Alabama has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, but it took another 30 years for the GOP to finally gain control of the Alabama State Legislature (2010). One of the primary reasons for the delay is that Democrats on the local level were successful in separating themselves in the minds of voters from the national Democratic party.
While making the rounds in their districts, these “good ol’ boys” would tout their “Alabama values” and reassure their constituents that they were “one of them.” But once they were back in Montgomery, they allowed the union bosses to run the show; the state’s budgets routinely went into proration due to overspending; and Alabama’s state government was known nationwide as a cesspool of corruption and greed. And the media was either complicit or derelict of duty, leaving local residents in the dark about what was really happening in their state capital.
There’s been a lot of progress since 2010 — in spite of some concerning setbacks — but that hasn’t stopped some local Democrats from trying regain a toehold in Montgomery after being swept out of office four years ago.
Long-time Democratic Senator Larry Means, for instance, was defeated in 2010 by staunch conservative Phil Williams, but is running once again in 2014.
But the poster boy for the “act one way in your district, but another way in Montgomery” crowd may be former state representative Jeff McLaughlin, who was also defeated in 2010 and is now trying to make a return to the state house this year.
McLaughlin is running against conservative Republican Will Ainsworth, who’s received the vocal support of Gov. Bentley and Christian conservative talk radio icon Rick Burgess of Rick & Bubba fame.
McLaughlin has managed to maintain a nice guy reputation in House District 27, but the area’s conservative-leaning electorate probably would not even consider voting for him if they were fully aware of how he represented them the last time he was trusted to go to Montgomery on their behalf.
From 2003-2006, his first full term in the Legislature, McLaughlin’s voting record received an abysmal 22 percent score from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which advocates on behalf of small businesses. That score tied him for dead last in the House. In his second term, 2007-2010, he continued to receive a failing score (44%).
He voted to raise taxes on businesses $96 million annually by casting a “yes” vote on HB350, which the NFIB noted “included a first-time tax on management and administrative fees.” He also voted to allow legislators to continue “double dipping,” or collecting two state paychecks — one as an elected official and another as a state employee.
And any attempts to separate himself from the national Democratic Party are laughable.
He was so liberal in the Legislature, in fact, that the Democratic Party recommended McLaughlin to President Barack Obama to fill a vacancy on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the panel that will likely decide whether gay marriage is legalized in the state of Alabama. After interviewing ten candidates, the Party recommended McLaughlin, who was a law school classmate of Obama’s, and several others as nominees they “would be proud” of if they were appointed to the Federal bench.
And his activities as an attorney since being voted out in 2010 continue to reveal his true colors.
Just this past year he represented the AARP’s radical environmental push before the Alabama Public Service Commission.
The AARP has been on the opposite side of conservatives on just about every imaginable issue in recent years, from advancing the aforementioned radical environmental agenda, to attacking the institution of marriage, to working closely with the Obama White House to rally support for ObamaCare.
So it came as no surprise when McLaughlin declared in a recent political forum that “A state representative cannot do diddly-squat to stop Obama.” That would undoubtedly be true in McLaughin’s case, since he has shown no desire to oppose the Obama Administration on anything whatsoever, in or out of the Legislature.
No one expected Democrats to go quietly after being run out of town in 2010, but Alabama voters would be wise to remember that they booted McLaughlin and his ilk out of office for a reason.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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