Former Lt. Gov. accused of contracts shakedown

By Staff
Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
Montgomery insurance executive John Goff has charged that former Lt. Gov. Steve Windom and some of his associates attempted to shake him down for $200,000-a-year in exchange for Windom’s help in retaining his insurance contracts with the state.
Goff claims in his lawsuit that Gov. Bob Riley, the State Insurance Department and Windom conspired to destroy Goff’s worker’s compensation insurance business. The suit alleges that Goff went from being one of Alabama’s leading and reputable insurance providers to being wrongfully disgraced, publicly humiliated and financially ruined as a result of a vendetta waged against him by the defendants in the suit and others.
Now, it has been revealed that a federal grand jury wants to investigate those allegations after the U. S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Alabama informed Goff’s lawyers Tommy Gallion and Bill Slaughter of the grand jury’s interest when it attempted to subpoena them to testify.
The attempt to subpoena the lawyers has been withdrawn and Windom has denied the charges and refused additional comment to the media. The former lieutenant governor had recommended Bell to Gov. Bob Riley for the insurance commissioner’s job.
Gallion told me he reported the shakedown attempt to the office of Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell and after that Bell then began denying his Montgomery law firm, Haskell, Slaughter, Young and Gallion, state legal work they had been doing for years and began pursuing regulatory action against Goff.
In an amendment to the lawsuit, Goff adds the governor’s son, Birmingham attorney Rob Riley, accusing him of being a business partner of Windom who advised Goff against filing a lawsuit in the spring of this year.
Rob Riley responded, saying that he has played no role in Goff’s problems.
Gallion demanded that the entire U. S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District be removed from any investigation into the Goff matter. The U. S. Attorney, Leura Canary has said she has ceased all involvement with her office’s probe of Goff, but Gallion says the entire office must recuse itself from the matter.
Independents gaining ground
In the latest Capital Survey Research poll, sponsored by the Alabama Education Association, but considered to be the most accurate in the state, 31 percent identify as being independent, the highest percentage in the 11-year history of the poll.
latest figures show that 34 percent identify as Democrats and 33 percent say they are Republicans.
The poll’s administrator, Dr. Gerald Johnson, told me that Alabama is poised to vote for two New Yorkers, Rudi Giuliani and Hillary Clinton to become the final contenders for the White House.
Although Giuliani trails former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson by two points at present, Johnson believes Giuliani will eventually prevail in Alabama. And Clinton leads her nearest contender, Barack Obama, by 40-21. John Edwards polls 14 percent of the vote in Johnson’s poll.
In the general election Johnson believes that if the contest were between Giuliani and Clinton, the former New York mayor would best the current New York senator by five-to-ten points in Alabama. But with great deference to Dr. Johnson, my guess would be 15 to 20 points.
Prison population increasing
Alabama’s prison population is increasing, primarily because the state is returning inmates housed under contract in other states to Alabama.
In September the state’s prison population was 29,235 compared to 27,954 in September of 2006. The current population is about twice the capacity of state prisons.
This is a time bomb waiting to explode.
Tuberville happy at Auburn
It may be announced before you read this column but it is my belief that Tommy Tuberville will be at Auburn for a few more years. He has said if Auburn wants him, he’ll stay and the athletic director has answered in the affirmative.
Why would Tub want to leave? He just won the sixth straight over Alabama, recruiting is good and his family is happy on the Plains.
Besides, coaches aren’t the total equation for a football team. It’s the players … the players. Coaches are put there to guide them, to inspire them, but the bottom line is the players, and Tuberville has plenty of those remaining.
Bob Martin, editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent, has taken over The Alabama Scene from longtime political columnist and Cherokee County native Bob Ingram, who died earlier this fall.