State GOP Fertilizing Grass Roots
The state GOP picked up a “Diversity Chairman” and a “Victory Director” in recent weeks according to releases from the state party.
The party’s Diversity Chairman George Williams, a retired Army Major in Bay Minette, says in the release, “I look forward to working with all minority groups within the state; educating them on the history of the party, the party’s vision for the future and helping tear down the stereotypical walls that have been built around politics in Alabama for too long.”
The party’s new “Victory Director,” Michael Joffrion, started last week. According to that release, “As Victory Director, Michael will be responsible for building the grassroots organization of the ALGOP and managing the get out the vote efforts for the 2008 election cycle. This will include structuring a statewide volunteer organization and managing the voter registration and ballot security programs.”
Joffrion was Field Director for Rudy Giuliani’s Iowa Campaign Committee and most recently served as Political Director for “Charlie Ross for Congress” in Jackson, MS.
FWIW, I have heard from Republicans around the state who opine (and typically in an abrupt change of subject from the topic at hand) that the GOP grassroots efforts around the state are not strong.
One Montgomery insider told the Parlor about the efforts of the Business Council of Alabama to counter grassroots strengths of AEA and ALFA by using local Chambers of Commerce. Though BCA is a major player in Alabama politics, BCA has never been strong in the grassroots, and the business people and professional people involved in local Chambers of Commerce are “typically opposed to AEA and represent the potential for a Republican base, an embryonic grassroots movement.” The BCA effort - initiated by BCA head Bill Canary - can “use the Chamber to communicate with the community and with legislators.”
Don’t they meet some resistance to use the Chambers of Commerce toward this end, I ask? There are a lot of Democrats in these communities and in the Chambers.
“They are not going to be 100% successful in every county, and they are being very sophisticated about it. They are not saying, ‘This is what we are going to use to kick Paul Hubbert’s ass.’ No. It’s an opportunity to participate in BCA, the brotherhood. It’s about jobs. Preserve and protect the brotherhood. You want a local mailing list, a database? Then you want the Chamber. You got contacts. You got troops. Troops to rally.”
AEA has its fundraising and grassroots strength. ALFA, he said, had increased dues to hire John Pudner (Director of External Affairs) to work its grassroots. BCA’s interests are not the same as ALFA or AEA. This “embryonic grassroots movement” is BCA’s effort “to create grassroots pressure to offset the pressure that legislators get from AEA.”
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Give state GOP Chairman Mike Hubbard his due; he began his tenure as party Chair with the party in debt after the 2006 elections and has done yeoman’s work in getting the state party ready for the 2010 election cycle. Campaign 2010 had a goal of raising $4 million in 4 years. Four months into the effort the party has impressively hit its goal and received $4 million in pledges. Hubbard aims now to raise $7 million by 2010. The Press-Register 
The Parlor is hearing from both sides of the aisle that state Sen. Tom Butler (D - Madison) was quite unhappy that Senate Minority Leader Jabo Waggoner (R - Vestavia Hills) was in front of the story about Butler’s potential party-switch and Congressional candidacy. One GOP insider told me at the time Waggoner’s remarks 
By then, King’s tantrums had worn out those around him, people close to the event tell the Parlor. Perhaps he wanted the film crew (for future campaign ads?) to get shots of him addressing the large crowd. In the end, U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, the campaign’s Southeastern United States Congressional Chair, and not King, introduced Cindy McCain who introduced the Senator. (An aside: Tuscaloosa businessman and GOP gadfly Stan Pate heckled Bachus when the introduction ran long.)
So why is McCain the best choice for Alabama Republicans? He is not without his own strengths, but let’s start with the shortcomings of his opponents.
So that disqualifies everyone but McCain. However, McCain is not without his own merits. Despite what many of the conservative elite say (Rush Limbaugh, NRO) McCain is a conservative. The issues where he’s been a maverick are on process issues like campaign-finance reform and judges. And while he went off the reservation out of personal pique at the start of the Bush administration, he buried the hatchet with W in 2004 and has talked a pretty conservative game while running for President. While some may grumble, McCain is conservative enough to secure the GOP base vote in 2008, even if he isn’t quite a John Ashcroft Republican. In fact, McCain may be the only Republican who will be able to keep the base satisfied while reaching out to moderate Republicans, independents, and conservative Dems to build a winning nationwide coalition.
The Alabama supporters of Barack Obama, most notably Congressman Artur Davis, have made their decisions based on a similar calculus. Many Alabama Obama supporters have known the Illinois Senator for several years and others want to be part of an historic campaign finally breaking through the wall of race that has been an obstacle to many capable black leaders.
The issue is deeper than just one candidate though. Democrats in Red States have been fighting an uphill battle for a generation. While many red-state Dems survive, they are the exception rather than the rule and their survival has been perpetually endangered by the direction of the national party. A Clinton nomination is more of the same political game, with Democrats in red states having to downplay and distance themselves from their party’s nominee. Barack Obama offers a hope (even if it is only rhetorical) that the red-blue/liberal-conservative divide that has shaped the politics of the Clinton/Bush era will be no more, perhaps pushing the reset button on the body politic and giving red state Democrats a fresh start without the baggage of the politics of division and polarization that have plagued red state Dems for two decades.
“It’s not just money that we will be giving the candidates [in 2010]. We will be actively involved in campaigns, helping them be effective and efficient. Helping with mail, radio, polling, consultants. By combining like this, we’ll be able to benefit from economies of scale. Instead of paying for one poll at a time, we can go in and say, ‘We want 15 polls’ and get a better rate.
The statement from the state Democratic Party on Holley’s switch says, “The Democratic Party did not leave Holley. Holley left the Democratic Party.” And there is some merit to that. Sen. Jimmy Holley was no DINO (Democrat In Name Only) even though he was one of the so-called dissident Democrats to caucus with Senate Republicans for a couple of years now. 
Already unhappy enough with the Senate Democrats to caucus with the Republicans, Holley was no doubt affronted that other Democratic Senators funded primary challengers in 2006 against himself and other dissident Democrats. (Dissident Democratic Senator Gerald Dial was ousted by Kim Benefield in the primary that year.) Still, however, Holley was endorsed by the Alabama Democratic Conference (
The Parlor has heard this sentence finished with conviction in two different ways: “Bobby Bright is running as a…”
The Alabama House Republican Caucus concluded a two-day retreat today. The annual event is intended to build some unity in the group and doesn’t particularly generate big news. Though the caucus’s legislative agenda will not be set until January, the Parlor hears that caucus members did agree that illegal immigration was the biggest issue facing Alabama right now. There was also near-unanimous support for ending annual reappraisals of property taxes.
Rep. Alvin Holmes made no bones in the article about his belief that Obama is not electable. 
(R) Jeff Sessions (1-19)
(D) Vivian Figures (33-1)
(D) Artur Davis (1-49)
(R) Mike Hubbard (13-1)
(?) David Bronner (OFF)