This is Part 1 of a three-part series on the race to become Alabama’s next congressman. Going in alphabetical order, Yellowhammer will give you our take on the seven candidates who qualified for the Republican nomination in Alabama’s 6th Congressional District (no Democrats qualified). The candidates are Scott Beason, Will Brooke, Paul DeMarco, Chad Mathis, Gary Palmer, Robert Shattuck and Tom Vigneulle. They are running to succeed 11-term congressman Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, who has decided not to seek re-election in 2014.
So, without further ado, here are the first two candidates…
Scott Beason
Beason was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1998 at the age of 28. He served two terms in the House before being elected to the Senate in 2006. He rose to become chairman of the powerful Senate Rules Committee, which decides what bills get placed on the calendar each day. He wore a wire during a gambling corruption investigation that led to the prosecution of a lobbyist and real estate developer. However, he was also heard on the recordings referring to black patrons of a Green County gaming facility as “aborigines,” a statement that ultimately got him removed from his plum committee appointment. But that didn’t stop him from carrying some of the most ardently conservative — not to mention controversial — pieces of legislation to come out of Goat Hill in recent years.
Sometimes he’s Ted Cruz, sometimes he’s Ted Nugent, but hey, at least he’s never boring.
Some insiders say Beason has grown weary in the senate in recent years. Although he has carried some of the legislature’s most publicized bills (e.g. immigration, omnibus gun bill), being stripped of his committee chairmanship was a blow from which his influence in the legislature never recovered. He announced he was not seeking re-election to the senate before he even knew he was going to run for the U.S. House. Paradoxically, a state senator probably has more ability to influence policy than do most congressmen. You can be one of 35 in the Alabama Senate. You can only be one of 435 in the U.S. House.
Beason’s late entrance into the race will hurt him when it comes to fundraising, which was already his most glaring weakness as a candidate. He will, however, come right out of the gate with the highest name recognition in the race and an established brand. There is a decent chance that the AL-06 race plays out similarly to the AL-01 race last year, which pit a Tea Party candidate against a more establishment candidate in a runoff. If that’s how things go, Beason has a good chance to be the Tea Party guy. But it is going to be very tough for a conservative firebrand to win in AL-06 where the population center of the district consists of Mountain Brook, Homewood and Vestavia Hills, which are more pro-business areas than they are Tea Party hotbeds. If any of the deep-pocketed national conservative PACs get heavily involved in this race in support of Beason, though, it could be a game changer.
Will Brooke
Brooke is executive vice president and managing partner of Harbert Management Corporation, one of Alabama’s most successful companies. He joined Harbert Corporation and its affiliates as Vice President and General Counsel in August of 1991, and served as their Chief Operating Officer from 1995 until 2001. Before his employment with Harbert, Brooke was founder and Managing Partner of the Birmingham law firm Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt, and an attorney with the Burr & Forman law firm in Birmingham. He’s also a former chairman of the Business Council of Alabama.
He was deeply involved in the successful efforts to reform the Alabama Supreme Court in the 1990s, and was Chairman of the BCA’s ProgressPAC in 2010 when the Alabama Legislature elected its first Republican majority in over 100 years.
As for the AL-06 race, Brooke’s strengths and weaknesses as a candidate are almost the exact opposite of Beason’s. Brooke has already proven himself to be an excellent fundraiser, and he has the ability to chip in a big chunk of his own money if the need arises. But he will have to work hard to win over grassroots conservatives — especially in rural areas — who tend to be skeptical of candidates coming out of the business community.
Brooks told Yellowhammer shortly after he announced his candidacy that he believes he can bridge the gap between the Tea Party and the business community.
“I can absolutely bridge that gap,” he said. “I don’t think the rift is that serious. As long as the candidate stays focused on needs of district as a whole, we can get beyond that.”
He has already taken some early shots from individuals questioning his conservative credentials because he made campaign donations to several Democrats in the past. Brooke dismissed the criticism as his opponents trying “to create an issue where there is not one” and noted that the handful of donations to Democrats over the years amounted to only about 2 percent of his total giving. But this line of attack is one that will probably be employed throughout the race against Brooke. His challenge will be to assure voters that he would be a strong conservative in the House. He is a newcomer to most citizens of the 6th District. He’s got the financial resources to introduce himself to the District on his own terms and shape the way he is perceived by the voters. He needs to take advantage of that opportunity early. If he can, he has a very good shot at making it into the runoff.
PART TWO COMING SOON…
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