“Good riddance.”

That’s what I imagine Jefferson County Commission President Bettye Fine Collins thought as the stroke of midnight took us from 2009 into 2010. Tough year 2009 proved for the commission.

Collins told the Birmingham News “the fire still burns…. but it’s just time for the torch to pass.”

Collins, who was first elected to the commission in 1994, points to talk radio and bloggers for creating a climate that prompted her to decide not to seek re-election this year. Few political observers gave her a strong chance at re-election.

“Good riddance” those very same talk radio commentators and bloggers may be saying right now with the departure of Collins. She, perhaps more than any other current commissioner, has received the brunt of criticism for handling (critics would argue mishandling) of the sewer debt crisis and occupational tax crisis.

“Relief” may be the word spoken quietly in Republican circles following the commissioner’s announcement.

“I think many in the party are expressing a sigh of relief,” says one GOP lawmaker who does not want to be identified speaking about the critism surrounding a fellow Republican.

This politician says no one can argue the fact that  “she has provided service and dedication to the party” for many years, but points out a re-election campaign would have been “very ugly” in the Republican primary.

Former Jefferson county GOP chairman David Wheeler tells Fox6 News reporter Jonathan Hardison that Collins faced at least three challengers in the June primary.

Wheeler dismissed criticism of Collins inside the party ranks, “this is not the time to discuss those type of things. I think Ms. Collins has had a long and distinguished career as a public servant for Jefferson county.”

Collins has served as a National Republican Committeewoman and a lead voice of GOP causes in Alabama. A Republican who often called for party unity to weaken Alabama Democrats (she was critical, though gently, of Winton Blount’s 1994 challenge of incumbent governor Fob James), Collins found herself briefly “off the reservation” as one party official put it when she broke ranks with Republicans Jim Carns and Bobby Humphryes on the commission. That move to form an alliance with Commissioners Sheila Smoot and George Bowman first, then William Bell when he replaced Bowman, prompted Commissioner Carns to declare a “new Democratic majority on the commission.”

In the News story today, Collins considers future causes that may include education.

The Republican lawmaker who says fellow party members are relieved also points out Collins has a very loyal group of supporters who have worked for her and with her over the years. There are no signs those backers have left her.

It is the broader audience that has shown signs that it may be time to step down.

As she leaves this year, how much say she’ll have about the person who fills her commission seat may be a bit complicated.

Rick Journey

Filed under: Elections