This is a big election year in the Heart of Dixie. Every Constitutional office is on the ballot. Most of the major Constitutional offices are wide open with no incumbent running for reelection. The two most important posts in state government, after the Governor, are Attorney General and Agriculture Commissioner.
Both constitutional offices are incumbent free. Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate is term-limited and is running for Lt. Governor. The Attorney General office is being vacated by Steve Marshall, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
These two races have fielded well qualified and good candidates. The winner of the GOP Primary on May 19th will be the next Attorney General and Agriculture Commissioner, respectively. A Democrat cannot win a statewide race in Alabama. However, these two GOP Primary elections will not be decided on May 19th. These two races are the most consequential, close, contentious, and interesting statewide races this year. They are both headed for a June runoff.
The Democrats have fielded good candidates in these two marque races. Ron Sparks, a former Agriculture Commissioner, is running for his old job. Jeff McLaughlin, a Sand Mountain lawyer and former one-term legislator from Marshall County, is running for Attorney General. He is a good man. If McLaughlin and Sparks were running as Republicans, they probably would not win the GOP nomination, but they would be viable candidates. However, they both are true blue Democrats.
The GOP Attorney General Primary election will feature former State Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell, Assistant Attorney General Katherine Green Robertson, and Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey. All are well qualified for this important office. This will be one of the best and most expensive state contests and will probably need a runoff to determine a winner.
Jay Mitchell is favored to win, but Katherine Robertson will run him close, and Pamela Casey will be the surprise in this race. Casey is going to get a significant vote and will be right on Katherine Robertson’s heels. Pam Casey is probably the most qualified candidate in the race. She has been the District Attorney in Blount County for over a decade and has actually prosecuted criminals.
Jay Mitchell served seven years on the Alabama Supreme Court and left the high tribunal to run for Attorney General. He has been elected twice statewide. He has a proven, conservative, pro-business track record. He has the backing of the state business community, and his fundraising illuminates this support. He leads the field in campaign dollars raising well over $2 million.
Katherine Robertson is right behind Mitchell in dollars in the bank heading towards May 19. She has been the recipient of over $1.5 million from right wing, out-of-state, dark money political action committees, which accounts for the majority of her campaign contributions. It is because of this dark money that she will be a very viable candidate.
The problem she has is that in the runoff, Pam Casey will finish a strong third, and Casey will endorse and campaign for Jay Mitchell. She and Mitchell really dislike Robertson, and truly resent Robertson being funded by out-of-state PACs, when they had to do it the hard way and raise money one-on-one from Alabamians.
The Agriculture Commissioner race has three viable candidates, also, and this one will more than likely be headed for a runoff to determine the last two standing. The horses in this race all have bona fide agricultural backgrounds of longstanding. Any of the three would do a good job.
State Senator Jack Williams of Mobile County is a veteran 12-year legislator, as well as being a fifth-generation farmer.
Christina Woerner McInnis is also the scion of a fifth-generation farm family. Her ancestors settled in Baldwin County a century ago, and like most settlers of that county were originally potato farmers. Over the past decades, the Woerner family has become the largest sod grass farmers in Alabama, if not the nation.
Corey Hill is a fourth-generation farmer from Marshall County. He is the only candidate from vote-rich North Alabama. He is also Mayor of his hometown of Douglas and has the ALFA endorsement.
Jack Williams and Christina Woerner McInnis will probably outspend Hill in this race. Williams has been endorsed by most of the pro-business groups in the state and may be the favorite.
This will be a good race for an important office.
See you next week.
Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at [email protected].
