The World Around You

The candidates in the Alabama 2nd Congressional District race will square off for one hour tonight in a debate. Not sure how much can be accomplished in that short of a time, but it will likely be worth checking out, as it will be the first time the candidates have faced off.

The debate begins at 7 p.m. in Ligon Chapel, which is in Flowers Hall at Huntingdon College, and will end at 8 p.m.

The debate is free and the public is invited to attend.

The candidates will answer four questions selected by political science students at the university.

Huntingdon College is located at 1500 East Fairview Ave. Parking for the event will be available in the college lot behind Smith Recital Hall, which is next to the baseball field off of East Fairview Avenue, and in the college lot on Narrow Lane Road.

Bright, Love debate in Montgomery on Wednesday | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

Swing State Project moved the Alabama 2nd Congressional District from Toss-Up to Lean Republican…not sure what the logic is on this, considering the sparse polling, but it’s concerning that outside observers see Bobby Bright slipping in this race. It means to those of us in Alabama that we still have work to do on this one, in making sure that Mayor Bright will be the next Congressman for the 2nd Congressional district of Alabama.

Swing State Project:: SSP Changes Ratings on Twelve Races.

The two candidates for the 2nd Congressional District seat in Alabama will participate in a discussion on Thursday morning. If you have a chance to get over to Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM), you should check it out.

The forum will be from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and will give the candidates for the 2nd Congressional District seat a chance to share their views.

There also will be a question and answer session with the candidates.

The forum at the Watson Robbins Taylor Center costs $25 per person and $350 to sponsor a table.

For reservations, call 244-3804.

Bright, Love to speak at breakfast | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

As part of the 50 states in 50 days series for USA Today, Sebastian Kitchen focuses in Alabama on the 2nd Congressional district race between Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright and State Senator Jay Love.

“This is the best chance the Democrats have had in many years to take that seat,” said William Stewart, a longtime political observer in the state and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama.

Despite their hopes for Bright — who has not endorsed Barack Obama for president and is a self-described fiscal conservative — both Stewart and strong Obama supporters such as Democratic Rep. Artur Davis do not expect Bright’s possible success to translate to a win at the top of the ticket.

Some interesting responses here…I was especially intrigued by differences between Mike Rogers and Jay Love (the two Republican candidates). It seems like Jay still has some work to do in understanding some of these issues.

Congressional hopefuls discuss agriculture | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

I think this one is hard-hitting, but effective in making the point.

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Transcript:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.
Left In Alabama:: AL-02: DCCC Playing Hardball on Healthcare.

Jay Love gets some more national play for being the first Republican candidate down ticket to attempt capitalize on the enthusiasm for Palin.

In the 30-second spot, entitled “Differences,” Palin and McCain are juxtaposed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who Love refers to as a “San Francisco liberal” in the ad.

“There are real differences in this campaign,” Love says looking directly into the camera. “I’m supporting pro-lifers John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he says as an image of the GOP ticket appears on screen. “My opponent isn’t,” Love says as images of Sen. Barack Obama and Bobby Bright, Love’s Democratic opponent, appear.

Love’s biggest problem is that head-to-head on their own merits, he loses to Bobby Bright, so his only chance of winning is to make this election about the national ticket and he knows it. The problem with that strategy is that the Obama-Biden ticket is not nearly as unpopular as the Kerry-Edwards ticket was, so he’s trying to tie Bobby to Nancy Pelosi instead…

This is where Bobby’s announcement the other day that he supported Mike Huckabee in the primaries is valuable in combating his opponent. How can a man who voted for Huckabee possible be “liberal” in any sense of the word?

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McCain-Palin ticket featured in Alabama Republican’s ad - Blogs from CNN.com.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this one…

The 2nd Congressional District’s Democratic nominee for Congress said Monday that close party ties are a thing of the past, adding that he voted for Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary earlier this year.

Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright officially opened his Dothan campaign headquarters Monday and said his support of Huckabee shows his support of person over party.

“He is a very smart man and I know what his beliefs are,” Bright said Monday morning. “He’s a Southern Baptist minister and I’ve been a Southern Baptist deacon for 14 years.”

Bright’s Republican opponent, State Rep. Jay Love of Montgomery, was a Huckabee delegate to the Republican National Convention before the former Arkansas governor released his delegates to support Presidential nominee John McCain. Love and Bright are both deacons at First Baptist Church in Montgomery.

It’s nice that he wanted to support another Southern Baptist, and supporting Huckabee was the mainstream Republican position in Alabama this cycle…going to need time to digest this one.

Bright opens Dothan headquarters; says he supported Huckabee | Dothan Eagle.

The Swing State Project has changed it’s rating of the Alabama 2nd CD race from “Leans Republican” to “Toss-up” and offers the following reasoning:

AL-02 (Open): Lean Republican to Tossup
Despite all the hype surrounding the DCCC’s recruitment of Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, we have until now been skeptical of Bright’s ability to seal the deal in this conservative R+13.2 district. No longer.

Republicans emerged from their primary with deep divisions - divisions that Bright is now capitalizing on, as most recently evidenced by his endorsement from the Republican mayor of Dothan, the second-largest population center of the district. With two recent polls showing Bright leading by 10 points, the Republicans can no longer claim a clear edge here.

Those poll numbers are indicative of what is happening with this race, but we still have a long way to go to election day.

And in CD-03 they offer the following:

AL-03 (Rogers): Safe Republican to Likely Republican
This race is certainly still a long shot, but Alabama’s 3rd District was drawn to elect a Democrat, and it almost did so in 2002. GOP Rep. Mike Rogers has held this district since then with ease, but attorney Josh Segall’s fundraising (he’s raised $521K since starting his campaign earlier this year) and the district’s demographics can’t be ignored.

Josh is trailing in the latest polls, but he has assembled a great campaign structure and I hope to see some movement in those numbers over the next several weeks.

Swing State Project:: SSP's Competitive House Race Ratings (8/29/08).

I’m a little surprised that Swing State Project still has Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District as likely Republican. It’s looking like Senator Harri-Anne Smith is going to end up in a runoff in the Republican primary against either David Woods or Jay Love. And on the Democratic side, you have a very strong candidate in Bobby Bright, especially against Love or Woods.

At best this is a Lean R, and depending on who the candidate ends up being it could become a toss-up.

Swing State Project:: SSP’s Competitive House Race Ratings (5/06/08)