Current commissioners
- President:
- Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh (R)
- Associate Commissioners:
Recent Associate Commissioner Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh was elected to the Presidency of the PSC on November 6, 2012, when she defeated one term incumbent Democrat Lucy Baxley. Baxley had been the only remaining statewide elected Democrat still in office in Alabama and was first elected in 2008, with a margin of about 10,000 votes which translated into 50.3% of the vote over Cavanaugh. [2] Baxley previously served as Alabama State Treasurer and Lieutenant Governor before losing a race for governor to Bob Riley in 2006. Cavanaugh won her third term as President of the PSC on November 3, 2020 with over 60% of the vote. [3]
Cavanaugh, in defeating Baxley in 2012, won just over 55% of the ballots cast and had a margin of about 100,000 votes. She had previously served as both Executive Director and later was elected as the first female Chair of the Alabama Republican Party. She was initially elected to the Commission on November 2, 2010, in her third campaign for statewide office. She defeated long-time commissioner Jan Cook with 56% of the vote and a margin of more than 186,000 votes. The seat that Cavanaugh vacated for the PSC Presidency was filled for the remainder of her term by an appointee by Governor Robert J. Bentley. In July 2014, Cavanaugh called on the people of Alabama to pray for God's intervention to prevent the EPA's proposed regulations for coal-power plants from taking effect, stating that the EPA was attempting to take "what God's given a state" from the people of Alabama. [4]
Commissioner Chip Beeker was elected in 2014 when he defeated incumbent Republican Terry Dunn in the GOP primary runoff on July 15, 2014. Beeker was unopposed in the general election that November and was re-elected again on November 6, 2018.
Commissioner Jeremy H. Oden was appointed to a vacancy on the PSC by Governor Robert Bentley at the beginning of December 2012 to the seat vacated by Cavanaugh upon her election to the PSC Presidency. Oden had served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1998 until his appointment. [5] Commissioner Oden was nominated on June 3, 2014 for a full four-year term. Oden was unopposed in the general election. He was re-elected again on November 6, 2018 following a very narrow primary victory in June, 2018.
History and prior commissioners
Sometimes, the commission served as a stepping stone to run for higher offices in the state, although not always successfully. Commissioners B. B. Comer and Gordon Persons moved from the PSC to the office of governor. Long-time Commissioner C.C. "Jack" Owen unsuccessfully ran for governor from the PSC. In 2018, Commission President Twinkle Cavanaugh ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination for Lt. Governor losing to Will Ainsworth who went on to win the office.
Commissioner Jim Folsom Jr. was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1986 and was re-elected in 1990. He was elevated to the governor's office in 1993 upon the felony conviction of Gov. Guy Hunt. As an incumbent, he was defeated in the gubernatorial election in 1994 by Republican Fob James. Folsom stayed out of elective politics for 12 years. Folsom returned to public office with his 2006 election to the office of Lieutenant Governor. He was again defeated for re-election in 2010 when he lost the Lieutenant Governor post to Republican Kay Ivey. Folsom is the son and namesake of two-time Alabama governor James E. "Big Jim" Folsom, famous for being a progressive on civil rights when it was unpopular to be so.
Commissioner Jim Zeigler served a single term on the PSC. He was elected State Auditor in November, 2014 and on January 19, 2015 returned to statewide office. He is a vocal opponent of what he terms "wasteful government spending" and a critic of Governor Robert Bentley. In 1946, Jimmy Hitchcock parlayed his earlier fame as an Auburn University football player and major league baseball player to a seat on the Commission and served there until his death in 1959.
One of the most infamous and colorful politicians in Alabama was Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor, a Democrat who had earlier served as police commissioner in Birmingham. He made national news when he ordered the police to use dogs and fire hoses on civil rights demonstrators during the Civil Rights protests in the 1960s. He lost a race for governor in 1970 in the Democrat primary to eventual nominee, George Wallace.
