conecuh | 45.2% | 54.3% | 49.3% | 50.1% | 4.2% |
| Barbour | 44.8% | 54.7% | 49.0% | 50.5% | 4.2% |
| Shelby | 18.8% | 80.4% | 22.9% | 76.8% | 4.1% |
| Perry | 68.2% | 31.5% | 72.3% | 27.4% | 4.1% |
| Houston | 25.3% | 74.2% | 29.3% | 70.2% | 4.0% |
| Macon | 82.9% | 16.7% | 86.9% | 12.8% | 4.0% |
| Greene | 79.3% | 20.2% | 83.2% | 16.5% | 3.9% |
| Tuscaloosa | 37.9% | 61.4% | 41.6% | 57.7% | 3.8% |
| Russell | 49.8% | 49.6% | 53.4% | 46.1% | 3.5% |
| Wilcox | 67.5% | 32.3% | 71.0% | 28.8% | 3.5% |
| Clarke | 40.6% | 59.1% | 44.0% | 55.6% | 3.4% |
| Lee | 36.4% | 62.7% | 39.6% | 59.5% | 3.3% |
| Marengo | 48.8% | 50.9% | 51.7% | 48.1% | 2.9% |
| Pickens | 42.9% | 56.6% | 45.7% | 54.0% | 2.8% |
| Dale | 24.6% | 74.7% | 27.3% | 72.0% | 2.7% |
| Butler | 40.6% | 59.2% | 43.1% | 56.5% | 2.6% |
| Hale | 58.3% | 41.3% | 60.7% | 39.0% | 2.4% |
| Talladega | 38.0% | 61.3% | 40.3% | 58.9% | 2.3% |
| Autauga | 23.7% | 75.7% | 25.8% | 73.7% | 2.1% |
| Madison | 40.2% | 58.9% | 42.0% | 57.0% | 1.9% |
| Elmore | 22.6% | 76.9% | 24.2% | 75.2% | 1.6% |
| Henry | 33.3% | 66.3% | 34.8% | 64.7% | 1.5% |
| Baldwin | 22.5% | 76.4% | 23.8% | 75.4% | 1.3% |
| Tallapoosa | 30.4% | 69.0% | 31.5% | 68.0% | 1.1% |
| Choctaw | 45.7% | 53.9% | 46.1% | 53.6% | 0.4% |
| Crenshaw | 30.9% | 68.7% | 30.9% | 68.7% | 0.0% |
The 2004 numbers are from the website of the Secretary of State. The 2008 numbers are from USA Today.
If someone wants to see the spreadsheet that put this together, let me know, and I’ll try to put it into presentable shape.
What insights, if any, are to be gleaned from this?
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In Monroeville, The Monroe Journal, reports an election contest were an explanation of a dead woman’s vote is sought.
The Gadsden Times tells us of efforts both major parties are taking to secure the election. A fund raising round to the support the work will no doubt be coming.
In Hamilton Crossroads, the Troy Messenger tells us the tale of Direct Mail Get Out The Vote gone to the dogs.
I have been out of the saddle here for longer than I like, and there is a lot of news to catch up on.
If you have not been keeping with the Jefferson County sewer fiasco with the potential for what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history, get a good overview with this story today from Fortune magazine at cnnmoney.com.
From the end of the article (should I offer a spoiler alert?): “…here’s the bottom line: $190 million a year in gross sewer revenues chasing $460 million a year in debt service. The numbers don’t add up.”
Following up on this post, “Parties in Heated Battle in Jefferson County,” Judge Alan King has ruled that the current Bessemer Division Tax Assessor, Republican Andrew Smith, will not appear on the ballot for the election to fill the unexpired term. The Republicans’ next option is to file a mandamus action in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
See the judge’s decision here. The Birmingham News has a story here.
This post will be a lot more interesting if you read the earlier post.
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There is a confusing story in Jefferson County that is turning into a pitched battle between county Democrats and Republicans.
Seems that about 18 months ago, Republican Andy Smith was appointed by Gov. Riley to fill an unexpired term as Bessemer Division Tax Assessor. That term ends Sept. 30, 2009. There is an election for the seat in this November’s general election.
Here is where it gets confusing:
A 1957 state law that applies only to Jefferson County requires political appointees to run for the unexpired term of their predecessor if the appointment was made more than six months before the next general election.
To keep the seat without interruption, not only does Andy Smith have to qualify for and win the election for the term that begins in 2009, he also has to win the election for the remainder of the unexpired term. For which he did not file qualifying papers.
Democrat Ron Yarbrough alone did, though he chose not to qualify for the election to the subsequent term beginning in October, 2009. Andy Smith and Democrat Andrew Bennett both qualified for the term beginning in October, 2009.
