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Alabama Scene
Predictably the chairs of both parties, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh of the Republican Party and Joe Turnham of the Democratic Party both claimed victory but the truth is this was as close to a break-even election as we have had. Consider these numbers: There are 29 offices elected statewide in Alabama...24 are presently held by Republicans, 5 by Democrats. That is precisely what it will be when the new terms begin in January. There has been only one Democrat filling one of the 19 seats on the state appellate courts...come next January there will still be only one Democrat sitting on a state court bench. The Democrats went into the election holding a 63-42 edge in the State House of Representatives and that is exactly the majority they will hold in the next administration. Only in the Senate was there a very slight change. The Republicans picked up two seats but they still are in the minority by 23-12 margin. The Democrats have reason to be encouraged by the election results in one regard....they stopped the bleeding. For almost two decades there had been a steady increase in the number of Republicans winning state offices and legislative seats. If nothing election, the election proved that Alabama voters don't know the meaning of party loyalty. Never has there been so much ticket-splitting as there was last Tuesday. Gov. Bob Riley as expected won by a landslide in winning re-election, but Democrat Jim Folsom, a Democrat was elected lieutenant governor. Democrat Sue Bell Cobb won the top judicial prize of chief justice but Troy King, a Republican, was elected attorney general. Certainly Cobb's victory...making her the first woman to be elected chief justice...deserved top billing after the votes were counted. Her heated battle with incumbent CJ Drayton Nabers not only set a record for campaign spending, but their TV war featured mud-slinging spots which some would say were unbecoming for a race for Chief Justice. An interesting footnote to that: After it was all over both Judge Cobb and countless other political/advertising pros agreed that her "This Little Light of Mine" commercial...a faith-based, squeaky clean ad... very probably was the deciding factor in the race.(It was the best political ad I have seen since Charlie Graddick slammed that prison cell door in his successful race for Attorney General in 1978.) Perhaps the biggest surprise was the Folsom-Luther Strange race for lieutenant governor. Strange had burst on the scene last January, a total unknown, but thanks to an incredibly effective TV campaign he overwhelmed George Wallace Jr. in the GOP primary. In mid-summer he was considered an overwhelming favorite to defeat Folsom. But for some inexplicable reason Strange waited until late in the summer to launch his General Election TV campaign. Folsom went on the air early with a warm and fuzzy spot talking his family, his love for hunting and his church attendance...he got the "mo", as they say in football...and he never lost it. Predictably in a state where the race for governor never ends, hours after Riley had been declared the winner and Lt. Gov. Lucy Basley had conceded defeat, the speculation began on who would the leading candidate for governor in 2010. With Gov. Riley required to vacate the office after two terms in office, the field is wide open. Of course Jim Folsom, a former governor, topped the list as a likely Democrat nominee in 2010 but Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks...after winning a landslide bid for reelection...quickly said to all who would listen that he too would very much like to be governor. Even the name of Chief Justice-elect Cobb has been dropped into the mix. Had Republican Luther Strange won the race for lieutenant governor he would surely have been a leading contender for that party's nomination but that talk quickly ended with his loss to Folsom. With Strange out of the picture, there is no real stickout among possible Republican contenders. But you can be sure by 2010 there will be no shortage of GOPers who will feel the office should be theirs. In the weeks leading up to Inauguration Day you can be sure the top story will be the sure-to-come fight in the State Senate over the all-powerful position of president pro tem. In fact less than 48 hours after the election six Democratic senators indicated they hoped to form a coalition with the 12 Republicans to oust Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, as the president pro tem. This battle...if it develops...could get as dirty as some of the campaigns just concluded but happily it will not fill the TV airwaves with commercials.
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