“First and foremost my duty is to AEA and its members,” Hubbert said in the press release. “We support friends of education regardless of party, and our membership reflects the diversity of party membership in Alabama. AEA is made up of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, and my leadership role in one party has at times clouded that issue.”

Danny at Doc’s Political Parlor asks “Why now?”  It’s a great question.  My hypothesis:  Dr. Hubbert believes Dr. Bentley could be a great ally as governor and he didn’t want the party politics that will be part of the gubernatorial election to cause that relationship to sour.

What are your thoughts?

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Yet, the unfortunate part of our political system is also highlighted,

Of course, Alabamians will not know — or will find out with difficulty — who gives to which candidates because the state’s campaign-disclosure laws protect the identity of the giver. That is why it might be possible for some group such as Indian gambling interests from Mississippi to back an anti-gambling Republicans in the race against Sparks. Stranger things have happened.

Because Bentley has been so forthcoming in releasing information about his personal finances and has revealed (as far as we know) the interests that have contributed to his campaign, let’s urge him to keep it up, and urge the other candidates to follow his lead.

Indeed, we can hope for that level of disclosure, but no one honestly believes we will get it.  There is too much incentive for interests who contribute to campaigns to use the mechanisms available to hide their influence.  The New Sons of Liberty incident reminded us all how secretive contributors could be, if that was their sole interest.  I join the Star in urging candidates to follow the lead of Dr. Bentley in disclosing who is contributing to his campaign as well as revealing the state of his personal finances in great detail.

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SCRIPT
VO: Montgomery corruption. Just follow the money. As two-year college chancellor Bradley Byrne stopped double dipping and AEA corruption. Now AEA union bosses Paul Hubbert and Joe Reed both Democrat Party Chairs are working with Tim James’s campaign funneling money to a phony PAC attacking Byrne. The Alabama Republican Party condemns the phony PAC as a “deception to mislead voters.” Montgomery corruption. Just follow the money. AEA Democrat union bosses and Tim James. Caught deceiving Republicans.

The ongoing theme the AEA as his enemy is hit again, but this time he ropes fellow candidate Tim James into the mix.  The connection is between the True Republican PAC which has run a series of negative spots about Byrne and James is reported in this Montgomery Advertiser story as Tim James fundraiser Claire Austin,

Rudolph Davidson is the treasurer for five political action committees, STA PAC, TOC PAC, Children PAC, Jeffco PAC and TEC PAC.

The PAC for the Alabama Education Association, Alabama Voice of Teachers for Education or AVOTE, gave $100,000 to each of those five PACs on Feb. 17. On the day True Republican PAC was formed, March 11, Davidson’s committees gave a total of $250,000 directly to the new PAC.

Those five PACs, all on Feb. 23, also directed money to five other PACs that contributed to True Republican PAC.

Austin, a lobbyist and campaign consultant, operates two of those political action committees.

Two of Davidson’s AEA-funded PACs contributed to two of Austin’s PACs for a total of $100,000. Austin’s PACs contributed $20,000 to True Republican PAC.

Austin said she operates two or three PACs and those have a lot of money going through them, but that she has not talked to Davidson in five years and that she did not know she was contributing to a PAC that would run negative ads against Byrne. She said this is not the first time the Byrne campaign has gone after her.

“I didn’t have any idea I was giving money to something that was targeting Bradley Byrne,” she said.

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We can always count on Attorney General Troy King (@TKtheAG) to give us something memorable

Breakfast with Alabama’s Republican Women – now THAT is the breakfast of champions! I love having the Red Wave in town!

State Senator Hank Erwin (@Erwin4LtGov2010) is another constant source of entertainment

Gambling stalled in Montgomery. They can not get the votes in the Senate. Your prayers are working. Keep it up!

