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

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.

An excerpt:

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.

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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.

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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.

NBC13.com:

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.

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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.

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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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Barry Stephenson, Jefferson County treasurer, stepped down last week “to become the deputy director of the Jefferson County Board of Registrars.”

Democrat Jennifer Champion confirms a rumor heard here when she tells the Parlor, “I am definitely going to run for Jefferson County Treasurer” this year.

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Catching up on a story that the Parlor has been watching with interest…

Birmingham News last week:

A three-judge federal panel has ruled that Gov. Bob Riley needed Justice Department approval before naming a replacement to the Jefferson County Commission, but the judges did not immediately remove the governor’s appointee.

Riley has lost a similar case in Mobile, pending appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Riley’s appeal on the Mobile case in March.

Riley’s appointee to the Jefferson County seat, George Bowman, must step down Feb. 5, the day of the special election, unless Riley appeals. If Riley appeals and Bowman does not win the special election, Jefferson County could have two county commissioners filling one seat until the appeal is heard. (There are our two trains going down two tracks.)

Candidates for the Feb. 5 special election are Birmingham City Councilman William Bell along with

Orville Ifill, former Jefferson County Commission public information officer; George Bowman, who was appointed in December by Gov. Bob Riley to fill the seat vacated by Larry Langford, now the Birmingham mayor; Fred “Coach” Plump of Fairfield, a retired Birmingham firefighter; Kamau Afrika, a political consultant; and real estate agent and former state Rep. Eric Major.

Edward Still is an attorney for the plaintiff in the case that brought the ruling, and he has related court documents available here and here.

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Catching up in a busy week...

Birmingham Mayoral runner-up Patrick Cooper this week dropped his legal challenge to Larry Langford’s election in October. The state Supreme Court was slated to hear the challenge that Langford did not meet the residency requirements to appear on the ballot. Two months ago an elections lawyer told us that in the unlikely event that Cooper won the challenge, there was “no chance” Langford would be disqualified from a subsequent do-over if he met the requirements by then - which he would, of course.

Langford said this week that he believes he is the target of a criminal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. I guess their subpoena of all those financial records of his back in August might have been a tip-off.

Langford went down to Miami last week to not testify to the SEC. That is to say that he (and Bill Blount) answered a subpoena by appearing but claimed some unspecified legal privilege that excused them from answering questions. But it was not the Fifth Amendment. No, no, they were not claiming protection under the Fifth Amendment.

Birmingham News yesterday:

It led to goofy exchanges between attorneys for both sides, with the SEC at one point asking if Blount’s lawyer Bill Baxley was arguing protection under the Constitution’s Second Amendment. “All of them,” Baxley responded.

Obviously - and Langford’s lawyer Mike Rasmussen made this clear - neither, in answering specific questions, wanted to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. “And there’s nothing the press or his political enemies would like more than to say Larry Langford took the Fifth, all right?” Rasmussen said.

This may be supplanting the story that Jefferson County could have two commissioners claiming one seat as the current Parlor favorite to watch in Alabama local politics.

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Sid Browning, Supervisor of Elections for Jefferson County, told the Parlor this week that the county is preparing to hold a special election on February 5th though the Governor has already appointed a replacement to fill the vacated County Commission seat. Larry Langford created the vacancy when he left the commission after winning the Birmingham mayor’s race. Governor Bob Riley has already appointed George Bowman to serve in the seat, but his authority to do that is being challenged in court by Fairfield resident Fred Plump.

The Jefferson County Election Commission “would be remiss not to prepare for the election” given the 1977 Act that, in the Commission’s understanding, calls for an election to replace Langford, said Browning. A 2004 law authorizes the governor to fill county commission vacancies by appointment but excludes counties, such as Jefferson, with their own rules for special election. Riley’s administration claims that the 2004 law voids the 1977 law that specifies Jefferson County fills vacancies with elections.

The Riley administration has lost a similar case in Mobile County pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Browning told the Parlor that he sees no substantive difference between the Mobile County and Jefferson County cases.

So after the election, could we have two people claiming to be the rightful Commissioner? “Well, right now we have two trains going down two tracks. We hope Plump v. Riley will settle it before then. And if [Riley’s appointee] Bowman wins the election, then all this becomes moot.” But if we have two Commissioners showing up to work in the one seat? “It’s not an extremely clear section of law.” The Supreme Court case, scheduled to be heard in March, could be used to inform the Jefferson County situation. And, Browning added, another possibility is that Riley or someone on his behalf could seek an injunction to stop the Feb. 5 election.

“It’s a grey area.”

Attorney Ed Still has the pleadings and briefs for the Mobile County and Jefferson County cases on his site.

Bowman has indicated that he intends to run for the seat as a Democrat. Orville Ifill of the Storm Water Management Authority and former county staff lobbyist is eyeing the seat also. The qualifying deadline is 21 days before the election.

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