Government

Ivey Campaign Goes on Offense Against Maddox, Tying Him to Soros-Backed PACs

HUNTSVILLE — After playing defense from charges by her opponent that she was avoiding a debate, Gov. Kay Ivey and her re-election campaign have turned the tables and gone on offense. The Ivey campaign started circulating emails to the news media last week linking Democratic nominee and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox of taking money from political action committees that are funded, either in whole or in part, by billionaire financier George Soros — a bogeyman to Republican conservatives for years, well-known in political circles for contributing millions of dollars to liberal causes and campaigns. That trend continued Saturday, as Ivey mentioned Soros in two separate appearances before GOP party faithful — one as a part of her standard stump speech to the Madison County Republican Men’s Club, the other in front of a smaller group of campaign workers in the party’s county headquarters. Read more.

President’s Proposed Budget Cut: Eliminate Help to Keep Power On for Poor Families

Erica Dunning is proud of her tidy house, built by Habitat for Humanity in a quiet Chalkville neighborhood, and her job working for Jefferson County. But she’s not too proud to admit that, once upon a time, she needed help to make ends meet. That help particularly made it possible for Dunning to pay her electric bills, which could become out of reach at certain times a year. And that’s where the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program – known by the acronym LIHEAP – came in. August, which is typically expected in Alabama to be the hottest month of any year, was LIHEAP Awareness month, the month set aside to demonstrate the value of the program. But you don’t have to convince Dunning, who used the program when she was down on her luck and not working, she said. “It just helps you get over that slump,” she said. “Now I am employed by Jefferson County… but I have used the program to get over that slump. And it’s just good to know you’ve got help.” Dunning, who has two children, also has a house that uses electricity for both heating and cooling, as opposed to using natural gas in the winter, as many do. “Without power, how do you get your kids ready for school?” she said. While shortfalls can happen any time of the year, Dunning said it was particularly hard around Christmas. “You don’t want to disappoint your kids at the time, so you just try and be balanced and make sure they have at least something for Christmas.” LIHEAP helped make that possible, she said. This year’s awareness month arrived with the program under threat from the Trump administration, which has proposed eliminating what many low-income residents have come to depend on to keep their air conditioning going in the summer and heat on during the winter. Thousands of people in Jefferson County depend on LIHEAP, which is administered by the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity. Some 5,000 families are served each summer and another 5,000 each winter, said Dorothy Crosby, who works in the Energy Assistance arm of JCCEO. But where those residents see a lifeline, the Trump administration sees a drain on federal resources subject to fraud. “The Budget proposes to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in order to reduce the size and scope of the Federal Government, and better target resources within the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families,” the Trump administration wrote in its budget proposal for 2019. “LIHEAP is a Federal program that has been known to have sizeable fraud and abuse, leading to program integrity concerns.” Read more.

Birmingham Library Board Meets Again Monday; Controversy Over Council Continues

Amid a controversy about Executive Director Floyd Council, the Birmingham Public Library’s board of trustees has called a special meeting for Monday at 4:30 p.m. The subject of the meeting has not been officially confirmed, but this year has seen a series of special called meetings to discuss Council’s performance. He started the job in November and his one-year probationary period is slated to end before the board’s next regular meeting, on Nov. 13. In an Oct. 9 meeting of the board, about 20 Birmingham Public Library employees said they had experienced a “hostile” work environment during Council’s first year in office. Through a spokeswoman, Monica King-Slater, they told the board that they had been “berated and treated like children in front of other employees and patrons.” Council described the employees at the meeting as “extreme outliers” who were unrepresentative of the BPL’s 287-person staff. “Sometimes people will develop a coalition because what they want is a scandal,” he said. Birmingham Public Library Atmosphere ‘Toxic’ ‘Hostile,’ Employees Say. Leadership ‘Not for Faint of Heart,’ New Director Responds.

As Alabama Goes to the Polls, Worries Emerge That Some Are Denied Voting Rights

Since last year, Lorenzo French said, he’s helped about 50 people in rural Greene County regain their ability to vote. Many of them were improperly removed from voter rolls because they had a felony conviction, though not the type that should have banned them from voting, French said. Others didn’t have photo identification, a requirement to vote in Alabama since 2014. “That’s my job,” French, chair of the Greene County Democrats, said. “To find the people who can’t vote, find out why they can’t and reestablish them.” More Alabamians are registered to vote than ever before and more ballots were cast in this year’s gubernatorial primaries than in 2010 contests, but some pockets of the state have seen decreases, including Greene County and 10 others where there are now fewer black registered voters. That is because of changes in population, not policy, the state’s top election official said. Lecia Brooks, outreach director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said she also is concerned about technicalities keeping Alabamians from voting. Maybe their polling place changed or they’ve been placed on an inactive voter list. “They’re registered, they’re ready to vote and they show up on election day and they’re sent away,” she said. Changes — including the ID law, a decrease in polling places and purging of voter rolls — have been allowed without federal review since 2013, when in Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a portion of the federal voting rights law that required changes in voting procedures in some states and local governments to be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. “All of these things would have had to be approved or given greater scrutiny,” Brooks said. Read more. Read more election-related coverage:

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The Year of Firsts: Freshman Candidates Find the Campaign Trail Grueling, Expensive and Rewarding

