U2Bama
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Today's Primary races were pledged to be "referendums" by various opposition candidates, and it appears their referendums failed.
Within the Republican Primary, Roy "Granite Idol" Moore (aka "Judge" Roy Moore, "The Ten Commandments Judge," etc.) was part of a slate of candidates based on him, his granite Ten Commandments monument, his previous removal from office, anti-taxation, anti-constitution reform, and defiance of the Federal Courts. With 2,972 of 3,240 precincts reporting, incumbent Governor Bob Riley is defeating Roy Rock 65 % to 35%. Moore's Ten Commandments attorney Tom Parker, who was the only Moore-ite to win a Supreme Court seat in 2004, was defeated in his attempt to unseat Chief Justice Drayton Nabers. Their three other candidates for associate justices also failed to unseat sitting justices.
The issue in the Supreme Court races has been the decision of the other members of the Supreme Court to remove the granite monument (copyrighted with Roy Moore and his attorneys' names) from the Courthouse Rotunda in accordance with the ruling of Federal Judge Myron Thompson, a decision which Roy refused to accept. He and his interests fielded candidates to run against all of the justices up for re-election who didn't go along with his rebellion. Some of them, including Parker, pledged to ignore any future U.S. Supreme Court decisions which they disagreed with. Parker said he would do this to send the U.S. Supreme Court a message until they came around to his opinion. If they didn't subvert to him, I guess he and Ol' Roy would attempt to seced from the Union.
Another race they had interest in was for Lieutenant Governor, where newcomer Luther Strange (Gov. Riley ally) faced opponents George Wallace Jr. (yes, I know) and Mo Brooks and a candidate whose platform is that he once lived in Israel. The Moore camp actually split, with the "Conservative Christians of Alabama" endorsing Wallace and the "Alabama Republican Assembly" endorsing anti-tax Mo Brooks. Unfortunately, Strange will likely have to face Wallace in a runoff.
All of the candidates also screamed an anti-tax platform. When Governor Bob Riley (yes, a Republican) proposed a reform plan in 2003 that included tax reform, constitutional reform, and governmental accoutability, these Moore idealists zeroed in on the tax and constitution components. They accused the tax portion of being a socialistic redistribution of the wealth (raising the state income tax for Alabama's poorest working families to $20,000 for a family of 4), and they accused the constitutional reform part of being an attack on a "godly" document. The tax plan would have resulted in higher taxes for many Alabamans, nominal for some, slightly more for others, but, as a business-minded conservative in this state, I will admit that it was an overdue need and a more equitable plan than what we have now. It failed in a referndum and Riley has not attempted to raise taxes since then, but he has pushed legislation to raise the threshhold for the lowest wage earners. A compromise reached this year was $12,500 (but it's still pathetic that a family of 4 making $14,000 a year has to pay state income taxes).
Much of the unofficial campaigning was that if you're a real Christian concerned about your rights, then you will support Moore and his candidates. What's funny is that all of the other candidates are Christian as well; they just have a different view on state vs. federal power and state religion. The pre-election polls constantly showed Riley with a huge lead, but the Moore-ites kept saying they were going to show up and bring traditional Democrats over to vote for him. Oh well.
It is a good thing that these Republican candidates won as it shows that reform-minded, dare I say "progressive" ideals were selected over a platform that wanted to take us back to "the good ole days."
In the Democratic Primary, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley defeated former Governor and lottery proponent Don Siegelman while he sat as a defendant in his second federal corruption trial. He still refers to himself in the third person as "The Governor." A nuisance candidate for Democratic governor said that illegal aliens should be shot. Baxley has steered clear of corruption and has been effective in previous offices held and was clearly the best choice in this primary.
In the Democratic primary for Attorney General, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson ran against atheist activist Larry Darby. You could always expect to hear Darby being interviewed during hte past ten years whenever some issue of separation of church and state came up. He was obviously a character in many of the "Judge Roy Moore" events back when Moore actually held office. Darby threw everyone for a twist recently when he was revealed as a neo-nazi sympathizing, holocaust-denier who also advocated killing illegal immigrants. I am embarassed to say that Larry Darby received 160,144 votes in my state, or 44% of the Democratic Primary vote. His opponent is a very effective prosecutor with a proven record against crime, but he did not campaign. The most shocking fact is that the state's oldest African-American political group, the Alabama Democratic Caucus, did not endorse either candidate. Why they would not endorse Tyson as an endorsement against a neo-nazi is beyond me.
Overall, the good news is that we should not hear from the Moore-ites for at least a couple of years. Or so I hope.