The fact that the Alabama Education Association (@myaea) continues to use a derogatory hashtag REALLY amuses me…I know why they’re using it (to let those who follow that hashtag see it), but it makes the tweets look self-insulting

GOP chair Rep Hubbard tries to kill AEA-endorsed PACT bill that makes AL keep promises to PACT contract holders. #aeafail #alpolitics

 This one made the “Congressional Tweets of the Week” too, but still entertaining, from gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis

Honored to receive the endorsement of the famous Gee’s Bend Quilters today. www.quiltsofgeesbend.com http://twitpic.com/14dp50

We also had an interesting new account pop up @Siegelman4Gov98 which began simply reposting messages from Ron Sparks’s account (@RonSparks2010).  Obviously playing off the accusations that Ron Sparks campaign platform is simply a retread of Don Siegelman’s in 1998.

I guess my #FF is @RonSparks2010 this guy is on to something good. #alpolitics

What did I miss?  What did you find interesting on Twitter this week?  Let us know in the comments.

If you aren’t already following TWAY, check us out on Twitter @TWAY_Kris and #alpolitics hashtag for interesting news and conversation.

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So, what have you missed?

• Jeremy Walker announced his run for the HD-73 seat held by Rep. David Grimes.  Two days later, the man either Walker or Grimes will likely face in the fall, Montgomery attorney (and grandson of former U.S. Sen. Lister Hill) Joe Hubbard reported raising $50,000 in his first fundraising report.
• The Alabama House has been quite busy passing legislation, including a bill to require P.E. for some students (no waivers as are often used today),   a bill to give subpoena powers to the state ethics commission and a bill to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers.
• Meanwhile the Senate has been gridlocked over a bill from Sen. Lowell Barron that would borrow $1 billion over ten years from the Alabama Trust Fund to do road and bridge work across the state.
• Alabama gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Artur Davis released a new poll by Anzalone-Lizst that indicates he has maintained and even built on the support he was showing last summer.  At the same time, Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore was claiming, based on polling, that he was leading the Republican field.
• There was quite an uproar over the edits that AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert was able to make at the last minute to the states “Race to the Top” application to the federal government.  This is yet another example of why many people feel AEA has too much power.
• Former state treasurer Lucy Baxley publicly stated this week that the language in PACT contracts was changed during the time she was in office and that whatever obligation the state has is moral, not legal.
• There was a lengthy piece of investigative journalism in the Huntsville Times regarding the motivations and reasoning of U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith’s decision to switch from the Democratic Party to the GOP.
• Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James revealed a six-point plan to save money in state budgets, which basically amounted to stick it to state employees…a reminder of the kind of relationship his father had with those who worked under him.
• Governor Bob Riley continued his crusade against gambling by appointing Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson as the new head of his taskforce on illegal gambling.  The move was viewed by many as another direct poke in the eye to Attorney General Troy King, because Tyson is a Democrat who ran, and almost unseated, King in the last election.  It was then discovered that Tyson took money from gambling interests during his campaign for attorney general.  Of course those who support the gambling operation owners and their supporters had plenty to say about that.  Tyson also announced today he would not seek re-election as district attorney.  The taskforce attempted to raid both Country Crossing and Victoryland this morning, though it appears they were stopped by attorneys in Dothan and by a judge’s order in Macon County.
• Gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne held a press conference this week accusing the AEA of intimidation because of the way they served him with papers regarding a lawsuit from his time as chancellor of the two-year college system.  Byrne was certainly looking for an opportunity to offer an illustration of the opposition he faces, and this gave him a chance to do it.
• Powerful State Sen. Hank Sanders changed his mind and decided to run for re-election to an eighth term in the Alabama Senate.
• Agriculture Commissioner, and candidate for governor, Ron Sparks continued to attempt to stain his opponent in the governor’s race by pointing out that Rep. Artur Davis would not be attending the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.  Sparks also announced this week the hiring of a new communications director.
• A 30 year-old case involving racial bias in teacher testing was finally closed this week.
• ALFA, the Alabama Farmers Federation, came out with its primary endorsements today, but declined to endorse in either gubernatorial primary or the 5th congressional district race.

I hope to get back to a more regular pattern of reporting and commenting in the next few weeks.  Thank you for continuing to stop by and feel free to offer your comments on these events below.

