Being a student of Alabama politics, allow me to
share with you my study of the backgrounds of our governors. My assessment is
that in the past six decades small town boys succeed. It may be because Alabama
was made up of small towns in the past generations that almost all of our
governors have hailed from small towns. My assumption is that growing up in a
small town allows someone to develop confidence and leadership abilities that
give them an advantage.
For example, a person from a small place who has
leadership talents can develop them better than someone from a large place. It
is much easier in a small town to be class president, captain of the football
team and basically be the big fish in a small pond. That small town person
grows up expecting to be the leader. They expect to be governor or president.
Regardless of the reason, my observation and
research clearly reveal that small town boys have dominated Alabama politics
and the governor’s office. A look at the past 66 years tells the story.
In 1946, a 6’9” giant named Big Jim Folsom came
storming out of the hills of north Alabama to break the Big Mules’ and Big
Planters’ stranglehold on the governor’s office. Big Jim grew up in Elba and
lived most of his adult life in Cullman.
In 1950, Gordon Persons won the Governor’s office.
He was from Montgomery. Let us call Montgomery a city and give the city boys
one governor. Big Jim came back to win a second term in 1954. That is two for
the country and one for the city.
The small town boys had a clear run for the next 40
years. In 1958, John Patterson became governor. Patterson’s home was Phenix
City but he was born in a Tallapoosa County crossroads. Then the Fightin’
Little Judge from Barbour County won his first term as governor in 1962. George
Wallace was from the small Barbour County hamlet of Clio. His wife, Lurleen,
followed him as governor in 1966. She was born and raised in the Tuscaloosa
County town of Northport.
Upon Lurleen’s death from cancer in 1968, Albert
Brewer became governor. Brewer was from the middle-size town of Decatur but
still no metropolis. Wallace defeated Brewer in 1970 in a monumental battle for
his second term. Wallace won a third term in 1974.
In 1978, Fob James won a major upset victory. James
was from the small east Alabama valley mill town of Lanett. Wallace won his
fourth and final term in 1982. He was followed in 1986 by Alabama’s first
Republican governor, Guy Hunt. Hunt was from the village of Holly Pond in
Cullman County. His successor, Jim Folsom, Jr., is also from Cullman County.
In the 1994 governor’s race, Folsom lost a narrow
race to Fob James, who was running as a Republican this time. Fob was then
defeated by a city governor in 1998. Don Siegelman was born and raised in
Mobile. Siegelman lost a very close race to Bob Riley in 2002. Riley won a
second term in 2006. Riley is from the small Clay County town of Ashland.
Our current governor, Robert Bentley, practiced
medicine most of his adult life in the midsize city of Tuscaloosa. However, he
is a small town boy having grown up in Columbiana in Shelby County.
There you have it, my friends. If you were keeping
count during the past 66 years that is 14 to 2 small town governors over city
born governors.
This small town dominance does not end with Alabama
governors. A cursory look at the presidents over the past 66 years reveals that
if you include in the count those who were elected two times, the count is
small town boys 15 and city boys 1.
See you next week.
About the author: Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading
political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama
newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached
at http://www.steveflowers.us.
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