One of Governor Kay Ivey’s greatest legacies will be her outstanding wisdom and prudence in her appointments to fill important judicial and governmental openings. She has shown amazing leadership in this capacity over her decade as Governor. She had the opportunity to make another stellar appointment in June. Ivey appointed State Representative Cynthia Lee Almond […]

In bygone days in Alabama politics, there were several what I call “go to” events for statewide Alabama politicians and potential candidates. Today, there is one, the Dekalb/Henager Ledbetter/Livingston 4th of July Breakfast. About 10 years ago, two powerful North Alabama legislators – Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives Nathaniel Ledbetter and State Senator […]

The partisan complexion of Alabama’s Congressional delegation has changed from six Republicans and one lone Democrat to five Republicans and two Democrats. This change was orchestrated by federal court decree. The federal courts plowed new ground when they ruled that Alabama’s Legislature did not have the right to draw their own congressional lines. The U.S. […]

As the Alabama Legislature convenes for its 2025 Regular Legislative Session this week, the State Senate will have a new President Pro Tem. Forty-nine-year-old State Senator Garlan Gudger of Cullman will ascend to the top leadership post in the Alabama Senate. He will succeed Senator Greg Reed of Jasper, who has moved into Governor Kay […]

All politics is now nationally partisan driven in most of the country and definitely in Alabama. Alabama is a one-party state when it comes to national and state general elections. For about 80 years, we were a one-party Democratic state. For the past 60 years we have become a one-party Republican state in presidential elections. […]

The Wiregrass region of our state has been known as an agricultural area for over a century. However, in recent decades Dothan, the center and heart of the Wiregrass, has become a medical mecca for southeast Alabama, as well as the panhandle of Florida and a large area of southwest Georgia. Dothan is now a […]

Now that we are midway through the year, allow me to share some thoughts on Alabama political events. There have been some significant elections already this year in the Heart of Dixie as we await a titanic presidential election in the fall. The race for the newly drawn Second Congressional district has been the major […]

As former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Sam Rayburn once said, and I’ll paraphrase, “Any fool can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.” In our political landscape today, from Washington, D.C. down, we have plenty of folks kicking down barns, but not nearly enough carpenters building […]

Anyone who follows the Legislative Session each year in Montgomery, knows that it is never short of controversy.  The House has its priorities, the Senate has its own, and governors have theirs. And it is fair to say that those priorities are not always the same. You can take gaming this session as an example.  […]

Those of you who live in the new Second Congressional District have runoffs this coming Tuesday. This is the most interesting and entertaining political contest in Alabama this year.   This new seat is comprised of all of Montgomery County, as well as most of the more rural counties surrounding Montgomery, including Macon, Lowndes, Bullock, Pike, […]

We Americans are going to the polls in seven months, to elect the next President of the United States.  Election day is Nov. 5. We are getting set for a rematch between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.  Americans are not too enthused to see this replay. I have never seen two candidates with […]

Growing up as a teenager in the 1960s, I served as a page in the Alabama Legislature. One day when I was around 13 years old, I was looking around the House of Representatives and it occurred to me that North Alabama, as well as the state’s largest county, Jefferson, was vastly underrepresented.  Even at […]

The most interesting and paramount race on the ballot in the March 5 primaries was the one for the new open Second Congressional District. This gerrymandered new district was created by the Federal Courts to implement a new Democratic/Black District in the Heart of Dixie. The Democratic nominee will be favored to win this seat […]

The 2024 Legislative Session has begun this week. It can last three and a half months to May 20. The Alabama Legislature is a very conservative body. It has super Republican majorities in the Senate and the House. The Senate is made up of 27 Republicans and a mere 8 Democrats. The House has 77 […]

The 2024 legislative session begins next week. It will be difficult to replicate the success of last year’s regular session. The 2023 year was a premier year for any first year of a quadrennium. Indeed, it may be one of the most momentous in state history. It was historic because of the vast amount of […]

My notebook of observations from 2023 was so full that I will continue this week. Our new United States senator, Katie Boyd Britt, has proven to all of us that she is indeed the superstar we predicted she would be. She is sensational. She has certainly not disappointed. She is on course to be one […]

I know we are in a new year, but allow me to look back into 2023 and share with you some observations and accolades from the last year. My old friend Mac McArthur has been Executive Director and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer of the Alabaman State Employees Association for 26 years now. He is […]

As Christmas approaches, Sen. Katie Britt prepares to mark one year in office. Those of us who have known her since before she was elected to the Senate, knew she would be successful, but we could not have imagined the accomplishments and achievements that she has had over the past 12 months.  In all my […]

In my 2015 book, “Of Goats and Governors: Six Decades of Colorful Alabama Political Stories,” I have a chapter entitled “Alabama’s Three Greatest Senators.” I chronicle the lives and accomplishments of Richard Shelby, Lister Hill and John Sparkman. Last week we gave you the history of Lister Hill. This week we will give you a […]

In recent years, candidates for political office have lambasted, run against and proclaimed that they were not career politicians.  Every television ad for someone who has never held office has proudly stated that they are not career politicians. That all sounds good, but is it really good? In my lifetime, the word politician has become […]

The assassination of John F. Kennedy happened 60 years ago this week. It occurred to me that a good many of you may be too young to remember that horribly sad day of Nov. 22, 1963. Anyone living on that day can tell you exactly where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot […]

In recent years, healthcare has eclipsed agriculture as Dothan’s major industry. Dothan is the medical mecca for the entire Wiregrass, as well as rural northwest Florida and southwest Georgia. It has premier medical professionals only matched by Birmingham in the state of Alabama. Dothan doctors dominate the economy in the world’s largest peanut-producing locale. One […]

Alabama has had its share of what I call “run for the fun of it” candidates. The most colorful of all these perennial “also-ran” candidates was Ralph “Shorty” Price. He ran for governor every time. His slogan was “Smoke Tampa Nugget cigars, drink Budweiser beer and vote for Shorty Price.” In one of Shorty’s campaigns […]

In early April, I wrote that “Democrats give Trump a lifeline.” It was at that time that a Democratic district attorney in an overwhelmingly Democratic New York venue had indicted Trump in a political ploy to disarm in some way, politically. There is an old saying that you can indict a potato or a ham […]