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Artur Davis: Joe Reed is Wrong on Race and Leadership, Again

Congressman Artur Davis issued the following statement today regarding Dr. Joe Reed’s efforts to inject race into the debate over health care reform.  In an opinion column submitted to the Alabama School Journal, Reed attacks Davis on racial grounds for not embracing one version of health care reform.  Reed writes, “His Congressional district is blacker than any Congressional district in the state and poorer than any Congressional district in the state, yet he was the only black congressman in the nation to oppose Obama’s health care plan. Every other member in the Congressional Black Caucus voted for it.”  Reed also writes, “you cannot curse Bubba and Cooter, Big Man, and June Bug in the daytime and beg them at night.”

“Joe Reed and I have a policy-based difference over whether HR 3962 is the best way to mend our country’s inequitable and costly healthcare system. Unlike Dr. Reed, I believe we can do better than an approach that could cause numerous Alabama employers to reduce their payroll or walk away from offering coverage to their employees.

We have a much more profound difference over race and leadership. Reed believes that a public official’s race matters more than his capacity for independent judgment. He believes that a black American who holds elected office must follow a certain path or be inauthentic.  Dr. Reed also believes in a shameless double standard: when his candidate for Governor, Ron Sparks, denounced the House health care bill in August and refused to say whether he would even enforce a public option as Governor as recently as October, Reed’s response was not outrage but silence.

On all of this, Joe Reed is wrong. Just as he was wrong to fight to overturn the results of a legislative race in 2006 because the winner was white, and in Reed’s opinion, the wrong color for her district; just as he was wrong to stand on the floor of the Democratic convention in Denver to oppose Barack Obama even though the race was over and Hilary Clinton had graciously conceded. Just as he was wrong to urge black Alabamians to reject Barack Obama during the 2008 primary on the flimsy ground that they should appreciate America was not ready for a black President.

I said on the night I won my congressional seat in 2002 that I would not determine my viewpoints and obligations based on race.  I also vigorously reject the insinuation that there is a uniquely “black” way of understanding an issue, and I strongly suspect that most Alabamians will as well.

Joe Reed’s forty-two year career of public service contains much good.  But his injection of race into a serious debate over public policy should offend black and white Alabamians alike, and I hope Ron Sparks will join me in denouncing such a divisive approach.”

UPDATE:

** Chuck Dean of the Birmingham News, Markeshia Ricks of the Montgomery Advertiser, and the Associated Press all touched on this as well.

** My friend, Jennifer Foster also offers her opinion.

** Mooncat at Left in Alabama offers us a side-by-side comparison in classiness.

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“As the father of four children who attended public schools, a former member of the Alabama Board of Education and a former senator, I have long been a proponent of bringing school choice to Alabama,” Byrne said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “I strongly believe that charter schools will better serve the children and families of this state in many ways. They will provide greater educational options for our students, give parents the right to choose the school that best suits each child’s needs, put our education tax dollars to more productive use, incentivize school and teacher performance excellence, and create higher standards for discipline and character development,” Byrne said.

This follows a previous announcement by Governor Bob Riley that he would be pushing charter schools legislation in the session that begins in January.  To no one’s surprise, AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert responsed quickly and negatively to the Governor’s proposal.

First, I want to make sure anyone who reads this understands where I am coming from.  I am a parent of three children in the public schools (two in Montgomery County, one in Elmore County), I am close to many teachers all over Alabama and know them to be outstanding professionals who work extremely hard.  This is not about the teachers failing our students, it is about the system we have built, in which our teachers work, failing all of us.

I understand the fear among many that charter schools will erode the quality of education in public schools and fear is natural, but we can’t build policy based on fear.  Even strong Democratic leaders like President Obama and Rep. Artur Davis believe charter schools are worth a shot.  So please don’t let anyone fool you into believing this an attempt to eliminate public schools.  When done well, charter schools ensure all schools perform at a higher level.