Just before the deadline closed, Cara McClure and Kari Powell submitted the paperwork to run for the Public Service Commission. They didn't know one another beforehand, but they ended up on a phone call just after the midnight deadline talking about their similar platforms and how, despite having never run for political office, they would each need to hit the ground running. Then the idea came to them: why not run as if they were on the same ticket? Doing so would let them pool resources and cover more ground as they canvassed throughout the state. The women decided that using an innovative approach to campaigning was the best way for them to go up against their seasoned opponents. McClure and Powell are just two of many people who entered the political fray for the first time this year and had to grapple with the question of how to campaign with little or no name recognition. The surge in first-time candidates is a national trend reflected in Alabama. Women, particularly black women, across the country qualified to run in record numbers this year. In Alabama, the Democratic Party had more people qualify to run for office in races up and down the ticket, with half again as many candidates signing on to run for seats in the Legislature than did in 2014, possibly inspired by Doug Jones’ victory in his race for the U.S. Senate in December. The Republican Party also had a bump in people wanting to run for office this year, perhaps in a desire to stave off the threat of a Democratic resurgence. Several first-time candidates interviewed by BirminghamWatch said the experience has shown them that campaigning is grueling, time-consuming work. Often lacking active party support, many of the first-timers turned to grassroots efforts to get out their messages. Universal among these first-timers was a confidence that they can make an impact using innovative approaches to reach voters despite financial challenges. Read more.

Unsubmitted Sexual Assault Kits Set off Alarm Bells in DA’s Office

So far, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative in Jefferson County has generated more questions than answers. The biggest question: How did 3,876 sexual assault kits not get submitted to the Department of Forensic Sciences for testing? “There's no way for me to know that yet,” said Michele Yarbrough, general counsel and business manager for the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office. The district attorney’s office was awarded a $1.5 million grant in October 2016 for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, an inventory of sexual assault kits in all 27 law enforcement jurisdictions in Jefferson County. That inventory yielded a finding that out of 4,999 kits, 3,876 were identified as having not been submitted for testing. “I would be lying if I said it did not set off every alarm bell in my system,” Yarbrough said. “As someone who is a woman and lives here in Jefferson County, it was extremely alarming to me.” Read more.

“It’s Just Plum Sad:” Ivey Disputes Reports of Health Issues, Chastises Maddox Campaign

TUSCALOOSA — Gov. Kay Ivey is again disputing that her health is an issue in her re-election campaign and called out her Democratic challenger for trying to make it one. Ivey released a statement from her doctor Tuesday that confirmed she did not suffer what some have characterized as a mini-stroke in 2015, while she was traveling to Colorado Springs, Colorado, as lieutenant governor. Dr. Brian Elrod said he examined her a day after she was discharged from a hospital. Ivey said she suffered “altitude illness” in Colorado, but she said her health is fine now. “The letter I released today from my doctor clearly confirms what I’ve been saying all along. I’m in good health,” Ivey, 74, said before her speech to the Tuscaloosa County Republicans at their Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, held at Bryant-Denny Stadium. “It’s just plum sad that Mayor (Walt) Maddox’s campaign is pushing this issue out just three weeks away from the election. It makes me have to assume that Mayor Maddox is desperate because his liberal record is not connecting with Alabamians.” Read more.

Crime Reduction Plan for Birmingham Coming Next Month

Several months after taking the job, Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith is expected to deliver a comprehensive plan for crime reduction to the City Council next month. The announcement of the plan was made at Tuesday’s council meeting by Cedric D. Sparks, Mayor Randall Woodfin’s chief of staff, in response to concerns expressed by the council about increasing rates of violent crime in the city. 2018 is on track to become the city’s deadliest year in decades. As of Oct. 16, Birmingham had logged 92 homicides in 2018, slightly ahead of the 87 homicides that had been reported at this point last year. By the end of 2017, Birmingham had a reported 117 homicides, the highest rate since 1995. Read more.

Vance Outpaces Parker in Attempt to Put a Democrat in the Chief Justice Seat

Robert Vance, the only Democratic statewide candidate to raise more money than a Republican opponent in this year’s general election, far out-distanced GOP nominee Tom Parker in collections and expenditures in early October. Vance listed itemized cash contributions of $140,985 for the period of Oct. 1-12, bringing his total for the campaign to $963,948, according to reports filed Monday with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. He has spent $831,027, including $570,888 so far in October, and reported an account balance of $132,920. Parker reported contributions of $1,050 and expenditures of $63,589 for the period. Since the election cycle began last year, Parker has raised $592,927 and spent $500,134, mostly toward winning the GOP primary earlier this year. He has an account balance of $119,425. Read more.

Siegelman Tops Marshall in October Fundraising, but Marshall’s Ahead in Campaign Spending for the AG Race

Democratic challenger Joseph Siegelman has raised more in campaign contributions than Republican incumbent Steve Marshall so far in October, according to reports filed Monday with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. Siegelman, son of former Gov. Don Siegelman, reported that he took in contributions of $101,474 during the first 12 days of October. Marshall, bidding for his first full term as attorney general, reported contributions of $56,000. But Marshall far out-spent Siegelman during the period. The GOP nominee spent $106,316 to Siegelman’s $22,924. Read more.