A Senate committee shows everything wrong with Alabama government

  I want to seal the Feb. 7 meeting of the Alabama Senate’s State Governmental Affairs Committee in amber.

  I want to mail copies of it to every house in the state. I want to paint it in bright colors and sell it next to prints of Van Tiffin and Chris Davis.

  Because I have never seen anything that so embodied everything wrong with governance in Alabama.

Alabama’s low workforce participation rate is real. Legislators may not like the solutions.

  Alabama politicians chase so many imaginary problems that it’s worth noting when they dialogue with reality.

  For example, the recent creation by Gov. Kay Ivey and state legislators of a commission to study the state’s chronically low workforce participation rate.

  It’s a real problem.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Tuscaloosa's political influence

  A while back, during Dr. Robert Bentley’s tenure as governor, I wrote a column entitled, “They May as Well Move the Capitol to Tuscaloosa.” Never before in Alabama history has a city had a sitting governor and the state’s senior U.S. Senator hail from that particular place. Even with the departure of Bentley as governor, the Druid City has an inordinate amount of presence in the state’s political sphere of influence.

  Senator Richard Shelby is in his 32nd year as our U.S. Senator. With that kind of seniority comes immense power in Washington. Shelby is Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and is easily one of the three most powerful U.S. Senators. 

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Tuscaloosa and Wilcox Counties experience a surge in political clout

  Throughout Alabama political history, certain cities, counties and enclaves have had a proclivity for having an inordinate number of their citizenry serve in Alabama politics. The most dominant example is the unbelievable number of governors produced by Barbour County. It is referred to as the Home of Governors.

  However, currently we have a remarkable occurrence that will probably never happen again in Alabama politics. Tuscaloosa County’s prominence and representation on the Alabama political stage in the year 2015 is unparalleled.