The 1966 Alabama Senate election took place on Tuesday, November 8, 1966, to elect 35 representatives to serve four-year terms in the Alabama Senate. The result was a near-electoral wipeout, as 34 of the 35 candidates elected were members of the Democratic Party. The sole non-Democrat to win a seat was conservative Republican Leland Childs of Jefferson County.[1] Childs was the first Republican state senator elected in decades.
The Democratic primaries were held on May 3 with runoffs on May 31, which candidates had until March 1 to qualify for. The Republican Party did not hold primaries for state office, instead opting to nominate by party convention. The Republican convention took place in Montgomery on July 30.
This was the first Alabama Senate election held after Alabama's $1.50 poll tax was ruled illegal in March 1966 and the prohibition of literacy tests by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[2] This was also the first Senate election held after the reapportionment of 1965, which created multi-member senate districts for the first time.
On January 10, 1967, O. J. Goodwyn of Montgomery County was unanimously elected Senate president pro tempore.[3]
In September 1965, the Senate was reapportioned to have 26 districts, three of which were multi-member districts. District 12, Jefferson County, had seven seats; District 24, Mobile, three; District 21, Montgomery, two. These three counties elected senators at-large, with candidates running for designated places. Four counties received one seat each, and the remaining 19 districts were divided up into multi-county districts containing between two and five counties.[4]
Before this election, the Alabama Senate had 35 single-member districts, based entirely on existing county lines. No county or district could have more than one member, no matter how large. This led to a massive population disparity that largely benefited rural areas of Alabama: The Jefferson County district, containing 634,864 people as of the 1960 United States census, was 20 times more populated than the smallest district, Bibb–Perry, with only 31,715 people.[5]
Deviation
The table below will show the most-populated and least-populated senate districts under the 1962 and 1965 apportionment plans. The population of Alabama at the 1960 census was 3,266,740, with an ideal 93,335 people under a 35-district plan.
Year
District
Population
% of ideal
Diff.
1962
Jefferson
634,864
680.20%
20.01
Bibb–Perry
31,715
33.98%
1965
Madison
117,348
125.73%
1.46
Choctaw–Marengo–Sumter–Washington
80,381
86.12%
Incumbents
Won re-election
Only five incumbent senators were elected to the 1967–1970 legislature.
Jimmy Clark (Democratic) of Barbour won re-election.
Roland Cooper (Democratic) of Wilcox won re-election.
Source: Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1967 (p.599–607)[8]
Additionally, runoffs in District 9 and District 22 were planned, but were canceled after candidates withdrew from their races. Both withdrawals were from candidates who placed second in the first round.
District 9: Woodrow Albea advanced after A. C. Shelton (inc.) withdrew.[9]
District 22: Ray Lolley (inc.) advanced after L. L. Dozier withdrew.[10]
First round results by district
Candidates in boldface advanced to either the general election or a runoff, first-place winners with an asterisk (*) did not face a runoff.
The Alabama Republican Party did not nominate candidates by partisan primary, instead choosing its nominees by party convention. The state GOP convention was held on July 30, 1966 at Montgomery's Garrett Coliseum, with county and local conventions occurring earlier. The state party initially expected to nominate a full slate of candidates for all 35 seats,[12] but did not end up doing so. The following candidates were selected:[13]
District 1: Kenn Buttram
District 3: Wayne Robinson
District 5: Jimmy Wilson
District 6: Claude Gholston
District 7: J. D. Lay
District 8: Owen Leach
District 9: George Deyo
District 10: James Herren
District 11: Maxwell Peters
District 12, place 1: Frank Lankford
District 12, place 2: Leland Childs
District 12, place 3: Malcolm Bethea
District 12, place 4: Norman Brown
District 12, place 5: Bill Bailey
District 12, place 6: C. P. Malone
District 12, place 7: James Price
District 13: Travis McCaig
District 15: James N. Smith
District 16: J. B. Ruffin
District 20: Harold Albritten
District 21, place 1: Robert E. Varner
District 21, place 2: J. Paul Lowery
District 24, place 2: Bert Nettles
District 24, place 3: John H. Friend
District 25: Robin Swift
District 26: Edward Lisenby
Jefferson County convention
The Jefferson County Republican convention was held on June 3, 1966. A full slate of House and Senate candidates were picked to oppose Democrats.[14]
The newly-formed Conservative Party of Alabama held a party convention on Saturday, July 23, 1966, at the Whitley Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama. Only one state senate candidate, Phil Holmes in Mobile County's District 24, place 3, was nominated. The party's inaugural convention saw about 100 delegates attend.[15] He came in third in the general election with 10% of the vote.
One candidate, William "Buddy" Matthews, ran under the "Third Party for America" banner in District 26 in Houston and Dale counties.[16] He came in second in the general election with 31% of the vote, ahead of the Republican nominee.
In the four-county 20th district, Democratic state representative Fletcher Jones filed to run as an independent candidate after failing to qualify for the Democratic primary election.[17] He came in second in the general election with 28% of the vote, ahead of the Republican nominee.
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