ALABAMA REVISITED

I thought I would talk a little about the Great State of Alabama and some of what went on there in the June 1, 2010 primaries.

In a previous posting I mentioned Bradley Byrne, a contender for the Republicult nomination for governor, who was accused by dastardly opponents of believing in evolution. He vehemently denied this and said every word in the Bible is literally true. Evidently he convinced the folks he meant it, because he has made it into a runoff with either of two other jokers.

The contest for gov on the Dem side was different and instructive. You had a smooth young Harvard-educated black Congressman, Artur Davis, giving up his House seat to have a go at it.
It is a good sign when an African-American has a real shot at becoming governor in George Wallace country, and Davis was favored to win his primary. His strategy was to count on getting black support while ignoring it, and to try to build a coalition of whites and blacks on centrist ground.

His primary opponent was the state's elected agriculture commissioner, a middle-aged white man named Ron Sparks. While Davis emphasized that he was a moderate, Sparks ran as, in effect, a national Democrat, endorsing the new national healthcare bill while Artur Davis voted against it. Sparks has a kind of folksy populist edge that the people of Alabama have sometimes gone for. As examples, think of Wallace as a rightist populist and"Kissin' Jim" Folsom as a leftist one. If the liberal and anti-segregation Folsom could get elected governor of Alabama in the 1940s, you can see that reaction may be the likelihood there but is not the certainty.

The four strong black political/civil rights organizations in the state looked over their options and found it easy to decide. They endorsed Ron Sparks.

And in the primary, Sparks beat Davis, 62% to 38%.

These were two very different strategies for getting votes.

I saw Artur Davis speak one time; and while he is bright and articulate, I found him to also be bland and cautious. I saw Ron Sparks speak in a video at his website a few days ago, and I thought he was sharp: direct, intense, apparently voicing conviction. At that time, going by media reports and opinion polls, I had been expecting Davis to win the thing. But after seeing Sparks, I wondered if he could?

Now we know. Alabama, where much of the Dem party is black, went for a "real" Dem regardless of race. And in November? I don't know, but I suspect that someone who really stands for something and isn't afraid to say so boldly may have a better chance than someone who is calculating and overly careful would.

Also in Alabama, Congressman Parker Griffith had a bad day. He is the fellow who recently switched parties and in the process became unacceptable to both. A teabagger beat him easily in the GOP primary. Griffith's path has been from reactionary first-term Dem Congressman to reactionary first-term Repub Congressman to reactionary in private life. He has finally found his niche!