So even if Smith wins the November general election, he will have to step down from his current position until October, 2009, when he would resume it. Ron Yarbrough will serve in the interim, barring a successful write-in campaign.
Smith said that “he was told by the county Republican Party office that he didn’t have to qualify for the unexpired term. ‘I told them three times that I had to run twice, but they said I didn’t.’”
So on to court!
The Jefferson County GOP has filed a petition (available here in a .pdf file) to place Smith’s name on the ballot for the election for the unexpired term or to determine that the election for the unexpired term “not be had.”
The Jefferson County Democrats have filed an opposition to that petition. (The Democrats’ opposition is available here in a .pdf file.)
For what it’s worth, a similar situation occurred in 2002, and both parties’ candidates understood to qualify twice. The 2002 general election ballot listed the Assistant Tax Collector candidates (Grover Dunn and Phillip James) twice - once for the unexpired term and again for the full term.
Country Crossing in a proposed project in Houston County designed to have electronic bingo.
State Sen. Harri Anne Smith (R - Slocomb) introduced legislation less than two weeks ago to allow voters to decide in November whether they want electronic bingo in the county. Electronic bingo is allowed under current law.
Today, she holds a press conference in which she reads a prepared statement.
Since I introduced this bill, I have heard from hundreds of people from all walks of life. In the newspaper, on the internet, by phone, on radio and TV and on the street, the good, solid citizens of our community have let me know in no uncertain terms how strongly they feel about this issue.
The consensus is obvious to me. A majority of the people of Houston County clearly want the Country Crossing development to move forward because of what they believe it will mean to this area in terms of jobs and economic development.
For that reason, I have today contacted the Senate committee chairman and asked that my bill be stopped, permanently.
And she took no questions.
Her handling of this will not be her finest moment in the campaign for the 2nd Congressional District seat. The introduction of the bill and its withdrawal suggest that she wanted to sail in the flagship position on the issue but had difficulty knowing which way the wind was blowing.
While Jefferson County officials lay the groundwork “for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history,” The Washington Post reports that the District of Columbia and others are facing this type of fiscal crunch: “…scores of municipalities, schools, hospitals and even museums are now facing soaring interest payments on unconventional bonds that proved too good to be true.”
Many of those affected are small bodies, but even prominent institutions — such as Georgetown University, Carnegie Hall, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — have felt the impact. The surge in the cost of these [auction-rate securities] is the primary way taxpayers are being burdened by Wall Street’s credit meltdown.
Too good to be true, indeed. When you have been suckered, it’s a fleeting and bittersweet solace to know there have been others.
What good stories or observations do you have now that the qualifying period is over?
I see that John Amari, once a former Democrat, is now a former Republican as he has qualified as a Democratic candidate for Jefferson County District Court Judge. Amari was elected to the state House as a Democrat, served as a Republican state Senator, and ran unsuccessfully for Public Service Commissioner as a Republican (losing in the primary to Perry Hooper in 2006).
Speaking of former Democrats who are becoming former Republicans, I see that J.T. Smallwood has qualified (as many expected) for re-election as Jefferson County Tax Collector as a Democrat. Smallwood was elected to his current term as a Democrat, but held a press conference in 2006 to announce he was switching to the Republican Party and subsequently ran for the state GOP Executive Committee.
Gaynelle Hendricks has qualified to challenge Jefferson County Tax Assessor Dan Weinrib in the Democratic primary. Hendricks is the wife of former Birmingham City Councilor Elias Hendricks; she lost a contentious primary battle with Patricia Todd for the House District 54 seat in a challenge that had to be decided by the State Democratic Executive Committee.
Update: With a reader’s help, corrected some details in the third paragraph.
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When you wonder just how the news out of Birmingham will get any weirder, this week comes the Bob Beamon of stories that shatters the current standard. It involves a civil lawsuit and federal scrutiny of “$1 million in taxpayer money” related to “a charity Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford created more than seven years ago to give every child a computer.”
And while this part is interesting…
The civil lawsuit filed by HealthSouth Corp., which donated money and computers, questions why the first computer charity gave Langford money, paid for casino trips and handed out donated computers to friends and politicians.
…it’s the payment to the adult film star to “repair computers” that gets people’s attention.
The Birmingham News has an update today.
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Following up on the matter of the suit challenging the constitutionality of the recent special election in District 1 of the Jefferson County Commission…
The state Supreme Court issued a unanimous order (available here in pdf file) returning the case to Judge Scott Vowell for a hearing on “the merits,” considering whether the Local Act is constitutional and whether that statute actually permits piggybacking the county special election onto a presidential preference primary as it was on Feb. 5.
