United Liberty

I remember how exited I was to be selected as a page for the Alabama Senate. It was April of 1993, and I recall driving up to Montgomery with my best friend growing up, Matt Hartfield. We were both 16 years old, and it was our first road trip on our own. I remember we stayed at a hotel that later became the Riverwalk Stadium where the Montgomery Biscuits minor league team presently resides.

I was very active in local politics as a volunteer, even though being a conservative Republican in the Wiregrass in 1993 was still a very lonely place at times.

But oddly enough, Alabama had a Republican governor. Guy Hunt was elected in 1987 as a result of a civil war within the Democratic Party. Alabama was a one-party state, and the Democratic primary was the de facto election-winner for statewide offices.

In 1987, conservative Democratic candidate Charlie Graddick won the primary, defeating Lt. Governor Bill Baxley. But the “old guard” in the party cried foul, claiming that Graddick only won by encouraging Republicans to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary.

Baxley won the battle but lost the war, as the anger of conservative Republicans and Democrats resulted in Primitive Baptist preacher Guy Hunt becoming the first Republican governor elected in Alabama since Reconstruction.

Once a Republican was elected, there was no turning back. The one-party system in Alabama officially ended.

Page life was very exciting. I learned a lot about the legislative process. But I had no idea that I was about to get a front row seat to one of the most significant occurrences in Alabama’s history.

On April 22, Governor Hunt was forced to resign after being found guilty of several ethics violations—for which he was later pardoned. Most Republicans believed Hunt was the subject of a witch hunt by AG Jimmy Evans. Indeed, he may have been. I personally doubt Gov. Hunt ever intended to violate the law. But what he definitely failed to fully appreciate was that his presence in Montgomery, surrounded by political piranhas, made him a big target for the Democrats.

Incidentally, one of the things Guy Hunt is not generally remembered for is that, before leaving office, he appointed a small-town attorney named Roy Moore to fill a judge vacancy in Etowah County.

Change had come to Alabama

The Lt. Governor of Alabama at the time was Jim Folsom, Jr. I remember standing in the visitor’s gallery of the old house chambers where the Confederate Congress met in 1861, watching “Little Jim” take his oath of office. The Democrats were ecstatic. After being defeated by Republicans twice at the ballot box, they finally had “their man” in the Governor’s office.

But the honeymoon was soon over.

The 1990s were a very bad decade for the Democrats. In 1994, the GOP made colossal gains in Congress and even on the local level in Alabama. Many conservative Democrats defected and switched their party affiliation. Senator Richard Shelby’s “conversion” following the 1994 elections was a major blow. Later, a bright young Republican Attorney General named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions defeated Democrat State Senator Roger Bedford to join Richard Shelby in the U.S. Senate. Former Democratic governor Fob James ran for governor again as a Republican and won, and the Democrats also lost control of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Seen from a providential light, Guy Hunt’s downfall was the pebble that began the GOP landslide in Alabama politics.

The landslide of the 1990s should have led to an avalanche in the first decade of the 21st century.  Sadly, this did not happen. In fact, the GOP has stalled in Alabama over the last couple of election cycles. I think this is due to several factors, including the following:

1. Drunken-sailor spending binges by Republicans in Congress.
2. Support of increased domestic program spending on the federal level by a Republican administration.
3. A 180-degree turn from the “Contract with America” principles of cutting the federal government down to constitutional size.
4. Unpopular war waged using “ends justify the means” violations of Constitutionally-protected freedoms.
5. Tepid support at best from many Republican leaders on social issues important to the base.

The Alabama GOP has a very aggressive program to take over the legislature in 2010. Millions of dollars have been raised. Lots of man hours have been spent in candidate recruitment and preparation. And the Obama administration appears to be drawing a line in the sand with this latest bailout debacle and making it “easy” to be a Republican again (i.e. “Just say no!”).

But if Republicans continue to send mixed messages to their base, we’re fooling ourselves to think that most voters will reward political schizophrenia at the ballot box.

For instance, if Republicans believe in limited government, they should not have supported a Bush bailout and then oppose an Obama bailout. They should oppose all bailouts. Republicans should not support massive increases in federal education spending by the Bush administration, then oppose Obama’s education plan as more “federal red tape” for our local schools.

Governor Guy Hunt ran on a very conservative platform. He was criticized, he was laughed at. But he won. He didn’t dilute his message, he stuck to his guns, and he won. Republicans need that same simplicity and resolve if we are to get back on track turning a landslide into an avalanche.