Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Siegelman shows Fob the door

  Old Fob James had an unusual political personality. When he was out of the governor’s office, he showed a tremendous yearning to get back. The proof is that he sought the office in 1986 and lost in the Democratic primary and lost again in 1990 in the primary. However, he came back and won in 1994 as a Republican. However, once he got the job, he acted as if he did not want it.

  James set a new standard for alienating his friends and supporters during his first term.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Fobbed again

  When Guy Hunt won the governor’s race over Bill Baxley in 1986, it was well publicized that he was a part-time Primitive Baptist preacher. He was also billed as a part-time Amway salesman. These common man vocations appealed to the average Alabama voter. It was Hunt’s calling as a Baptist preacher that resonated warmly with his constituency. Alabamians are very religious and very Baptist.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Siegelman meets Big Jim

  We are continuing with our summer series on Big Jim Folsom – Alabama’s most colorful governor. 

  Those of us who grew up in and around Alabama politics have coined a descriptive term for a person who is obsessed with seeking political office constantly without reservation or concern for their physical, mental, or financial welfare. They will run for elected office at all costs. The term we use to describe those people is named for the man who best exemplified that obsession - George Wallace. Therefore, someone who is driven by an obsession to win high public office has “George Wallace Syndrome”.  

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Will legislature allow Alabamians to vote on gambling revenue?

  In 1998, Don Siegelman ran for Governor of Alabama on a platform of proposing that his administration would enact legislation creating a state lottery. It would be patterned after Georgia’s lottery, which gives the bulk of the proceeds to an educational fund. That was over two decades ago.  

  Our neighboring state of Georgia has reaped billions of dollars from their lottery in the last three decades, which has allowed them to outdistance us by a country mile in educating their children. A good many of those Georgia students attend college in their state free under the Hope Scholarship Program funded with these lottery dollars. A substantial amount of these funds going to Georgia students come from Alabamians who buy Georgia lottery tickets.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: We have six living former governors. How are they doing?

  Gov. John Patterson is our oldest living chief executive. Patterson is 99 years old and living on his ancestral family farm in rural Tallapoosa County in an obscure area named Goldville. Patterson is a legend in Alabama politics. He was governor from 1958-1962. He has the distinction of being the only person to beat George Wallace in a governor’s race in the Heart of Dixie. When he was elected in 1958, he was 37-years-old and was dubbed the “Boy Governor”. Patterson was Attorney General of Alabama for a term prior to being governor and served several decades on the Court of Criminal Appeals after his governorship.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Budgets are priority for this legislative session

  The 2020 Alabama Legislative Session has resumed after a six-week hiatus due to the coronavirus shutdown of the state and the nation. The session must end by May 18. The only thing they will do is pass barebones budgets. 

  The most important - and actually the only constitutionally-mandated act that must be accomplished - is the passage of the state budgets. In our case, we have two state budgets. We have a general fund like 45 other states, and we have a second one, the Special Education Trust Fund budget. 

Steve Flowers - Inside the Statehouse: Observations

  Allow me to share some more observations from the year.

  One of my favorite individuals in the world and one of the finest gentlemen I have ever known is Alabama state Representative Steve Clouse of Ozark. My relationship with Clouse falls under the category of "Alabama is one big front porch".

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse – Alabama vs. Auburn

  The only sport that Alabamians enjoy more than Alabama politics is college football. We especially love the Alabama vs. Auburn football game. Folks, this is Alabama/Auburn week in Alabama!

  The Alabama vs. Auburn annual event is one of the fiercest of college football rivalries. It is the game of the year. It is a state civil war that divides friends and even families. It is bragging rights for the entire year. The loser has to live with his boasting next door neighbor for 364 days. It seems that one must choose a side no matter if you despise college football and could care less who wins. Newcomers to our state are bewildered on this fall day each year. They cannot comprehend the madness that surrounds this epic war. It is truly that, a war. It is the game of the year.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse – Democrats have three viable candidates, but Republicans will prevail

  In politics, perception is reality. It is perceived and therefore factual that a Democrat cannot win a statewide race in Alabama.

  The proof is in the pudding. We have 29 elected statewide officeholders in the Heart of Dixie. All 29 of them are Republicans.