Let’s remember that a “quality” education isn’t easy to come by in Alabama as it is.  Many schools in this state are failing our students and we need to do something.  A huge windfall of new money for education is not coming (despite what Ron Sparks wants us to believe).  We have to be innovative in crafting solutions to improve our education system.  There are other approaches we can take, but those have all been shutdown in the legislature as well.  The time as come to try some real competition.

I certainly am not advocating, nor do I hope anyone else is, that we open the floodgates right from the get go.  The research on charter schools is mixed, but what it does tell us is that you can either create an atmosphere for excellent charter schools to sprout up or one for yet more failure.  We should take a measured approach and begin with allowing experimentation in the lowest performing districts in the state.  And it should never be about forcing students and parents out of existing schools, it should always be about choice.  If Alabamians truly believe their students are getting the best education possible, the experiment will die on the vine.

I also believe in ensuring our most vulnerable students are still provided the best we can offer.  Public charter schools do not generally have to adhere to the same requirements as public schools to serve those with special needs and the funding mechanisms should take that into account.

Finally, opponents of this action should realise that if we had been able to get any of a number of proposed reforms in place over the last couple of decades, I may not have been nearly as inclined to support this effort as I am today.  As it is, I think this is the best chance we have at bringing real alternatives and creativity into our education system.  We may fail to do it properly, and I challenge everyone involved to get it right, but we can’t fail to try.

UPDATE:  Markeshia Ricks of the Montgomery Advertiser fleshes out some additional details and opinion this morning.  It’s sounding like Bradley Byrne and I may be parting ways on part of the plan.  I agree with Dr. Joseph Morton,

But charter schools under a Byrne administration could differ from what state Superintendent of Education Joe Morton has said he might recommend and what local school boards are willing to accept.

For starters Byrne is against caps on the number of charter schools in the state. Morton has said he believes a limited number of charter schools in districts that have struggled to meet federal requirements for progress could benefit the state.

But Eric Mackey, president of the School Superintendents of Alabama, said the states that have had the most success with charter schools are the ones that limit the number of charters, that have stringent criteria for issuing those charters and that hold those schools accountable.

“But just opening it up and giving out two (hundred) or 300 charters is not a good idea,” he said.

I strongly agree.  Would we eventually lift the caps?  Perhaps, but we certainly don’t need to just throw the doors open right from the get-go, we should be measured in our approach and focus on the lowest performing schools first.

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George Talbot reports in his “Political Skinny” this morning:

Alabama Education Association Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert is criticizing state schools Superintendent Joe Morton’s hiring earlier this year of a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Education who posed as one of Playboy magazine’s “Girls of the SEC” in 2001.

In the latest issue of the AEA’s newsletter, the Alabama School Journal, Hubbert says Morton, who is pushing for the passage of an ethics code for teachers and other employees “should first apply his code of ethics to his own department.”

The AEA opposes Morton’s version of the ethics code.

George goes on to name the young lady and describe the photo spread, no need for me to do the same. The hiring of a communications person for the State Department of Education is very different from the hiring of a teacher. The proposed ethics code would only apply to teachers and so the AEA bringing this up is really irrelevant. However, there is a legitimate question that is buried in the smokescreen being created by Paul Hubbert.

And that legitimate question is, is the proposed ethics code clear enough to know whether a not a teacher posing in Playboy would be a clear violation? From my reading of the code as proposed, and as edited by the legislative committee that reviewed it…I don’t believe this would be a violation, but I’m not certain of that reading. There is a section that deals with issues of “moral turpitude” in the edited version that leaves some room for differing interpretations, and I believe that’s where this discussion would be handled.

Again, I will say, it’s a smokescreen by Hubbert to the larger issue, which is the need for a code of ethics for teachers, which I support, but I believe there are still legitimate questions about clarity in that code and what is and is not a violation of it. I think school boards need that clarity as well as teachers.

I’ll be having lunch with my school board president friend today, and I’m looking forward to bringing this up with her.

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First, if you had seen enough from other progressives and fellow Democrats to warrant asking them to stop and think, maybe you are the one that needs to reconsider the basis for your belief. Saying that Hubbert and Reed are just the “elected leaders” of the teacher’s union is like saying a hungry lion is “just a cat”. If Hubbert was just an elected union leader, most people wouldn’t even know who he was. Paul Hubbert is considered the de facto governor for a reason.

