I guest hosted on WAPI this past week and had the opportunity to speak with Senator Jeff Sessions who I think is one of the few rock solid guys in Washington, D.C., working to defend the Constitution and advance conservative reforms. In our 10 minute talk, which you can hear below, Senator Sessions discusses Senate […]

Inside baseball is a new tag on Yellowhammer Politics that will accompany posts that deal with issues that are probably of more concern to inside Montgomery types than they are to the public at large. Wikipedia says “the phrase ‘inside baseball’ refers to a detail-oriented approach to the minutiae of a subject, which in turn […]

Governor Robert Bentley on Monday announced that Alabama exports closed out calendar year 2012 at a record-breaking total of $19.5 billion in the value of goods exported, an increase of 9.36 percent from the 2011 total. The State moved to 22nd in the nation for total dollar exports during 2012 while ranking 25th in 2011. […]

The first week of the 2013 legislative session saw the House Republicans walk away with “Best Week in Montgomery” honors due to their fast start in passing out of committee every one of the “We Dare Defend Our Rights” (WDDOR) agenda bills. Democrats’ strategy, especially in the Senate, appears to be to just slow down […]

By Gary Palmer, Alabama Policy Institute As the 2013 Legislative Session gets under way, Alabama Republican legislators will be dealing with a lot of facts and figures as they try to pass sensible budgets, eliminate wasteful and inefficient spending, and pay back the money being taken from the Alabama Trust Fund. If the Republican Legislative […]

“Best and Worst Week in Montgomery” is a weekly feature on Yellowhammer Politics when the legislature is in session. We recognize the people or organizations who had the BEST week or WORST week in town. House Republicans House Republicans wasted no time in advancing their “We Dare Defend Our Rights” agenda in the first week […]

“Rumors and Rumblings” is a weekly feature that runs each Wednesday. It includes short nuggets of information that we glean from conversations throughout the week. Have a tip? Send it here. All sources remain confidential. 1. AEA already at it on day 1 of the session Montgomery insiders were chirping on the first day of […]

Is it appropriate to reference campaign contributions your lobbying organization gave an elected official when trying to influence their vote? Apparently a representative of the Alabama Education Association (AEA – teachers union) thinks it is. Representative Allen Farley is a supporter of the Local Control School Flexibility Act. According to AL.com, the “school flex” bill […]

By Elizabeth Robinson, Alabama Policy Institute Alabama is a beautiful state with many attractions, both in its natural beauty and in the slower pace of living our hospitable people prefer. While our drawls and small towns are a quaint reminder of our heritage, the refusal of state policymakers to implement the educational reforms necessary to […]

According to a Gallup poll released late last week, Alabama was the most conservative state in America in 2012, and the only the state in the country where over 50% of voters identified themselves as conservative. Wyoming and North Dakota tied for second with 48.6% of their population identifying as conservative. And here’s a real […]

Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead surprised many onlookers Saturday morning (including me!) by winning re-election by a comfortable margin of 221 – 159. One longtime ALGOP executive committee member told Yellowhammer several weeks ago that every single contested Party election he’d ever seen included two candidates who genuinely thought they were going to run […]

Cliff Sims: Let’s start with the question that immediately jumped to my mind when you told me you were considering running for Secretary of State, why do you want to leave the legislature after only one term? John Merrill: I love serving in the State House more than anything I’ve ever done in public or […]

This weekend the Alabama Republican Party will elect a Chairman who will lead our Party through the 2014 election cycle — the first in which we will be defending every constitutional office and majorities in both chambers of the legislature. After considering my personal experience during the past election cycle, reviewing November’s election results, and […]

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“Rumors and Rumblings” is a weekly feature that runs each Wednesday. It includes short nuggets of information that we glean from conversations throughout the week. Have a tip? Send it here. All sources remain confidential. 1. ALGOP Chairman Race Update Sources inside the Governor’s office told Yellowhammer Tuesday that the Governor is excited to be […]

Yellowhammer has now been around for a little over a year. It’s been exciting to watch the site grow from a little-known “insider” political blog to the go-to source of conservative political commentary for tens of thousands of conservatives all across Alabama. We’ve also been fortunate to establish a solid readership in the nation’s capital. […]

A bipartisan group of 8 senators today announced a framework for comprehensive immigration reform. According FoxNews.com’s coverage of the plan, the senators are seeking to accomplish four main goals: 1. Creating a path to citizenship for the estimated illegal immigrants already in the U.S., contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here […]

Fox News released a poll this past week that shows just how strong opposition to the gun grabbers is among the vast majority of gun owners in America. The poll, which was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), asked “If the government passed a law […]

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions claimed a big victory in the Senate this week as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray finally agreed to comply with federal law and offer a budget for the first time in almost four years. Murray declared Senate Democrats are “ready to get to work.” …Everyone […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, yesterday named Rep. Martha Roby Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Rep. Roby thanked Chairman McKeon for selecting her for this post, and promised to continue working diligently to ensure proper oversight of the Department of Defense. […]

“Rumors and Rumblings” is a weekly feature that runs each Wednesday. It includes short nuggets of information that we glean from conversations throughout the week. Have a tip? Send it here. All sources remain confidential. 1. ALGOP Chairman Race Update Matt Fridy’s ALGOP Chairman campaign is said to have huddled Tuesday to get a fresh […]

Marking the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the Alabama Policy Institute yesterday released an infographic titled “Abortion by the Numbers” packed with some jaw-dropping statistics. Based on the Alabama Policy Institute’s numbers, it appears that over six years worth of pregnancies in Alabama have ended in abortion since Roe […]

Rep. Jim Barton goes up today with his second TV ad (see his first ad HERE) in the Senate District 35 special election set to take place one week from today. Barton’s ad sticks pretty close to homebase for a Republican candidate — cut government spending, reduce taxes, conservative leadership, etc. — and is probably […]

CBS News White House Correspondent and guru of all things relating to the Presidency, Mark Knoller, put out some interesting numbers over the weekend on President Obama’s first term in office. “As President Obama’s first term nears an end, the numbers reflect a chief executive who cast few vetoes, was tightfisted with pardons, granted hundreds […]