  In addition, 6 out of 7 of our members in Congress are Republican. We have one lone Democratic member of Congress. Terri Sewell occupies the seat in Congress designed to be held by an African American.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Blogging and political persecution

  I have written about the legendary capitol reporters who use to cover Goat Hill.  There was Bob Ingram of the Montgomery Advertiser, Al Fox of the Birmingham News, Hugh Sparrow of the Birmingham News, Rex Thomas of the Associated Press, Don Martin of UPI and Clarke Stallworth of the Birmingham Post Herald. A young cub reporter named Jim Bennett joined the Post Herald in 1961 and later had a distinguished career in public service. None of these legends is any longer with us.

  Today’s capitol press corps also works hard, they stick with “just the facts” through conscientious research of their stories, and leave out the speculations, “what-ifs”, opinion and political slants.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The legacies of Alabama governors

  We have unbelievable natural resources in Alabama from the Tennessee Valley to the beautiful white sands at Gulf Shores. Many of our natural resources have been exploited over the years. A prime example would be the exploitation of our rich vaults of iron ore discovered in Jefferson County in the early 20th Century. It created the city of Birmingham, the Steel City of the South.

  U.S. Steel swept in and bought the entire region, used cheap labor in the mines and steel mills, and kept poor whites and blacks in poverty wages and shantytowns. They owed their soul to the company store. Finally they organized into labor unions. The United Steel Workers Union Local in Birmingham became the largest in the nation. Alabama also became the most unionized state in the south.

Craig Ford: Alabama Senators killed the lottery - Will they kill the BP bill, too?

  The governor called the Alabama Legislature into a special legislative session this summer with two things in mind: pass a lottery and pass a spending plan for the BP oil spill settlement. So far, the legislature hasn’t done too well with passing either of these bills.

  The lottery came as close to passing as any lottery bill has since Gov. Don Siegelman’s bill went to the voters in 1999, and I’d like to commend the governor for his leadership on getting the bill through the House, even though I disagreed with the split in funding.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Mike Hubbard: What's next?

  The conviction and downfall of Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard is the political story of the year. It has not been the most profound conviction of an Alabama public official in my lifetime. We have had two governors convicted of crimes while in office and removed in fairly recent years, Guy Hunt a Republican, and Don Siegelman a Democrat. Siegelman is still in federal prison in Louisiana. However, Hubbard’s trial has been the most anticipated and most dramatic.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Siegelman shows Fob the door

  Old Fob James had an unusual political personality. When he was out of the governor’s office he showed a tremendous yearning to get back. The proof is he sought the office in 1986 and lost in the Democratic primary and lost again in 1990 in the primary. However, he came back and won in 1994 as a Republican. However, once he got the job he acted as if he did not want it.

  As mentioned a few weeks earlier, Fob set a new standard for alienating his friends and supporters during his first term.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Hunt leaves mark as first GOP governor since Reconstruction

  When Guy Hunt took office as the first Republican governor in January of 1987 not much was expected of him. After all, he had been elected only because of the backlash resulting from the handpicking of Bill Baxley over Charlie Graddick by the Democratic Party leadership. Very few people voted for Hunt because they thought he was the better choice or that his credentials rendered him more qualified.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1407: The power of one vote

  The power of one vote. So many of us think that we have just one vote but we have many votes. However, since this one vote syndrome is so prevalent, I want to share various examples of the power of one vote.

  Did you know that Adolph Hitler became head of the Nazi Party and thereby the leader of Germany by just one vote? If just one person had voted differently or one additional person had voted, we would not have had World War II. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers would not have died on bloody battlefields. Millions would not have died in concentration camps. Just one vote a few years earlier damaged the entire world. That’s the power of one vote.

Katherine Green Robertson: Consider the cons of Alabama’s CON

  On September 6, Area Development magazine named Alabama the fourth best state in the nation for doing business. According to the magazine, states were ranked on factors such as: business environment, labor climate, and infrastructure. Governor Bentley and his economic development team should be proud of this recognition as they continue their quest to bring new businesses to Alabama.

  Texas received the honor of first place. Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) has traveled across the nation promoting his state as the land of a "low-tax environment free of overregulation." With one industry in particular, Governor Perry holds a significant advantage: healthcare.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Siegelman's case revisited

  The two prominent political trials in Alabama in the past few years have boiled down to one paramount issue, “Is it bribery or is it politics?” In the most recent bingo gambling trial the pivotal issue revolved around whether a campaign contribution is a bribe. The jury answered with a resounding no.

  In the first trial there were nine defendants. None of the nine were convicted. The jury found that there was no validity to 99 of the 138 original charges. In the second trial there were six remaining defendants, VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, lobbyist Tom Coker, State Senator Harri Anne Smith, former casino spokesman Jay Walker, former State Senator Larry Means and former State Senator Jim Preuitt.