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Alabama Scene
Ironically, Drayton Nabers, the Republican incumbent who lost his seat, was the biggest fund-raiser and spender. His final report showed he raised $4.1 million. Democrat Sue Bell Cobb, who won the race, reported taking in $2.1 million. Justice Tom Parker, who challenged Nabers in the GOP primary, reported he raised $641,088. Be certain these numbers ignited yet another demand to change the way Alabama's judges are elected. While the CJ race was setting a new record for spending, such was not the case in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Gov. Bob Riley, who won a second term, reported spending a whopping $12.9 million…but this almost $1 million less than he spent in 2002. Riley's Democratic challenger last year, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, didn't come close to keeping pace with Riley in raising and spending money. She reported she spent $4 million in her unsuccessful campaign… The news media in Montgomery, print and broadcast, have taken a sad stroll down memory lane the past few days…remembering the most tragic day in the city's history…the horrific fire that destroyed Dale's Penthouse restaurant and claimed 26 lives. It was on Feb. 7, 1967…forty years ago…that the fire swept through the posh, upscale restaurant atop what was then Walter Bragg Smith Apartments. For years it had been a favorite dining room and "watering hole" for politicians, business execs, high society of Montgomery. After months of painstaking investigation it was concluded that the fire had started in a cloak room where patrons had left their coats on the cold February night. It was presumed but never confirmed that perhaps a lighted pipe left in one of the coats started the blaze. Tragically, the cloak room was next to the stairwell and the elevator…effectively blocking the only exits out of the restaurant. One of the victims was Ed Pepper and his wife. He was widely prominent in state politics, having served as assistant state finance director and later as a member of the Alabama Public Service Commission. While the fire ranks as the worst tragedy in Montgomery history in terms of lives lost, there have been countless other disasters in Alabama that claimed far more lives. The worst: Train accident near Mobile in 1992 which killed 47; a mine explosion in community of Littleton in 1911 which claimed 128 lives; and a series of tornadoes which swept across Alabama on March 21, 1932 which killed 258 Alabamians…. Should killers on Death Row at Atmore Prison have the right to sell works of art that appear to depict their victims? Atty. Gen. Troy King doesn't think so and he has launched an investigation to put a stop to it. Paintings by two inmates on Death Row, Jack Trawick and Daniel Siebert…have been posted on internet auction sites. The Birmingham News reported that sketches of mutilated bodies of young women have appeared on the website. Both men were sentenced to death for murdering young women. Also posted on the internet was a letter from Trawick in which he describes in detail how he would torture and murder pop music star Britney Spears. Be sure these sketches have provoked anger and anguish to the families of the victims of the two men… The name will mean little to most of you but it will mean a lot to a long list of candidates…state and legislative…who used his services. George Burger, a political consultant who worked in a number of campaigns in Alabama, died unexpectedly a few days ago of meningitis. He was only 50.
For a number of years he was a consultant for the Business Council of Alabama and was heavily involved in several judicial and legislative campaigns. He left politics in 2005 to become vice president for special events with the Professional Golfers Association.
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