MUMBLINGS October 26, 2006

We people who are fortunate enough to live in the greatest country on earth, The United States of America, have many opportunities to cast our opinions by voting our convictions. Unfortunately not too many take advantage of this.

That time has rolled around again where voting will be soon, Tuesday November 7th.

One would think that a governor's race would bring out the voters. In all probability it will be less than fifty percent of the eligible voters in Alabama that will bother. I hope this isn't so.

Several people who are kind enough to read this column, urge me to write more about politics. It is an interesting subject but fortunately these Gulf Coast Newspapers have two other columnists who are excellent political writers.

The senior writer presenting his column in several newspapers throughout the state is Bob Ingram, the "Alabama Scene". He is knowledgeable and has made a career at writing and appearing on television on the subject that he probably knows more about than any other citizen in Alabama. He gives me credit for helping him get started. He is still appearing in the Gulf Coast Newspapers and I look forward to reading him every week. As do thousands of others.

Another more recent political writer on the scene is Steve Flowers, who writes "Inside the State House". He is informative and apparently spends much time studying his subject. His knowledge and opinions are well worth reading.

Regardless of the above I decided to take a little time and write something about the very important subject, politics. As often stated here politics is democracy at work and hopefully most of us favor democracy or if you prefer the republic for which this country stands.

I have never favored mud slinging in politics. More time should be spent on positive issues and even though sometimes you have to point out errors of your opponent's position it can be done kindly rather than derogatory and nasty. Since he is obviously going to win I was surprised to see Governor Bob Riley criticize his opponent Lt. Governor Baxley, by accusing her of being too liberal. It certainly hasn't helped him but hasn't hurt him enough to be defeated. Some of the Baxley leaders said it was the first break that they had when he jumped on Lucy.

Polls indicate now that Governor Riley is some 25% ahead of Lucy. Polls are accurate on the day taken but you can fairly rest assured that the spread will be closer than that on election day, probably in the 10% area with Riley still winning.

There is not a lot of excitement on local elections. Before voting a list of the candidates will be printed.

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One big issue is election of the Supreme Court Judges. It is claimed that Alabama has the most expensive Supreme Court in the United States. Their boosters mainly conservatives and including companies and people with a lot of money are spending millions to maintain the nine members. Over the years over forty million dollars has been spent electing the present judges. The second most expensive State Supreme Court is Texas where they have only spent $23 or $24 million.

Let me quote Bob Ingram "It is hard to argue with what Judge Sue Bell Cobb said about the makeup of Alabama's state appellate courts. She said, 'They don't look like Alabama.'"

"Presently the three courts, five members each on the Courts of Civil and Criminal Appeals and nine on the Supreme Court, are all white, 18 of those seats are held by Republicans, and only four are women."

"Judge Cobb, the lone Democrat in that number, is a candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court."

Political parties should not enter in judgeships, however this is not the case the nine members of the Supreme Court should be more evenly divided, more like the state voters 50/50.

It is also claimed that the present court has a high percentage in the range of 90%, where they over ride the opinions of jurors throughout Alabama and side with the so-called Big Boys.

Judge Cobb makes a lot of sense. A prediction: If the present Supreme Court decisions do not give more consideration to the average citizen in Alabama, the voters will make a change in four or six years from now. Let me hastily say that we have some excellent people in our higher courts in Alabama.

Four amendments effecting Baldwin County are on the ballot. Hopefully, these will be discussed here next week.

Remember nationally people vote their pocket books. The U.S economy has never been better.

See you again soon, I hope.