7 Things: Impeachment support continues to fall among independents, Ivey prison plan is to build, too many jobs in North Alabama and more …

7. Sessions asks that people give thanks for law enforcement

• On the heels of the murder of the Lowndes County Sheriff, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is calling on people to remember law enforcement is who we rely on in times of danger, highlighting that assaults on police are up 22% since 2014.
• In an editorial for Yellowhammer News, Sessions wrote, “As we gather around the table this year to give thanks for our loved ones and many blessings, we should all pause to give thanks for the men and women of law enforcement. Every time they put on a uniform, neither they, nor their families, know if they will come home.”

6. Democrat who was for impeachment, then against it, is now for it again

• The Democratic Party is almost completely unified in its desire to see President Donald Trump removed from office, but U.S. Representative Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) announced she had changed her mind and has now changed it again.
• After telling a radio host that she thought impeachment was too much and that she wanted a censure instead, she reacted to the blowback by releasing a statement reaffirming her support. She stated, “The House Intelligence Committee followed a very thorough process in holding hearings these past two weeks. The information they revealed confirmed that this President has abused the power of his office, therefore I continue to support impeachment.”

5. U.S. Senate forum

• During a forum at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Alabama 2020 U.S. Senate candidates U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope), businessman Stanley Adair, State Representative Arnold Mooney (R-Indian Springs) and Secretary of State John Merrill all agreed U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) is too liberal for Alabama. They also shared they stand with President Donald Trump while supporting his goals of reigning in illegal immigration.
• Frontrunners former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville did not appear at this event, citing busy schedules and other events in other parts of the state.

4. Obama wants to stop Sanders, not a fan of Biden

• In a new Politico report, President Barack Obama spoke about current 2020 Democratic presidential candidates U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden, where he essentially said that he would do what he needed to stop Sanders from becoming the nominee.
• The report states the Obama intended to “speak up to stop him” if Sanders seemed like he was doing well enough to be the nominee, but Obama has been outspoken about a few issues in the Democratic race like warning candidates that voters don’t want to “tear down the system.” He’s also spoken out against political “wokeness.” In the piece, Obama states that Biden doesn’t have a real bond with voters.

3. North Alabama is facing an employment problem because of too many jobs

• Every community in the country would love to have the “problem” North Alabama is having right now: too many jobs and not enough people to fill them. According to a new report, there is a need to “ramp up a moonshot effort to get people to be interested to move to this region.”
• The report says that the Huntsville area will have 25,000 new jobs by 2023, which creates a strain on available labor as Alabama’s unemployment rate sits at 2.8% while the Huntsville area’s rate is at 2.1%.

2. Ivey working on a prison plan

• Governor Kay Ivey and the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) announced that they will be reviewing propositions from four different teams on how to move forward with new prisons and, make no mistake, this is headed towards being the solution to solving longstanding concerns with the state’s prisons.
• Details are expected of the upcoming proposals in the spring of 2020.

1. A majority of independents won’t support impeachment

• Despite Democrats constantly playing up the idea that they’ve got President Donald Trump right where they want him and they’re definitely going to get him, the evidence to support those claims seems to be lacking, and now support for impeachment among independents is lacking.
• Support for impeachment among independents has slowly started to drop, standing at 42% supporting and 50% not supporting impeachment in the most recent NPR/CBS/Marist poll, which puts support down 3% from before. Democrats seem to get that this is going poorly and are ready to get this over with.