By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party last week drawing national attention to what this maverick politician would do next. There is rampant speculation that Rep. Davis would run for Congress again as a Republican this time from Virginia. Artur Davis has told that Alabama Political Reporter that he is not interested in running for Congress. He has been there before and does not want to do that again.
If Artur Davis had been satisfied with the power and privilege of serving in the United States House of Representatives he likely could have stayed there for as long as his health allowed representing the Seventh Congressional District. The majority minority district, currently held by Rep. Terri Sewell, is drawn to elect a Black person, and the way most Alabama Black voters vote that Congressperson is likely to remain a Democrats.
The life of a Congressman supporting President Barack H Obama’s legislative agenda did not appeal to the young Congressman. Rep. Davis shocked his Congressional Black Caucus colleagues by opposing President Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The ambitious Congressman then shocked Alabama Democrats by running for Governor and distancing himself from the gambling magnates which dominated Alabama Democratic Party politics at the time. Cynics said that he was trying to position himself as a moderate to lure moderate Republican voters in a general election. Their theory went that if a more conservative Republican like former Chief Roy Moore from Gallant or south Alabama businessman Tim James had won the Republican nomination for Governor then moderate supporters of state Representative Robert Bentley from Tuscaloosa and state Senator Bradley Byrne from Montrose.
Of course nothing went according to plan. Bentley and Byrne beat out Moore and James (albeit by an insanely small number of votes) to face off in the Republican gubernatorial runoff and Artur himself lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to the state Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Ron Sparks from Fort Payne who assailed the more moderate Davis from the left, running on a campaign favoring Obamacare and a massive expansion of gambling throughout the state. Rep. Bentley (after defeating Byrne in the primary) easily defeated the liberal Ag. Commissioner: the third consecutive gubernatorial election win for the Republican Party.
Joe Reed and the black leadership of the Alabama Democratic Party pummeled Davis throughout the campaign. Rep. Bentley then easily defeated the liberal Ag. Commissioner. Davis responded after the election by blasting the policies and the politics of the Alabama Democratic Party and increasingly the policies of his longtime friend President Barack H. Obama, finally culminating in his formal switch to the Republican Party this week.
There are two things we know about Artur Davis: 1) he is smarter than us so us guessing what he is thinking is probably beyond us and 2) he has a plan. He had a plan when he attacked entrenched incumbent Rep. Earl Hilliard and successfully took that seventh Congressional District seat. He had a plan when he ran for Governor. Granted that plan backfired (blame the very insular world of Alabama Democratic Party Politics), but he had a plan.
Artur Davis is not a man motivated by having a cushy job. If that were the case he would still be in his safe congressional district. There are dozens of corporation who would be willing to bring Artur in to lobby Congress and the administration. He has not been swayed by that. I believe that Artur Davis is motivated by the pursuit of REAL power. More power than one vote out of 435 Congress members have.
Artur Davis can see that the Obama Presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. Obama’s policies and the far left academics that Obama has filled his administration with are failing and they are failing dreadfully. It is always difficult to unseat an incumbent President; but this President has been exposed as an amateur. Even most Democrats in their private moments have to admit that Sec. of State Hillary Clinton would likely have been a better President. The first Congressman to endorse Barack Obama for President can read the election tea leaves.
I believe that Rep. Artur Davis now expects Obama to lose the presidency to the Republican eventual nominee, Mitt Romney. Taking over the mess that Gov. Romney is going to inherit from Pres. Obama is probably going to be a whole lot harder than winning the November 6th election. The only constituency who has remained steadfast in their support of this failing presidency has been Black Americans. Beating the only Black President in the nation’s history will be hard on that community. President Romney will want to appoint some highly qualified and capable Black Republicans to that new cabinet. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice endorsed Romney this week potentially adding her name to that short list. I think by switching to the Republican Party this week, Artur Davis has added his name to that list as well.
