BCA Holds Off on Endorsing Chief Justice Candidate

Rumor: source says BCA has informed Chief Justice candidates that they aren’t currently making an endorsement. More as we get it #alpolitics

— Yellow Hammer (@YHPolitics) January 23, 2012

The Business Council of Alabama met Monday to decide who they would endorse in the Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice race. Their decision? No one…at least for now. The campaigns were also told that while an endorsement is not forthcoming, the BCA is not closing the door on endorsing a candidate at a later date.

As we mentioned last week in our in-depth look at the chief justice race, the BCA endorsement is by far the most coveted in this election cycle. Their decision came after an extremely thorough candidate interview process that took place in late November.

Here’s my speculation on the BCA’s thought process:

1. The BCA would be fine with either Graddick or Malone
2. The BCA put a poll in the field and saw Graddick and Moore way up over Malone
3. Putting money into the Malone campaign likely won’t save a sinking ship
4. A Graddick endorsement could potentially not sit well with Governor Bentley
5. We’re likely headed for a runoff between Graddick & Moore.

Bottom line:

The BCA doesn’t want to throw their money away on a losing Malone campaign but also doesn’t want to pointlessly upset the Governor with a Graddick endorsement when they could just wait until the (likely) runoff and give Graddick a boost then.