Larry Lee, a candidate for the Republican nomination for a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education, has been described in a memo as a R.I.N.O (Republican-In-Name-Only) by a veteran GOP lawmaker for his longtime association with the Democrat Party and support of policies promoted by Alabama’s controversial teachers union.
“Larry Lee does not deserve to have our Republican brand beside his name,” wrote Perry O. Hooper, Jr., in a recent letter asking the Alabama Republican Party to refrain from certifying Lee should he prevail in the upcoming primary.
Lee is well known in political circles as a vocal opponent of the Alabama Accountability Act, the bill passed a few years ago that allows students who are stuck in underperforming public schools to receive vouchers for private education.
Hooper, a former Republican legislator who sits on the state party’s executive committee, claims his memo shows a “strong pattern of evidence” that Lee isn’t a genuine Republican and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to represent the party during a general election, including:
— Lee voted in the Democrat Party Primary as recently as the 2017 special U.S. Senate election.
— Lee has been a Democrat candidate for office four times — twice against U.S. Rep. Bill Dickinson (R-Montgomery) who Hooper calls one of the state party’s “Founding Fathers.”
— Lee contributed to the Democrat who challenged stalwart conservative U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) in the 2010 general election.
— Lee has been a paid contractor for the Alabama Education Association, Hooper’s memo alleges, and that Lee “parrots” the union’s policies in newspaper columns.
“When Mr. Lee goes to vote in the Republican Primary in a few weeks,” wrote Hooper, “it will be the eighth time he has seen his name on the ballot … every time prior to this one, he had a “D” beside his name.”
The school board race in Montgomery County is particularly critical this cycle. The school district, which has been called “chronically underperforming” by the local newspaper, was taken over by the State Board of Education and will not regain local control until its books and its performance show improvement.
The area where Lee is running to represent was described as a “Republican bastion,” by one political operative, so a Democrat would have a tough time winning in the general election.
Efforts to reach Lee were unsuccessful and a spokesperson for the Alabama Republican Party said it doesn’t discuss “inter-party business” like Hooper’s letter.
The primary is June 5.
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