The coming mayoral race in Montgomery matters whether you live in city limits, or whether it is simply important to you or your business that Alabama’s capital thrives. The conversation on the ground is that the outcome could be the next historic milestone for the city that launched civil rights.

Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Vanzetta McPherson caused a stir with a recent Montgomery Advertiser column that argues “it is time for the occupant of the mayor’s office to reflect the predominant (African-American) citizenry.” She further suggests that there is a burden on black voters and leader to “filter black candidates early,” so that the ranks be purged of those who by some test fail, in her words, to “serve the best interests of the African-American community.”
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An unlikely dynamic has emerged in the Alabama Attorney General’s race: Three of the four Republicans running and both Democrats have acknowledged that one of the most powerful local law enforcement tools, the authority to confiscate property from citizens without charging them with a crime, raises serious constitutional questions. Even the lone defender of the status quo, interim Attorney General Steve Marshall, concedes that the public is entitled to more information about how this process known as civil forfeiture works and what happens to cash and property once they fall into the arms of local authorities.

The political pressure in a red state is always to own the “tough on crime” mantle. But in this AG’s race, there is a rising awareness that defending the Constitution means property rights too. That should hearten both liberals and conservatives who fear the dangerous intersection of a built-in profit motive for local officers with a legal system that rubber-stamps civil forfeitures, and where many property owners don’t even have a lawyer.
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