“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. All sources remain confidential.
1. Foundation for Accountability in Education
The biggest buzz around Montgomery right now is that Republican legislative leaders have launched a new non-profit group that is raising money to combat the massive AEA ad buys. The 501c4 is called the Foundation for Accountability in Education and they’re already up with their first radio ad:
They’ve also set up a website: AlabamaAccountability.com where education reform advocates can sign a petition in support of school choice. The foundation’s first YouTube video was just released today as well and can be seen below. A source with knowledge of the Foundation’s fundraising goals told Yellowhammer Tuesday morning that the response to AEA’s attacked would be “swift and significant.”
2. AEA Keeps Shooting
The AEA re-upped their ad buy again this week as they continue their attacks on school choice. Their latest ad, which launches today, can be heard below:
3. Hightower Wins
Bill Hightower will in all likelihood be the next Senator from District 35 after he bested Rep. Jim Barton 64% – 36% in Tuesday’s special runoff election. Barton will retain his seat in the House of Representatives.
The final day of the campaign only had one minor flare up as Hightower tweeted that Barton had hired people to organize Democrats to vote for him. Barton addressed the tweet to AL.com saying, “I hired Jon Gray and I don’t consider him a Democratic consultant by any stretch of the imagination. We didn’t target Democrats, we targerted every body.”
Many sources have told Yellowhammer that Democrat operative Joe Perkins was brought in to work on Barton’s behalf, but not necessarily by Barton himself.
Either way, South Alabama will still have Rep. Barton in the House, and they will soon gain a new conservative voice in the Senate with Hightower. Hightower’s general consultant Chris Brown deserves a hat tip for running an excellent campaign in spite of comparatively limited resources.
4. No one turns down Chic-fil-A
The lure of chicken biscuits and waffle fries proved to be too much to resist for Carrie Kurlander, former Siegelman Press Secretary and more recently Vice President of Commnunications for Southern Company. Kurlander informed her friends and associates this week that she will be leaving Southern Company to take a job as Vice President of Public Relations at Chic-fil-A.
5. Judicial fights looming?
It looks like all of the statewide elected judges who are up for re-election in 2014 are planning to run again, but whispers are starting to make the rounds in Montgomery that some of them may receive serious opposition. Will Chief Justice Roy Moore look to field some candidates of his own? Will Republican Judge Bill Thompson have a challenger? As most Yellowhammer readers will recall, Thompson was the judge who led the Court of the Judiciary during the Roy Moore Ten Commandments controversy.
All of this is speculation at this point, but it’ll be something to watch as we move toward 2014.
6. Hodges gets in the game
Billy Hodges, a farmer and businessman, says he plans to run for the State House in District 24 next year as a Republican. Rep. Todd Greeson (R) currently holds the seat but is expected to run for the State Senate in 2014. Hodges is the first to officially announce he will be seeking the Republican nomination in District 24, but others are also considering jumping in. Nathaniel Ledbetter ran as a Democrat in 2010 and gave Greeson a tough fight. He’s rumored to be considering a run as Republican in 2014. We’ll have more on this seat in the near future.
