By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
In an exclusive interview with the ‘Alabama Political Reporter’ after the Scott Beason announcement, Alabaster businessman Al Mickle said that he is remaining in the race to represent the Sixth District in the U.S. Congress and will file his papers with the Alabama Republican Party today at 8:00 a.m. On Scott Beason’s late entry into the race Mr. Mickle said, “I have spoken to Scott [Beason] several times. This is a Republican form of government where anybody who wants to run for office is free to do so. I took an oath years ago to defend the Constitution. It is time for the rank and file citizens of the Republic to stand up to serve as the people’s representative.”
“Scott [Beason] has got a lot of name recognition but it is not all positive. I am running for the voters of District 6. The voters need a real public servant. This is about the people being tired of career politicians. He [Senator Beason] has been in office for 15 or 16 years. Bachus has been in office for 26 years. I am just an average citizen who is willing to serve. I am not a politician. I want to serve my country. All I can say is that professional politicians are ripping our Constitution apart.”
When asked if Sen. Scott Beason would get all of the Tea Party support Mickle said, “They will not go his way automatically. There are several people who won’t support either Bachus or Beason. The Tea Party support won’t all go to Beason. Nobody can take our vote for granted.”
On incumbent Representative Spencer Bachus, Mr. Mickle said, “We should not accept a representative that ignores the will of the people.” Mr. Mickle said that the people of the Sixth District were overwhelmingly opposed to both the TARP bailout of the large banks and raising the debt ceiling and Rep. Bachus voted for both measures despite public sentiment against those decisions.
Mr. Mickle said that his fundraising was “strictly grass roots.” “I have friends holding fundraisers and setting up meetings,” he said.
Mickle acknowledged that there was a possibility of a runoff but said that if there is a runoff that he expected to be in it.
On the possibility that this eight week primary campaign could be followed by a Republican Party runoff and then followed by a grueling general election campaign against one of the two Democrats vying for the Sixth District seat in Congress, Mickle said that he has spent seven months of his life in the desert in Desert Shield and Desert Storm and another six months in Somalia and that he was “prepared to go all the way with this.”
Mr. Mickle said that he was concerned by the expansion of executive branch regulatory power and Obama’s newly claimed authority to make recess appointments even when the Senate is not officially in recess. “We are headed to dictatorship,” Mickle said. “We will get the Constitution back. We the people will be heard again.” Mr. Mickle also expressed concerns that the recent passage of a rider in the Defense Authorization Act of 2012 that gave the President the power to detain citizens of the United States indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay.
Al Mickle said that he was opposed to the President’s unilateral decision to impose carbon dioxide emissions restrictions on American industry and was concerned that EPA’s new regulations would cost both the country and the Sixth District jobs.
Al Mickle has served in the armed forces as a U.S. Navy Corpsman, is married, and he and his wife have three children.
The winner of the March 13 Republican Primary will face the winner of the Democratic Primary in the general election on November 6. Retired USAF Colonel Penny Hudgins Bailey from Leeds and Birmingham Attorney William Barnes are both running as Democrats for the Sixth District seat, currently held by incumbent Rep. Spencer Bachus.
The Sixth Congressional District of Alabama includes all or parts of Blount, Jefferson, Shelby, Coosa, and Bibb Counties.
