The times they are a changing

By By Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
The national media has boiled American politics down to colors…red and blue. Perhaps they should add beige. The latest Washington Post/ABC polling shows 34 percent of voters say they are Democrats and 24 percent say Republican. But 38 percent call themselves independents and four percent say they are “other” or don’t claim any political affiliation.
In Alabama the numbers skew more even with about a third identifying as Democrats, a third as Republicans and a third as independents or “other.” However, the political landscape is tilting more at the moment toward the GOP, perhaps because a majority of independents tend to come down on the Republican side on the major issues.
The Democratic decline in the current election cycle is evident by the fact that party leaders have had a difficult chore in finding candidates for some legislative races. Republicans, on the other hand, are cleansing their ranks by dumping incumbents who tend to be independent or bi-partisan. In the not-to-distant past the party would embrace just about anybody who could pronounce its name.
The poster-boy example of GOP cleansing was the dumping of Republican State Sen. Harri Anne Smith of Slocomb from the party ranks last week. Smith was punished for supporting Democrat Bobby Bright of Montgomery in a 2009 race for Congress. Charles H. “Chip” McCallum also failed to pass the GOP smell test for a shot at a legislative seat representing Hoover and Vestavia because he said he was a “non-partisan” on most issues.
But party switchers are a different story, particularly if they’re already holding office. Parker Griffith of Huntsville for example, who was elected as a Democrat in the 5th Congressional District in 2008 and switched to the GOP last December, was welcomed into the Republican fold with great fanfare.
Smith had this to say about her ouster. “The Republican Party means a lot to me. I am and always will be a Republican, but 21 party bosses and Montgomery insiders – not one of whom lives in senate district 29 – took the opportunity away from the Republican voters in this district to decide this issue.” Smith said. “I always vote in a way that is in the best interest of the people of the district, the Wiregrass region, and Alabama as a whole. But this is no longer about me – it is about the people of Senate District 29 being denied their right to vote on whom they want their Senator to be.”
Smith says she is going to keep fighting for the people of her district – and for their right to vote on electronic bingo, and for job creation. She is expected to run as an independent.
Despite the GOP cleansing effort control of the legislature by Democrats, particularly in the House, hangs by a thin thread. Many capitol city insiders believe the only way the Republicans will not take over one or both chambers of the legislature in November would be for Gov. Bob Riley to continue his anti-bingo crusade. Some believe the bingo issue, coupled with job losses, the economy and budget deficits could derail the best chance Republicans have ever had to take total control of the State House.
State police, FBI question lawmakers
Democratic leaders in the legislature are seeking intervention by the U. S. Department of Justice into a probe of legislative votes on the bingo legislation after Sens. Bobby Denton, D-Tuscumbia, Larry Means, D-Attalla, and Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega, were questioned by federal agents about their votes on the proposed constitutional amendment to allow electronic bingo in the state.
Preuitt says he was approached last Thursday morning by agents from the FBI and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. “Their statement to me pretty much was ‘don’t be going around talking (about this),’” Preuitt reports.
Federal officials have admitted there is an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section into bingo voting in the Legislature.
The announcement of a bingo investigation created accusations of questionable if not illegal federal law enforcement interference with a state legislative function. There also were political accusations that Gov. Riley is pulling out all the stops to affect voting in the House in two weeks by encouraging the probe.
Democratic leaders in a letter to the Department of Justice said the investigation violated DOJ policy and “was an unwarranted intrusion into the legislative process of the State of Alabama in violation of federal law. In a separate letter attorneys filed a complaint against Leura Canary, the U. S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama and two FBI agents. Stay tuned.