Republican nominee Robert Bentley talks illegal immigration in “I Will Not Wait.”

In “Chance,” Democratic nominee Ron Sparks focuses on… wait for it! An education lottery.

Sparks hosts former president Bill Clinton today at a $1,000-a-person fundraiser at Birmingham’s The Summit Club today at 1pm. Wednesday he campaigned across the state with retired general and 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

State Treasurer and Republican nominee for Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey says she’s “ready, willing and able to make this agenda pass.”

Reaction to the state GOP’s “Handshake with Alabama” is predictable.

House and Senate Republican leaders promoted the agenda Monday in their effort to claim control in one or both legislative bodies in November.

Dems say that’s all you’ve got?

GOPers argue a century of Democratic rule in the legislature has accomplished little.

Some spirited back-and-forth summed it up between Rep. Merika Coleman (D-Midfield) and Rep. Paul DeMarco (R-Homewood) earlier today on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama.

Over at the Birmingham News, Joey Kennedy writes Republicans “have some pretty good initiatives on their to-do list” in changing the budgeting process for the Special Education Trust Fund and ethics reform, but he observes “they had to start swinging the demagogue stick” in the proposal for an Arizona-style immigration law and attempt to block the federal government’s health care reform act.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

McLaughlin & Associates reports 50% of voters prefer the Republican candidate on a generic legislative ballot.
Thirty-three percent favor the Democrat in the survey.

McLaughlin says Republicans get a boost from Independent voters (49%-15%).

When asked “The Democrats have been in control of Alabama’s State Legislature for 136 years, it’s time for a change,” 61% agree with the statement.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby comfortably leads Democrat William Barnes (59% – 29%) in the latest Rasmussen Reports survey.

Shelby enjoys 91% support from Republicans and a “four to one” lead among independents.

Rasmussen finds only 9% rate the economy good or excellent.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has repeatedly said he is more electable than Rep. Davis, but his campaign argues it is because Davis is a “lousy congressman.”

How about if the “unelectable argument” comes in the form of a newsletter written by a Sparks supporter (distributed independent of the campaign) and states “Can Davis get 20% of the white vote in November? No, but Ron Sparks can.”

That is the claim stemming from a newsletter circulated by the Davis campaign today to showcase what Davis calls “race-tinged” speech in the final three weeks of the Democratic campaign for governor.

The newsletter is attributed to Sparks supporter Ed Kahalley, Sr. who appears as a contributor to the commissioner in campaign finance reports.

The letter states “I am sure that Congressman Artur Davis is a good man and he would be a good Governor if he were elected, but we must be realistic.”

This morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama, Davis said “we know what’s going on.”

Davis went on to say, “they are in effect saying if you make Artur Davis the nominee he is unelectable. You are jeopardizing the Democratic party’s chances to win. Candidly, what they mean by that is if an African American is the Democratic nominee for governor, there is going to be a dangerous result for the Democratic Party.”

Davis wants Sparks to “denounce” such claims and return campaign contributions to the author of the newsletter.

Sparks campaign spokesman, Taylor Bright, says in a statement:

“This is a despicable and irresponsible charge by a desperate Artur Davis. Race has no place in any campaign. We had nothing to do with the letter, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Our opinion is Artur Davis is unelectable in November because he is a lousy congressman who voted with banks, insurance companies and credit card companies against the people of Alabama.”

Read more of Rick Journey’s blogs here.

Democratic candidate: Glen Zorn

Republican candidates: Dorman Grace, John McMillan, and Dale Peterson

Newsmakers-Republican Ag and Industries Candidates-1

Newsmakers-Republican Ag and Industries Candidates-2

Newsmakers-Democratic Ag and Industries Candidate

The issue that dominated this legislative session died in the House of Representatives and thus will never receive a vote of the people. The lead sponsor of BINGO legislation in the House, Marcel Black (D), addressed the House on Wednesday afternoon. Black assured the body that a vote to pass the bill would change absolutely nothing until the people vote on it in November. Black also reminded the members that gambling in the state remains untaxed, unregulated, and undefined. “It’s been a long long session with this bill. My goal has been and remains to let the people vote.” said Black.  Before calling for the House to vote to carry over senate bill 380, Black apologized to the senate sponsor of the legislation. “I want to apologize to Senator Bedford for my apparent inability to convince 62 other folks (House members) to pass this bill.” stated Black.

Here is a full report from Wednesday’s BINGO developments.

BREAKING: Legislators discussed bills other than BINGO this session. Here are some that died.