Those reasons include:

1. The belief that he can follow through on the threats and promises he makes. Hubbert, Reed and the AEA do not “persuade” legislators that their position is the right one. They use the political action committee that, in effect, holds hostage the hard-earned dollars of teachers all over this state to hold a hammer over legislators heads that will be dropped on them if they don’t do what the AEA wants. Because of the dysfunctional state Democratic party (an issue for another day) it is next to impossible to get elected as a Democrat to a state office without AEA’s money. So those legislators feel beholden.

(NOTE: I realize I may lose any credibility with some of my friends on the left by saying some of these things, but this is what I honestly believe. Now, this isn’t to say that I’m any happier with the power that Alabama Power and ALFA wield over legislators on the other side of the aisle, but the influence is not nearly as pronounced, yet.)

2. Consistently and repeatedly Hubbert has attempted to put the interests of school employees over the interests and needs of Alabama students.

3. While Alabama teachers have been among the highest paid in the country (NOTE: This was the first shocking fact I learned that led me to begin investigating Hubbert’s influence not long after moving here), our education system continues to lag behind in measures of educational achievement. What’s worse, Alabama continues to be deficient in funding so many other areas of its budget because Paul Hubbert has managed to keep entire pots of revenue (the income tax at the top of the list) set entirely aside for education.

4. He helps keep in place an antiquated Tenure law, and then claims that it’s just “poor legal advice” and not the law that is the problem.

5. And finally, Bradley Byrne and Artur Davis have both discussed in their campaigns that one of the reasons Hubbert is able to have influence is because he’s smart about consistently pitting K-12 and Higher Education in direct conflict. As long as the leaders in the executive and legislative branches continue to have to mediate internal squabbles within the education lobby and structure, we can never have the larger discussions we need to have about the overall needs of our educational system.

The list goes on, and I have lots of other stories and innuendo, but I purposely settled on these points, because I believe they are factual and incontrovertible (consistently reported in the press as well as in conversation to me and many others).

UPDATE: And if you need yet more reasons, countrycat makes a GREAT point in the comments at LIA about what Joe Reed tried to do to Patricia Todd (one of my favorite state legislators).

UPDATE 2: Please do take the opportunity to read Redeye’s response over at LIA to my post…talk about having the wool pulled over your eyes. The person who offers not a single link or piece of evidence in either his original post or in his follow-up wants to laugh at my sources? Go ahead! The facts are the facts my friend. His response to Alabama teachers being so highly paid is, well if their so highly paid “why do we have such a hard time recruiting and retaining teachers”. A) where’s your source for that information? and B) even it was true, it’s obviously NOT teacher pay, because the FACT is we pay better than most states! And his response to the tenure law is that bad teachers get fired all the time? Name one…I dare you. If a school board won’t even fire a convicted criminal who committed sex offenses with a student, who will they fire?

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The only question is who will be the one crazy enough to jump in the fray? Anyone? Anyone?

Susan Parker for Governor? Not in 2010 – Doc’s Political Parlor

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Hubbert honored for 40 years of service | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

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Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos is rapidly lining up support from a number of big donors, and quite possibly, from the sitting Governor Bob Riley as well. It’s looking like Petelos, who has not yet decided to run, may be the man to beat on the Republican side.

And on the Democratic side, as Danny reported earlier in the week, and I have now heard from additional sources, it is very likely that Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb is entering the race with the full support of the AEA and its Executive Secretary, Paul Hubbert. Hubbert doesn’t lose often, and Cobb would certainly be a very strong candidate in the fall. It will make for quite an ugly and bloody primary with a three-way race between Cobb, Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks and U.S. Rep. Artur Davis.

I knew the picture would get clearer in a hurry, just didn’t know it would be by the end of the week!

UPDATE: Artur Davis had some thoughts today on what is going on with the other names being floated on the Democratic side.

