Archive for: October 26, 2006

My spam blocker has been holding up several anonymous comments for me to approve. I get a lot of spam comments, so I have to keep these devices in place so I don’t have viagra ads all over my website. If you would like your comment to appear immediately, I suggest you leave something in the Name field when leaving a comment. You can leave a “Name” without leaving an email address or a website — and I don’t mind if you leave a nickname or whatever so long as it’s clean.

Hopefully this will stop my software from thinking you’re a spammer.

John Tyson has now officially said the Troy King intervention into his capital murder investigation in 2005 was a political stunt. King has used the takeover of his opponent’s case throughout his campaign and most recently in a television ad. According to Tyson:

“When the attorney general came in and superintended the case, he shortstopped it a little bit and the result was we go to trial and this man quits talking about all these [other murder] cases,” Tyson said.

Tyson also did something I consider a bad political move. He pointed to a previous conviction of the star of King’s attack ad, Jennifer Murphy, who was on probation for third-degree theft of property at the time she asked the attorney general to take over the case. Tyson says that King is relying a convicted thief for his campaign advertising. Murphy is the daughter of the murder victim discussed in the commercial. Murphy responded to Tyson:

“My first response is what does this have to do with the murder of my mother?” Murphy said of the court records Tyson presented regarding her arrest. “I’m really speechless that he would try to attack me that way.”

Part of me says that if you insert yourself into a hot political campaign like this, don’t be surprised or speechless. The other part of me realizes this is exactly what she should say to help Troy King’s campaign. Tyson could have played this a whole lot cooler by saying something like, “She’s obviously angry with my office since we convicted her for petty theft. After a long murder investigation, that was long because the murderer was confessing to multiple murders in Alabama and other states, she approached the attorney general who was more than happy to take over the case of his upcoming election opponent.”

Remember these problems with the state’s two-year college system?

1. Former two-year Chancellor Roy Johnson was fired by the state school board in July.
2. Six people face criminal charges in connection with the theft of more than $75,000 in financial aid.
3. Allegations that Bishop State’s nonprofit foundation overstated scholarship spending.
4. Bishop State President and state Representative Yvonne Kennedy admitted to directing scholarship money to her neice.
5. The U.S. Department of Education demanded Bishop State repay $150,000 in federal aid.
6. A quarter of the state’s legislature, or their spouses, are employed by the two-year system.

Is that not enough? According to the interim chancellor of the two-year system, Thomas Corts:

“I can tell you that there are a number of problems, and apparently there are going to be more of them that are dribbled out,” Corts said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s spring before everything is over.

So what’s next?

Troy King’s website is still claiming endorsements from six large Alabama Newspapers, but these papers only endorsed him as the Republican candidate against Republican activist Mark Montiel, not in the general election against John Tyson. I wonder if he will remove this claim after at least many of them (I hear rumors) endorse his Democratic opponent, John Tyson.

• H/T Doc’s Political Parlor

I guess we can just forget about the whole Alabama Judicial Oversight Committee Pledge about keeping the judicial elections clean. In the most expensive court race in the country, Drayton Nabers (R) and Sue Bell Cobb (D) have resorted to bickering about who the first person to throw the first punch was and who took more gambling money.

Again, when we treat judges like politicians, we shouldn’t be surprised when they act like politicians. It seems like I’ve heard of a better way.

According to the Alabama Constitution (Sec. 118), the State Auditor must reside in the state capital during the time they continue in office. During the other day’s For The Record interview with Beth Chapman, the Republican candidate for Alabama Secretary of State and currently the State Auditor, Tim Lennox asked about her lack of compliance with the state constitution.

I highly suggest you watch the video. If anyone knows how to chop up videos and put segments on YouTube, please email me. But I digress. The interview:

Lennox: State Constitution requires officers, constitutional officers, to live in Montgomery, but you do not.

