Lt. Gov. won't get new powers
By Staff
Bob Ingram, Alabama Scene
MONTGOMERY–What better time for a lot of political leftovers than the week after Thanksgiving…
Lt. Gov-elect Lucy Baxley says she would like to the see the Senate return to her office some of the powers it stripped from Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Windom four years ago.
Fat chance.
It would be a bad bet to put any money on the liklihood of the likes of Sens. Lowell Barron, Hank Sanders and a few others of surrendering the power they enjoyed during the past four years.
Because Baxley is a Democrat, the Senate may give her a bone or two…but they won't have much meat on them.
Johnson proposed that education appropriations be separated–one budget for higher ed, the other for public schools and two-year institutions.
You talk about a mis-match in the Legislature, that would be almost criminal. Once the AEA and the two-year colleges got their piece of the pie there would be little left for the four-year institutions.
Winning candidates for seats in the State House and Senate spent more than $12 million in their campaigns, which exceeds by $3 million what was spent in legislative races four years ago.
for the State Senate averaged spending $191,000 in their races, while House candidates averaged spending $56,000.
The biggest spender…State Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, who spent more than $750,000 in his successful bid for re-election. That is about 25 times as much as the job pays.
Don't bet on it.
For a judge…a chief justice, no less…to defy a court order could create all manner of serious problems for Moore.
Rather, Moore will bow to the court order and then use this issue to a fare-thee-well in future political pursuits, whatever they might be.
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Alabama's editorial cartoonists had a field day during and after
our recent gubernatorial election and my buddy Jim Crawford of the
Montgomery Advertiser came up with an appropriate one for
Thanksgiving Day. Three people told what they were thankful for on
that special day: "Life", "Liberty"…and third…"The election is finally
over." Amen to that.
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Speaking of the governor's race, one of my readers, a Yellow Dog
Democrat of some consequence, wanted to know why I hadn't
commented on the inexplicable "undervote" in the governor's race in
Bob Riley's home county of Clay.
A total of 6,066 votes were cast in that county on Nov. 5, but only
5,354 votes were cast in the governor's race.
I talked to a couple of men who know Clay County politics as well as
anybody–State Sen. Gerald Dial and Probate Judge George
Ingram–and all they could do is guess on what happened.
Both agreed that perhaps there were some voters in the county who
for whatever reason did not like Riley but at the same time couldn't
bring themselves to vote for Siegelman. They just skipped the race.
Another factor, perhaps more significant, was the fact that there was
a heated race for sheriff in the county which not only featured nominees
of both parties but a write-in candidate as well, he being the incumbent
sheriff who had lost in the primary.
Dial and Ingram both speculated that perhaps some of the 900
people who cast write in votes in that race may not have bothered to
vote in the other races.
But the bottom line is that nobody knows why there was such a
dropoff in votes cast in the governor's race. Nothing sinister here, just
puzzling.
