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Former ADECA Director Bill Johnson seems determined to make his former boss, Governor Bob Riley the issue in the next campaign. Today, Johnson called on the state’s attorney general to investigate the governor and his family on conflict of interest ethics concerns. Former two-year college chancellor Bradley Byrne is widely seen as the heir apparent to the current governor, and I have to believe Johnson thinks if he can raise doubts about Riley, Byrne’s credibility will be hurt as well.
It has also been posited that Bill Johnson is not running to win, but instead will be rewarded for damaging Byrne, both with campaign contributions and future employment from a future Tim James administration. While there is no way to prove this (though it may only grow more apparent with time), I think it’s also worthwhile to point out that Johnson had other choices in campaign strategy that may have panned out better for him.
Governor Riley has tried to laid claim to achievements in education, ethics reform and economic development during his two terms. Bradley Byrne has predictably (and quite credibly) laid claim to being his successor on the first two because of his work in cleaning up the two-year college system. However, his connection to economic development is a bit more strained. Bill Johnson, on the other hand, has been a part of almost all the major economic development initiatives of the Riley administration from his work at the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. He also has been a strong leader on the Governor’s Faith-Based Initiative as well as his efforts in the Black Belt. Johnson certainly talks about these efforts on the campaign trail, but this talk has been obscured (by his own design) with the flames from the bridge he’s burning to the previous administration.
Unfortunately, it seems that Johnson didn’t believe going toe-to-toe with Bradley Byrne would produce a win, he needed a different strategy. He still has a chance to pull a rabbit out of his hat (i.e. being the second place candidate in a four or five-way race), but the chance gone from slim to almost none with the strategy as it has played out so far. Now if an investigation does begin and something is produced from it, then he will look like a very smart man, but I don’t know any Alabama political observer who believes that is what the future holds.
Bill Johnson does have a flair for theatre, so I expect we are seeing the end of the first act, and that act two will likely keep us entertained as well. Whether that means he will gain any ground in the governor’s race is to be determined.
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RT@TWAY_Kris:NEW TWAY Blog Post:The Campaign @TeamJohnson2010 Could Have Run http://j.mp/7JO4p8 #alpolitics ? didn't Riley run on ethics?GD Star Rating
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RT @TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: The Campaign Bill Johnson (@TeamJohnson2010) Could Have Run http://j.mp/7JO4p8 #alpoliticsGD Star Rating
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RT @derektrotter: RT @TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: The Campaign Bill Johnson (@TeamJohnson2010) Could Have Run http://j.mp/7JO4p8GD Star Rating
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RT @TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: The Campaign Bill Johnson (@TeamJohnson2010) Could Have Run http://j.mp/7JO4p8 #alpoliticsGD Star Rating
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: The Campaign Bill Johnson (@TeamJohnson2010) Could Have Run http://j.mp/7JO4p8 #alpolitics…
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Bill Johnson, by email, told me that he supports the idea of making Alabama the 25th state to have a constitutional Initiative and Referendum process for voters, that he would make it a campaign issue, and that if elected he would do all within his power to get it done. He then listed I&R as one of his issues on his campaign website but as far as I know, that’s all he’s done so far.
Bradley Byrne, when appearing on the Morris/Montiel Viewpoint talk radio program in Montgomery, told me verbally when I called the show that he would do the same things. As far as I know, he hasn’t listed I&R as an issue on his campaign website or mentioned it while campaigning around the state.
Both candidates could use I&R as an issue in their campaigns but I doubt that either one will.
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RT @TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: The Campaign Bill Johnson (@TeamJohnson2010) Could Have Run http://j.mp/7JO4p8 #alpoliticsGD Star Rating
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Johnson could have have used this as an opportunity to tout his proposed reforms but that appears not to be the case.
BTW, should future governor’s immediate family move out of state to avoid such charges?
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Walt, it is still a long race with plenty of time.
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Don,
I certainly agree I&R should be talked about more…but not sure it gains either candidate any new support.
Walt,
That’s funny, my wife had the same reaction when I explained what Johnson was claiming Riley did. What is the governor’s family allowed to do?
BrokeSnake,
It is a long race…and lots of twists and turns still to come.
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Kristopher, I&R is a populist issue, and I firmly believe that any candidate that would take it to voters in his/her campaign and explains the benefits it would provide to voters if we had it would, in return, benefit at the polls. At the same time, I understand why candidates don’t do that. To do so would deprive them of the “mother’s milk of politics”, MONEY, because the main contributors to a candidate’s campaign are special interest groups (often through PACs) that oppose I&R because if voters had it, those special interest groups and the legislators they support would be added to the list of endangered species. That’s just the way it is, as I see it.
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Interesting to know about, I enjoyed reading your blog.
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