Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Could the 2017 U.S. Senate Special Election be Alabama's last?

  A few weeks back my column illuminated the career and influence attained by our senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby. In the column and in my book, “Six Decades of Alabama Political Stories,” I reference the fact that our current senior senator will be regarded as one of Alabama’s greatest U.S. Senators. I consider Lister Hill, John Sparkman, and Richard Shelby in that triumvirate. However, history more than likely will reveal that Shelby is eclipsing Hill and Sparkman in the annals of senatorial lore.

Craig Ford: State leaders need to abandon the extreme and get back to the mainstream

  When even the Republican leader in the state senate says you're out of touch, you know things have gone too far. But that is where we are in Alabama politics these days. It’s about the mainstream versus the extreme, and right now the extreme is winning!

  In a recently released recording of a meeting between the governor and the Alabama Republican Party’s governing committee, Republican Party chair Terry Lathan said that the Republican Party brand had been damaged by Sen. Del Marsh’s (R-Anniston) support for a lottery.