Archive for: October 25, 2006

Whoever it is in John Tyson’s campaign that puts together his campaign ads, I want to hire him or her if I ever run for political office.

I want to make it clear before I get the comments. I have no problem with attack ads — as long as they are attacking a candidate’s policies or experience and as long as they are true. If he called Troy King a punk, I’d have a proble with it, even if I agree. But he said two things about Troy King.

• “190,000 crimes in Alabama, and Troy King… he’s barely tried a case.” Troy King’s lack of trial experience has been mentioned throughout this campaign and the primary. By itself, “barely tried a case” is pretty unquantified, but contrasted with Tyson’s experience (which is done in the commercial), it’s a very true statement.

• “Troy King… politician. John Tyson… I fight crime.” I guess the word “politician” can be a dirty word, but it’s also a great summary to the commercial. King was appointed by the governor having had no experience as a prosecutor. Tyson is a popular district attorney of Mobile County.

I am biased when it comes to this race as regular readers well know, but I still think this is an impressive ad, regardless of who I plan on voting for.

In the wake of John Tyson’s recent successes, Troy King decided to strike back with his own “fuzzy, feel-good” gesture. In what may be the photo-op of his campaign, he hand-delivered an opinion to Mobile County Revenue Commissioner Marilyn Wood that allows the elderly, blind and disabled to continue being exempt from property taxes.

If he saves a box of puppies from a burning building or helps bring Christmas to a group of orphans, you can probably go ahead and renew his parking pass there at the capitol.

Despite everything else going on in the attorney general’s office, King wants you to rest assured that “18,000 homeowners in Mobile County [will continue to] receive the tax exemptions.” I can’t imagine why he’d be so focused on that particular area.

Most of you are probably familiar with Luther Strange’s bizarre attack ads against Jim Folsom which allegedly depict the various failings in each decade of his political career. Besides the fact that they were painfully tacky, I couldn’t help but think I’d never heard of any of the scandals shown. But I’m a young man, and I assumed these things just happened before my time.

Turns out, I wasn’t just uninformed. According to the Huntsville Times, the ad was actually created for former Pittsburgh Steeler, Lynn Swann who is running for governor of Pennsylvania. The Stevens and Schriefer Group, a Washington ad agency, created the commercial to criticize PA Governor Ed Rendell. A few quick edits and a change in voiceover, and voila - Ed Rendell becomes Jim Folsom.

For a man that bolted out of the gate during the primaries, Luther Strange seems to be struggling a bit here in the final stretch.

A hearing in Montiel’s lawsuit against the four Democrats has been set for October 31. I was correct that the lawsuit alleges that they illegally filed their FCPA reports and should be excluded from the ballot on those grounds.

A 1990 Attorney General opinion said that candidates that did not have primary opposition did not have to file the FCPA reports, so that is how all candidates without primary opposition have been filing. A more recent AG opinion, however, states that these candidates do. This latter opinion was issued after the primary election, however, so no one knew Troy King felt this way until it was too late. I want to make this point clear — no candidate since 1990 who had no primary opposition has felt like they had to file an FCPA report. I don’t know if some had been doing it anyway, but I know most have not.

An attorney general opinion is not law, so it will be interesting to see how the court plays this one out. If they rule that the latter opinion was the correct one, will they hold all candidates accountable who didn’t follow it, even though the attorney general’s office advised them differently? Curious

Is this appropriate for a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate of Alabama? I should point out that it did finally get her name in the traditional media.

The above image is a design for a t-shirt (and other stuff) you can buy here. You can also visit the Loretta Nall for Governor blog to see what she stands for.

• Alabama Moderate links to this post with Tidbits from Elsewhere -  10/25/06

I will be cross-posting this at Alabama Moderate.

I stumbled upon a site where you can get a sample ballot online. Just click here. The ballot doesn’t include constitutional amendments, and it seems to group together all the candidates for particular categories (even if candidates are running for separate seats). The Associate Justice candidates and the Public Service Commission candidates were all lumped together on my sample ballot. But it does offer a list of who is running for what. If you can’t get to a probate court, this may be useful.

The Thomas B. Fordham is a Washington-based think tank that conducts research and analysis in K-12 education throughout the country. Their mission statement is clear.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation believes that all children deserve a high quality K-12 education at the school of their choice. Nationally and in our home state of Ohio, we strive to close America’s vexing achievement gaps by raising standards, strengthening accountability, and expanding education options for parents and families.

In a recent study, they gave Alabama an “F” for student achievement for low-income Hispanic and black students, a “C-” in implementing education reforms, and they said we had made no progress in student achievement trends for low-income Hispanic and black students over the last 15 years.As the Alabama Department of Education points out, the highest grade any state had for student achievement was a “D+”. That makes our “F” seem a little better by comparison.

In keeping with their mission statement, a major criteria for the Fordham sudy was having charter schools and other education options available to students. The AEA, the ever-powerful education union in Alabama, opposes the idea of charter schools and education vouchers.

This is yet another race that fits into the “offices that should probably be appointed” category. I’m not the only one who thinks this way. When endorsing candidates in the primary electoin, the Huntsville Times had this to say.

The Times ceased recommending candidates for state auditor several elections ago. The editorial board believed - and still believes - the office serves no useful purpose.

This office should probably be replaced by an Inspector General much the same way the Inspectors General of the United States function. Despite my feelings on the office, I’ll bite. According to the Alabama Constitution (Sec. 137), the state auditor gives the governor a report of all disbursements and receipts. According to statute (Ala. Code 36-16-1), the auditor also has the authority to “audit” the state treasurer and the Department of Finance. That is essentially the gist of it. The primary purpose of this office seems to be a springboard for people into higher office. It’s the “foot in the door” of Alabama statewide elections for those who are seeking higher office.

The current state auditor, Beth Chapman (R), is leaving to run for Alabama’s Secretary of State. There are two candidates seeking to replace her — Samantha Shaw (R) and Janie Baker Clarke (D). Neither candidate has held public office before, although Clarke lost an election for the Alabama Supreme Court in 1998. Both candidates also deny that they see this office as a springboard to higher office.

Janie Baker Clarke comes from a family of politicians. Her father, great uncle and brother all served in the state legislature. She was a schoolteacher for 17 years before serving as an assistant attorney general under 3 governors (that couldn’t have taken long). Her campaign focuses on her experience with state government, and she also says she would like to study the “duplication” of duties between the state auditor and the state Examiner of Public Accounts. She has even gone so far as to say that it might be better if the more expensive of the two offices were eliminated. It would take a constitutional amendment (or convention) to eliminate the state auditor.

Although Samantha Shaw has never run for political office, she has worked on the campaigns of several Republicans and served as the chairman (she prefers the masculine like Twinkle) of the Montgomery County GOP. Also of interest, her husband, Greg Shaw, is on the ballot for the Court of Civil Appeals. Outside of her political activities, she has spent 13 years as an accountant in the private sector.

Both women are well-qualified for this position. At this point, I would normally vote for the one that has been the most negative to the other during the campaign, but they’ve been ridiculously nice to each other throughout. Clarke even said she was rooting for Shaw during the four-way Republican primary. This is why it’s really dumb that this office is elected. It really doesn’t matter who you pick because they’re not going to be making broad government policy decisions, they’re just going to do a job. On that note, an “auditor” seems to be a job more suited for an experienced accountant than an experienced lawyer. I’ll be voting for Samantha Shaw (R), but either candidate is gravy is far as I’m concerned.

• Alabama Moderate links to this post with Tidbits from Elsewhere -  10/25/06