~U2Alabama
Within the Republican Primary, Roy "Granite Idol" Moore (aka "Judge" Roy Moore, "The Ten Commandments Judge," etc.) was part of a slate of candidates based on him, his granite Ten Commandments monument, his previous removal from office, anti-taxation, anti-constitution reform, and defiance of the Federal Courts. With 2,972 of 3,240 precincts reporting, incumbent Governor Bob Riley is defeating Roy Rock 65 % to 35%. Moore's Ten Commandments attorney Tom Parker, who was the only Moore-ite to win a Supreme Court seat in 2004, was defeated in his attempt to unseat Chief Justice Drayton Nabers. Their three other candidates for associate justices also failed to unseat sitting justices.
The issue in the Supreme Court races has been the decision of the other members of the Supreme Court to remove the granite monument (copyrighted with Roy Moore and his attorneys' names) from the Courthouse Rotunda in accordance with the ruling of Federal Judge Myron Thompson, a decision which Roy refused to accept. He and his interests fielded candidates to run against all of the justices up for re-election who didn't go along with his rebellion. Some of them, including Parker, pledged to ignore any future U.S. Supreme Court decisions which they disagreed with. Parker said he would do this to send the U.S. Supreme Court a message until they came around to his opinion. If they didn't subvert to him, I guess he and Ol' Roy would attempt to seced from the Union.
Another race they had interest in was for Lieutenant Governor, where newcomer Luther Strange (Gov. Riley ally) faced opponents George Wallace Jr. (yes, I know) and Mo Brooks and a candidate whose platform is that he once lived in Israel. The Moore camp actually split, with the "Conservative Christians of Alabama" endorsing Wallace and the "Alabama Republican Assembly" endorsing anti-tax Mo Brooks. Unfortunately, Strange will likely have to face Wallace in a runoff.
All of the candidates also screamed an anti-tax platform. When Governor Bob Riley (yes, a Republican) proposed a reform plan in 2003 that included tax reform, constitutional reform, and governmental accoutability, these Moore idealists zeroed in on the tax and constitution components. They accused the tax portion of being a socialistic redistribution of the wealth (raising the state income tax for Alabama's poorest working families to $20,000 for a family of 4), and they accused the constitutional reform part of being an attack on a "godly" document. The tax plan would have resulted in higher taxes for many Alabamans, nominal for some, slightly more for others, but, as a business-minded conservative in this state, I will admit that it was an overdue need and a more equitable plan than what we have now. It failed in a referndum and Riley has not attempted to raise taxes since then, but he has pushed legislation to raise the threshhold for the lowest wage earners. A compromise reached this year was $12,500 (but it's still pathetic that a family of 4 making $14,000 a year has to pay state income taxes).
Much of the unofficial campaigning was that if you're a real Christian concerned about your rights, then you will support Moore and his candidates. What's funny is that all of the other candidates are Christian as well; they just have a different view on state vs. federal power and state religion. The pre-election polls constantly showed Riley with a huge lead, but the Moore-ites kept saying they were going to show up and bring traditional Democrats over to vote for him. Oh well.
It is a good thing that these Republican candidates won as it shows that reform-minded, dare I say "progressive" ideals were selected over a platform that wanted to take us back to "the good ole days."
In the Democratic Primary, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley defeated former Governor and lottery proponent Don Siegelman while he sat as a defendant in his second federal corruption trial. He still refers to himself in the third person as "The Governor." A nuisance candidate for Democratic governor said that illegal aliens should be shot. Baxley has steered clear of corruption and has been effective in previous offices held and was clearly the best choice in this primary.
In the Democratic primary for Attorney General, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson ran against atheist activist Larry Darby. You could always expect to hear Darby being interviewed during hte past ten years whenever some issue of separation of church and state came up. He was obviously a character in many of the "Judge Roy Moore" events back when Moore actually held office. Darby threw everyone for a twist recently when he was revealed as a neo-nazi sympathizing, holocaust-denier who also advocated killing illegal immigrants. I am embarassed to say that Larry Darby received 160,144 votes in my state, or 44% of the Democratic Primary vote. His opponent is a very effective prosecutor with a proven record against crime, but he did not campaign. The most shocking fact is that the state's oldest African-American political group, the Alabama Democratic Caucus, did not endorse either candidate. Why they would not endorse Tyson as an endorsement against a neo-nazi is beyond me.
Overall, the good news is that we should not hear from the Moore-ites for at least a couple of years. Or so I hope.
~U2Alabama