Chapman: I live in north Shelby County, which is one hour from here. I have a husband of 18 years and two children. My first duty is to my family. I said that on inauguration day. I’ve said it during my campaign. I will continue to say it. If it becomes an issue, and I need to have a residence here, I have done so in the past. I will do so again. But I believe the average Alabamian knows that the number one duty of a mother and wife are to be a mother and wife, and so I’m going to do that.

Tim Lennox then grills her about it in that special way he has. Well, Ms. Chapman, I have just one problem with it that I believe makes it “an issue.”

“I, Beth Chapman, solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Alabama, so long as I continue a citizen thereof; and that I will faithfully and honestly discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, to the best of my ability. So help me God.” (Alabama Oath of Office)

Far be it for your chosen, elected position to interfere with you womanly duties, but you need to grow up. It may be unfair, but you’re the State Auditor and want to be the Secretary of State. Move to Montgomery. It doesn’t take much to “establish a residence.”

Here is Troy King’s latest ad in his effort to keep his job as attorney general. I’m going to try to refrain from giving my opinion about King and just address the claims. It’s a pretty powerful video featuring the daughter of a murder victim in Mobile who says that John Tyson stalled on convicting the confessed murderer and Troy King had to step in and save the day.

• First, Tyson responded to King’s taking over the case by saying he thought it was politically motivated. Although the AG rarely takes over a district attorney investigation, King intervened in the case in October 2005 without giving Tyson a courtesy call at the same time Tyson was all but declared as the Democratic frontrunner to challenge him. At the time that King intervened, commenters at Red State Diaries even saw this a political stunt. Since the election has been heating up, King has certainly used this intervention on the campaign trail, telling CBS 8 in Montgomery:

“Since I’ve been attorney general, we’ve prosecuted the state’s most notorius mass murderer and I had to go into his county and prosecute one of the most prolific serial killers who has ever come into Alabama,”

• Murphy says that seven months went by with no action. This deceptively makes it seem like a confessed killer was just hanging out. In truth, Jeremy Jones was immediately arrested and the district attorney’s office was conducting an investigation. King admits that the state did not do any investigating of their own — they just had to wait for the same autopsy reports that Tyson was waiting on. Another reason for the delay, according to Tyson, was that Jones was providing details about other murders throughout the state and in other states. Once the state took over, again according to Tyson, the killer stopped talking.

It’s very sad what happened to Jennifer Murphy and her mother, and she’s obviously enough of an adult to decide to appear in a campaign ad against John Tyson. However, I still think this is close to being inappropriate. Thoughts?

• Flashpoint links to this post with Tyson says attorney general using convicted thief in ad

This is the last executive office that I think should absolutely be appointed, even though I would prefer they all be appointed except governor and lieutenant governor. The state treasury is essentially the state’s bank. Alabama statute says the treasurer is in charge of keeping the books and tracking the accounts in so many words (Ala Code Sec. 36-17-3). It’s such a job (as opposed to an elected office) that the only thing the two candidates have campaigned on is action that would require legislative approval.

Incumbent Kay Ivey (R) is being challenged by Steve Segrest (D), a realtor and 2002 Secretary of State candidate who was defeated in the primary by Nancy Worley. His big campaign ideas are that we should move more money into local “small banks” to help Alabama’s own. He has also attacked Ivey on the health of the Pre-paid Affordable College Tuition plan, which is where Alabama citizens can pay their children’s future tuition at today’s rates. Initially started by George Wallace, Jr., Segrest claims that the program is in poor financial health with $70 million in debt.

Kay Ivey was elected in 2002. In the 1970s, she was an Assistant Vice President of Merchant’s National Bank of Mobile (now Regions). She also spent 13 years on the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. She denies Segrest’s claims that the PACT program is in poor health.

Look, even if the PACT program is underfunded, that’s the legislature’s fault. That’s the problem with these offices that have no lawmaking or state budgetary control — all they can do is make stuff up to campaign about. I’m not saying this position isn’t important or that it doesn’t require a qualified person, but I am saying it’s a position that should be left up to the governor or an HR person instead being elected in partisan elections. On that note, Ivey has been more than competent in her position. I’ll be voting for Kay Ivey (R).