Charter Schools: While Governor Riley and State Superintendent Joe Morton pushed heavily for charter schools, a block by the influential Alabama Education Association all but insured a dire fate for this legislation. Senator Steve French (R) and Representative Mary Sue McClurkin (R) sponsored the bill in both houses but neither garnered enough committee support to make its way to the floor.  There is the potential that the Governor could call a special session for charter schools, we will just have to wait and see.

Grocery Tax: House Bill #1 was none other than Representative John Knight’s (D)  legislation that would remove the sales tax on groceries. As was the case last year, this legislation never gained support from the republicans and inevitably failed to receive its budget isolation resolution and died on the House floor.

PAC to PAC transfers: For 10 years in a row Representative Jeff McLaughlin (D) has proposed legislation that would ban political action committees (PACs) from transferring money between themselves. These transfers make it nearly impossible to know who contributed to an individual campaign and cloud the process. The House passed McLaughlin’s legislation on the 3^rd day of this legislative session and with 27 legislative days remaining the senate never even voted on the bill in committee. Governor Riley may potentially call a special session to solve this lingering and plaguing issue.  

Smoking Ban: Senator Vivian Figures (D) said she was trying a new angle this year with her Smoking Ban legislation, only limiting the ban to restaurants. The bill shockingly came up late in the 30 day legislative session. After passing the senate with ease, the bill met opposition with the Alabama Restaurant Association in House committee. After passing out of committee the bill failed to get on the calendar for a vote in the House.

Two classes of students, two classes of universities….

When senate bill 162 by Senator Ted Little (D) went to a conference committee last week, no one expected the bill to come out in quite the condition that it did. The bill went to conference committee with a cap on tuition for ALL schools and came out with a cap on tuition for all schools EXCEPT for Auburn University and The University of Alabama. To say this caused a stir would be an unbelievable understatement. The bill passed the senate with little debate but caused a stall in the House. Representatives John Knight (D), Yvonne Kennedy (D), Laura Hall (D), and Alvin Holmes (D) filibustered concurrence with the conference committee report until 9:00 pm on Wednesday. Once the House concurred with the committee’s report, members of Save Alabama PACT gave their representatives a standing ovation.

On the final legislative day, Governor Riley decided he was not ready to close the book on the issue of PACT. Just hours before legislators left Montgomery, Riley placed an executive amendment on the bill. The amendment corrected what the administration called a flaw that would threaten the tax exempt status of the Public School and College Authority. Seeing resistance in both houses, Riley made a trip over to the state house to urge members to pass the legislation. Just after 5:00 the House concurred with Riley’s executive amendment and the Governor signed the bill into law that evening.

 You don’t have to leave but you can’t stay here

SINE DIE, HAPPY TRAILS, the Alabama House and Senate completed their 30 day 2010 general session on Thursday. This session sticks a fork in the quadrennium that began in 2006. While BINGO and PACT dominated the entire session, both houses managed to pass the Education Trust Fund and General Fund budgets. There is always the potential for a special session this summer or fall but we will just have to wait and see what Governor Riley decides to do.

Several sources tell FOX6 News that Kay Ivey will suspend her campaign for governor and qualify for lieutenant governor.

The two-term Republican is term limited as state treasurer.

Ivey has scheduled a 3:30 news conference at party headquarters in the Birmingham-suburb of Homewood.

Her campaign would not discuss the topic of the news conference before it takes place, only calling it a major announcement.

Ivey has trailed in several polls in the race for governor. The most recent, a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday, shows her tied with Rep. Robert Bentley (Tuscaloosa) for a distant third with 10% support. The PPP survey finds Bradley Byrne leading the field (27%) with former judge Roy Moore (23%) in second. The margin of error was 4.7%.

Sen. Hank Erwin (R-Montevallo), Gene Ponder and Dean Young are also seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

The winner meets Democratic incumbent Jim Folsom Jr.

Read more of Rick Journey’s political blogs here.

In a statement released since that vote, Sen. Sanford says he’ll offer a new bill this week that will “simplify” the matter.

On the senate floor, Sanford called for an “up or down vote.”

He says the current measure caters to “casino bosses.”

Under his plan, Sen. Sanford says the current machines would be referred to as “slot machines instead of bingo.” He would shorten the 48-page constitutional amendment to make it easier to understand for voters. He also proposes placing casino licenses up for bid instead of identifying operators. The Sanford plan would add prohibitions on campaign contributions from gambling to those who appoint the Gaming Commission and to the Legislature.

Finally, and this is the big one, he proposes a minimum tax rate of 50%. The Bedford plan taxes at the rate of 27%.

Sanford’s statement says support in his north Alabama district for a statewide vote runs about 80%.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blogs here.

He appeared this morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama.

Watch the interview here.

Last night, James joined fellow Republicans, minus Roy Moore, for a candidate forum in Huntsville. Read here.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blogs here.