According to Real Clear Politics, Democrats in Alabama have little chance of making progress in November’s general election because the Republican brand is so strong.
RCP polling shows Gov. Kay Ivey is a hands-down favorite to win against Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox in November’s general election even though she has only been governor for just over a year.
The GOP brand is king in the Heart of Dixie despite nearly a dozen Republican politicos being indicted, convicted or tied to sordid affairs over the last eight years. But it’s not really the state’s elected officials that define the GOP image, rather it’s the National Party and Fox News that keeps the shine from being tarnished by the likes of convicts like Mike Hubbard and friends.
To say that the state’s Republicans are less corrupt than the Democrats they replaced is a debatable argument but not a rigorous one. When it comes to dishonest, unscrupulous and unprincipled behavior, some Republicans are outpacing the Dems by miles.
In his book, “Storming the State House,” then-House Speaker Mike Hubbard wrote, “Democrats have held the majority in Montgomery for 136 years, and during that time, they created an atmosphere that breeds corruption and encourages graft. The recent criminal convictions of numerous Democratic legislators and other Democratic officials provide ample evidence of that fact.”
Replace the number 136 years with eight, substitute Republican for Democrat in the line, “recent criminal convictions,” and Hubbard’s words are as real today as they were when he wrote them, the only difference is who’s in charge.
It is painful to admit, but many of those who championed strong ethics law, transparency in elections and accountability from all office holders have utterly abandoned those principles.
Currently, the ethics laws are being rewritten in secret by lobbyists because Republican lawmakers want to break the rules they voted for in 2010.
The Republican nominee for Attorney General accepted nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in illegal campaign contributions, but he says there’s a loophole, and not one Republican office holder has challenged him.
The FCPA is being treated as if it a mere suggestion when it applies to certain Republicans who can’t file their paperwork on time.
So, how does a party that promised all these reforms go from champion to cheaters?
It would be easy to say they were crooked to begin with, and like their leader, convicted felon Hubbard, they were always corrupt.
But that simple answer is wrong.
Any honest outside observer has seen the gradual change that has taken place over the last seven-plus years.
When most women and men enter public service they want to do good, and for the most part, they do.
In political office as in all of life, laws are made to constrain the worst impulses on human nature – only in public office, elected lawmakers can change the rules. Generally, they do not hastily change laws to favor themselves for fear of alienating voters. However, once a party realizes they have an iron lock on the electorate, that fear subsides and they are encouraged to do as they please.
This is the inherent danger of a one-party state.
Also in his book, Hubbard wrote, “Republicans understand that we must limit the influence of special interests and other lobbyists who control much of what happens in Montgomery.”
He was right that special interests and lobbyists control much of what happens in Montgomery, but he was wrong because many Republicans didn’t understand, including Hubbard, that the influence of special interests and lobbyists needed to be sharply limited. Instead, many of the same lawmakers who came to do good found it easier to do what most have always done, enjoy the spoils of power.
So, Republicans seem to have a hold on the November elections according to Pollsters, but of course, if all votes were based on polls, President Hillary Clinton would be in the White House, Senator Roy Moore would be making new headlines every day from Washington D.C. and appointed Attorney General Steve Marshall would be packing for Buck’s Pocket.
If politics were based on polling numbers, then Gov. Robert Bentley would soon retire as the state’s most popular governor. (Hint: He thinks he still is.) and Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey would be saying farewell to a storied career as a public servant.
But like life, politics is often subject to the fickle fates who from time-to-time don’t read the polls, rather choosing to lay waste to the best plans of we mere mortals.
And sometimes the partisan scales fall from peoples’ eyes and honesty, integrity and principle, not party, matters.