Commissioner Ed Pepper and his wife were killed in the worst fire in Alabama history in 1966. The Dale's Penthouse restaurant fire in Montgomery took 26 lives. He was the nephew of well-known U.S. Senator and Congressman Claude Pepper of Florida, an Alabama native. The long-serving Claude Pepper became a national spokesman for senior citizens.
Two commissioners were convicted of felony offenses while serving and were automatically removed from office—Juanita McDaniel and Kenneth "Bozo" Hammond. Hammond later was elected Mayor of his native Valley Head, Alabama.
Sibyl Pool became the first of six women to serve on the PSC when she took office in January, 1955. Three of those women have been President of the PSC.
Hammond, Lynn Greer, and Pete Matthews all had previously served in the Alabama Legislature as Democrats and a fourth, Jeremy Oden, was a Republican state legislator at the time of his appointment. Greer later lost a race for Congress in north Alabama's Tennessee Valley district. Greer was then three times elected to the state legislature again as recently as 2014 as a Republican.
James Elisha 'Jim' Folsom Jr. is an American politician who was the 50th governor of Alabama from April 22, 1993, to January 16, 1995. He has also served as the lieutenant governor of Alabama on two occasions. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
William Joseph Baxley II, is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama.
Lucy Mae Bruner Baxley Smith was an American politician who served from 2003 to 2007 as the 28th lieutenant governor of Alabama and from 2008 to 2012 as president of the Alabama Public Service Commission. She was the first woman to hold the state's office of lieutenant governor. In 2006, she was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for governor. In 2008, Baxley was elected President of the Alabama Public Service Commission, and was the only Democrat to win statewide that year. Until Doug Jones's swearing in after winning a 2017 U.S. Senate special election, Baxley had been the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama.
George Corley Wallace III, generally known as George Wallace Jr., is an American politician from the U.S. state of Alabama. He is the only son of George and Lurleen Wallace, each of whom was Democratic governor of Alabama.
The Nebraska Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Nebraska. Over 700 Democrats are elected across the state of Nebraska. Jane Kleeb is the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and also serves as the Midwest Chair of the Association of State Democratic Committees.
The Alabama Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Alabama. It is chaired by Randy Kelley.
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The Alabama Republican Party is the state affiliate of the Republican Party in Alabama. It is the dominant political party in Alabama. The state party is governed by the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. The committee usually meets twice a year. As of the February 23, 2019 meeting in Birmingham, the committee is composed of 463 members. Most of the committee's members are elected in district elections across Alabama. The district members are elected in the Republican Primary once every four years, with the most recent election for the committee having been on June 5, 2018. The new committee takes office following the general election in November 2018. In addition, all 67 county GOP chairmen have automatic seats as voting members. The state chairman can appoint 10 members. Each county committee can appoint bonus members based on a formula that theoretically could add 312 seats, although that formula currently calls for only about 50 seats.
The 1986 Alabama gubernatorial election saw the election of Republican H. Guy Hunt over Democrat Bill Baxley. In state politics, this election is largely seen as a realigning election since Hunt was the first Republican to be elected governor in 114 years – the last Republican to be elected was David P. Lewis in 1872 during the Reconstruction era. In March 1986, incumbent George Wallace announced that he would not seek a fifth term as governor, ending an era in Alabama politics.
Jeremy H. Oden is an American politician and is a member of the Republican Party. Oden is the current Place 1 Commissioner on the Alabama Public Service Commission. Prior to joining the PSC, Oden was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives. He was first elected to the State House in 1998 and resigned effective December 3, 2012. He had previously run unsuccessfully for the state house in 1994.
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The 1962 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Democrat John Malcolm Patterson was term limited and could not seek a second consecutive term.
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The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) is a statutory organ of the state government of Georgia; elected among five commission districts, the board consists of a Chairman, a Vice-chairman, and three Commissioners. PSC regulates telecommunications, transportation, electric and natural gas services in the U.S. state of Georgia. Commissioners are elected in partisan elections statewide, though they must reside in a district.
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A general election was held in the U.S. state of Alabama on November 6, 2018. All Alabama executive officers were up for election along with all of Alabama's seven seats in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections took place on June 5, 2018, for both major parties.
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