“Rumors and Rumblings” is a weekly feature that runs each Wednesday. It includes short nuggets of information that we glean from conversations throughout the week. Have a tip? Send it here.
1. The Alabama Civil Justice Reform Committee this past week circulated a poll that Democrat Chief Justice candidate Bob Vance’s campaign consultant, David Mowery, shared with them. The poll shows Republican Chief Justice Candidate Roy Moore leading Vance by the surprisingly slim margin of 3% (45%-42%) in spite of less than 1 in 5 voters saying they had any clue who Judge Vance is.
The further you dig into the poll, the dicier things get. According to the polling memo, the generic ballot shows Republicans only holding a 1 point lead over Democrats (39%-38%) with 23% of voters labeled as “persuadable.” Vance’s polling firm, Thirty-Ninth Street Strategies, explained this eyebrow-raising statistic by saying, “Alabama may be a red state, but when it comes to the election for Supreme Court Chief Justice, voters are willing to look at candidates from both parties.”
Come on now… Alabamians wouldn’t even vote for a generic ballot Democrat for dog catcher in the current political climate. An Anzalone-Liszt (Democrat polling firm) statewide survey in August showed that Republican vs Democrat Party ID in Alabama was 45%-36%. At right around ten points, that fits with what other surveys from both sides of the aisle have shown.
This whole Vance charade is similar to what’s been going on recently on the national level where pollsters drastically under-sample Republicans then pass the numbers off to be trumpeted by the complicit national media. Heck, The Montgomery Advertiser even posted the results of the poll yesterday without raising any concerns.
2. Yellowhammer sources sent over some polling numbers yesterday on the House District 34 Special Election. The below numbers are pretty much where things stand
Former Blount County Probate Judge David Standridge 48%
Former Democrat State Representative Jim Murphree: 19%
marketing executive Chris Latta: 12%
All others are below 4%
Standridge appears to be in a good position to possibly avoid a runoff. Popular support and financial support appear to be trending his way.
3. Morgan Cowling, who was most recently the Constituent Affairs & Political Appointments Coordinator for Lt. Governor Kay Ivey, has taken a position with Manufacture Alabama. Lt. Gov. Ivey has hired former WAKA Channel 8 News Anchor Katy Sulhoff to fill the roll. “Good hire,” one Montgomery insider told Yellowhammer.
4. The Alabama Forever Wild Land Trust Amendment will appear on the ballot Nov. 6. The amendment proposes payments made to the Forever Wild Land Trust be extended for a 20-year period. Insiders say that the Forever Wild Program remains extremely popular around the state and expect the amendment to pass by a wide margin.
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