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Will she ever get a better opportunity to run? Who knows… But it appears AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert has done it again and convinced the Chief Justice to run…Lord help us. This will pit the powerful AEA backed Chief Justice Cobb against a largely African-American and business-backed Rep. Artur Davis.

.

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The Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Program has lost about half its value, or about $463 million, since the nation’s economy began a steep slide in September.

But Hubbert said the program, overseen by a 10-member board through the state treasurer’s office, still has a balance of between $450 million and $500 million, and only pays out about $60 million a year for tuition.

“As I have said to several legislators and to the governor’s office, before anything is done we need to know the size of the problem,” he said.

‘Give it a year’

“My thinking is we ought to give it a year, because we’re not in a crisis situation because we can pay tuition next year.”

Hubbard, who is chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, agreed, saying he believes it’s a temporary problem that will resolve itself when the stock market rebounds.

‘Temporary problem’

“I don’t know that it (a fix) has to be done this session because they have enough cash flow to pay out,” he said.

I find it very interesting that a Republican is assuming the economy will bounce back. Aren’t the Republicans out there saying that our President and the Democratic Congress are in the process of running the economy over a cliff? Which is it?

via Leaders see no need to fix PACT now – al.com.

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AEA wants to link film industry bill to porn tax | TuscaloosaNews.com

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Thompson and Clinton will not win the Alabama primary, I’m telling you that right now.

montgomeryadvertiser.com :: Campaigns will set their sights on state soon

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I must give kudos to Governor Bob Riley for his opinion piece that ran in a number of newspapers across the state this past Sunday. Those who follow Alabama politics know one of the major issues we face is the concentration of power in Montgomery. This wouldn’t be such a disservice if it wasn’t for the authority that has been assembled over the years under just a few un-elected individuals.

The Governor threw a strong first punch against one of these few individuals, Paul Hubbert, head of the Alabama Education Association. No one says that Paul Hubbert should not do his job and do it well, but what the Governor said in his piece and what I want to echo today is that what is in the interests of Paul Hubbert and the AEA is not necessarily what is in the interests of the state at large.

Let me preface my remarks with the fact that I value teachers and administrators a great deal, my wife puts her heart into educating children everyday and some of my closest friends and associates are teachers. They deserve the highest honor and the best pay and benefits we can offer, but that should not come at the expense of everything and everyone else in the state.

Too often in Montgomery what Paul Hubbert says goes. He is persuasive, has many friends and holds in his back pocket the threat of electoral defeat for anyone who tries to challenge him. The fact that Governor Riley is willing to take him on publicly tells me that he doesn’t care if he wins or loses the next election, and that is the only way for Alabama to win in the end. It will take more leaders to say, Paul, I don’t care if I get re-elected, what else you got? If you allow yourself to be blackmailed, you don’t deserve to be in office.

Governor Riley pointed out in his piece that Paul Hubbert re-stated his priorities in a letter to legislators. It said, “school employees hope they will be your first concern.” It is time for all of us to put the children of Alabama ahead of the interests of one powerful union. The AEA only has its power as long as the citizens of Alabama allow it.

I start by asking our representatives, Sen. Wendell Mitchell, Sen. Hank Sanders, Sen. Larry Dixon, Rep. Mac Gipson, Rep. Jack Venable, and Rep. Dick Brewbaker, will you stand with Paul Hubbert and the AEA or with the people of Alabama? Yes, we have serious issues that are bigger than this year’s budget, but one of the best places to start the process of reform is to take back the legislature by not allowing threats of electoral repercussions to sway elected officials from sound decision-making.

I sometimes use the term special interests as a catch-all too often myself. I applaud the Governor for calling one of those interests by name and spelling out to the people what his power means for the citizens of this great state. I hope he is willing to face the firestorm that will surely follow.

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Having had dealings with the leadership of many of these organizations, I know they are sincere in their belief that this package is the key to finally moving this state forward. It would be absolutely shameful to let this opportunity pass us by.

UPDATE: A lot of people are finding this post through Google. You can visit the Partnership for Alabama at http://www.abetteralabama.org

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