The injunction blocking certification of the election results remains in place.
The dispute is over the seat vacated by Larry Langford when he won election as mayor of Birmingham. At that time, Gov. Bob Riley appointed George Bowman to fill the seat.
But county residents disputed that move and sued, citing a local law calling for an election. That vote was held Feb. 5, with William Bell coming out on top.
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Last we left the situation with the Jefferson County Commission, we had one Commissioner for District 1 (George Bowman) appointed by Gov. Bob Riley and another (William Bell) elected on Feb. 5 with a pending lawsuit challenging Riley’s authority to fill the vacant spot by appointment.
Since then, Bowman has said he will resign upon certification of the election results (scheduled for today), but - not so fast - the state Supreme Court has blocked certification of the results because of an unrelated lawsuit that has nothing to do with the issue of whether Riley has authority to appoint Bowman.
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Birmingham Weekly has very interesting reading in its cover story regarding a transcript of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford’s appearance before the SEC (an earlier appearance than the one mentioned here).
The transcript itself is available from this page at the Birmingham Weekly.
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Marshall County Commissioner Buddy Allen (District 3) of Albertville will announce at 10 this morning that he is switching to the Republican Party, state GOP Communication Director Philip Bryan tells the Political Parlor. This will give Republicans a majority on the five-member board.
John Archibald tells the story of how Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford had media folks on his campaign payroll, and how some of the players aren’t so eager to talk about it.
Hat tip to Kathy at Birmingham Blues.
Birmingham City Councilor William Bell was elected without a runoff in a six-person race for the Jefferson County Commission District 1 seat vacated by Larry Langford.
A federal panel has ruled that Gov. Bob Riley needed Justice Department approval before appointing current commissioner George Bowman to the empty seat.
The election [yesterday] came hours after Gov. Bob Riley notified a three-judge federal panel that he will seek federal approval of his appointment of George Bowman to the seat.
That action will extend Bowman’s term in the District 1 seat at least to mid-April. And that means both Bell and Bowman, a retired two-star general, could stake claims as the District 1 representative until a court rules which of the two will occupy the seat.
Two men in one seat; there are our “two trains going down two tracks.”
And of course if Riley successfully secures federal approval for his appointment then Bowman stays on.
Plus, there’s the U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected on a similar case in Mobile which could, if favorable to the Governor, be used to affirm Riley’s authority to appoint.
And even if Bowman doesn’t stay on, this election may possibly not be certified.
But Bell won. Something.
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There is another suit regarding today’s special election for the Jefferson County Commission to fill the vacancy created when Larry Langford was elected Mayor of Birmingham. It’s actually kind of interesting.
The suit seeks to prohibit certifying the results of today’s special election in Jefferson County and to enjoin holding any run-off.
Walter Braswell, an attorney for the plaintiff Patricia Working, took some time to spell it out for me.
Here it is in a nutshell… Jefferson County decided to save some money by holding the election at the same time as the primary. If they get lucky, there won’t be a run-off and they have saved the cost of holding a special election by itself. A procedural concern is that this position is meant to be determined by a partisan election, but in this election the six candidates are listed with no party. The two top vote-getters could be in a run-off to see who holds the office, but without regard for party and the typical process.
Braswell outlined a scenario to illustrate. Say that a county is 70% Democratic and 10 people run for the office, 8 Democrats and 2 Republicans. With the election held as it is today with all the candidates listed on one ballot, the 8 Democrats could fracture the Democratic vote so that the two Republicans would be the top two vote-getters. The two Republicans would face each other in one last run-off, even though that county is 70% Democratic.
Dr. Working is challenging the constitutionality of the election being held in this manner. “It’s bad practice,” Braswell said. “We don’t want to see this precedent. All Dr. Working is asking for is that the law, which is very precise, actually be followed, and voters get the information and choices to which they are entitled. What a concept!”
Braswell hoped Judge Scott Vowell would be persuaded to rule before the election was complete, saying that any decision, for or against, made after the election would be seen as favoring one candidate or another. “A ruling now is pristine, not influenced by the voter’s choice.”
Another concern is that this presidential primary is not an appropriate time for a special election. “Who would turn out for a run-off? A minuscule fraction of the people who turned out for the first election. They have guaranteed the largest possible turnout for the first stage of the election, and the smallest possible turnout for any run-off.”
Their inclination is to pursue an expedited appeal with the state Supreme Court.
“How hard can this be?” Braswell asks. “It’s filling an elected position.”
Attorney Ed Still has related court document on his blog Votelaw.
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