Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states. With a total of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of inland waterways, Alabama has among the most of any state.
Donald Eugene Siegelman is a former American politician, lawyer and convicted felon who held several elected offices in the state of Alabama.
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party. The Democrats' dominant worldview was once social conservatism and economic liberalism while populism was its leading characteristic in the rural South. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate in the Progressive Party, beginning a switch of political platforms between the Democratic and Republican Party over the coming decades, and leading to Woodrow Wilson being elected as the first fiscally progressive Democrat. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social liberal platform, supporting social justice.
The result was an extremely narrow victory for Riley. The certified results showed Riley with 672,225 votes to Siegelman's 669,105 (a difference of 3,120 votes, or 0.23% of the 1,367,053 votes cast). Sophocleus garnered 23,272 votes, and 2,451 votes were for write-in candidates. Bob Riley defeated incumbent Governor Don Siegelman in a close and controversial election marked by high turnout. Riley was reelected in 2006.
A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. The system is almost totally confined to elections in the United States. Some U.S. states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker, with the write-in candidate's name, to the ballot in lieu of actually writing in the candidate's name. Write-in candidacies are sometimes a result of a candidate being legally or procedurally ineligible to run under his or her own name or party; write-in candidacies may be permitted where term limits bar an incumbent candidate from being officially nominated for, or being listed on the ballot for, re-election. In some cases, write-in campaigns have been organized to support a candidate who is not personally involved in running; this may be a form of draft campaign.
Robert Renfroe Riley is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party who served as the 52nd Governor of Alabama from 2003 to 2011.
The incumbent is the current holder of an office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the Hungarian presidential election, 2017, János Áder was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the term before the term for which the election sought to determine the president. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.
Primaries
Both of the principal contestants in the general election campaign faced primary-election opponents whose opposition turned out to be less than expected. The primaries were held on June 4, 2002.
A primary election is the process by which voters, either the general public or members of a political party, can indicate their preference for a candidate in an upcoming general election or by-election, thus narrowing the field of candidates.
The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (AGI) is an independent agency of the government of Alabama first created by an Act of the State Legislature on February 23, 1883. The Department is responsible for serving farmers and consumers of agricultural products and operates with an annual budget of just under $25 million dollars. The Department has about 300 full-time employees and 250 part-time employees.
Tim James is an American businessman from Alabama. The son of former Alabama Governor Fob James, he sought and lost the Republican Party nomination for Governor of Alabama twice, finishing third in the Republican primaries in both 2002 and 2010.
Forrest Hood James Jr. is an American civil engineer, businessman, football player, and politician who served two terms as the 48th Governor of Alabama, from 1979–83 as a Democrat and again from 1995–99 as a Republican.
Stephen Ralph Windom is an American attorney, politician and member of the Republican Party who served as member of the Alabama State Senate from 1989 to 1998 and as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003.
The closeness of the general election contest was reflected in its intensity and fervor. At one point in the campaign, a clash erupted between the two principal campaigns over disclosure of the identities of large contributors to the Riley campaign. President George W. Bush appeared in Alabama at a July event, and a private reception with a $50,000 admission was held to benefit the Riley campaign. Riley's campaign initially refused to identify the donors attending the event. Later, under pressure from the Siegelman campaign, Riley called on the national Republican Party, which had hosted the event, to release the names of donors.[3] The Riley campaign was subjected to editorial criticism when the voluminous reports released made it difficult to trace the sources of donations from the event to Riley.[4]
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.
During the campaign, actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston came to Alabama to campaign for Republican congressional candidates. While in the state, Heston released a written statement endorsing Siegelman, despite the fact that Riley had made a point of being seen in public with Heston. Spokesmen for both Riley and the Alabama Republican Party issued statements insinuating that Siegelman had taken advantage of Heston's recently diagnosed Alzheimer's disease to secure the endorsement. After a firestorm of criticism from the NRA and editorial pages, the Republican spokesmen apologized to Heston, but not to Siegelman.[5]
The campaign set new spending records for an Alabama gubernatorial race. Even before the final weeks of the campaign, the candidates had raised over $17,000,000. Riley, who raised and spent over twice the sum Siegelman raised, was primarily backed by business groups and insurance companies. Siegelman received substantial contributions from labor groups and affiliates of the Alabama Education Association. Both candidates were the beneficiaries of national party funding, and contributions from political action committees made donations to both candidates difficult to trace.[10]
Polls taken in the final days of the campaign reflected the eventual close outcome.[11]
Riley's victory was controversial, and caused many commentators to recall the Florida election recount of 2000.[12][13] Initial returns showed Riley narrowly losing to Siegelman. Siegelman gave a victory speech on election night, and the Associated Press initially declared him the winner.[14] However, officials in Baldwin County conducted a recount and retabulation of that county's votes after midnight, and after Democratic Party observers had gone home for the night.[15] Approximately 6,000 votes initially credited to Siegelman were either removed from the total or reassigned to Riley in the recount, turning the statewide result in Riley's favor.[16] Local Republican officials claimed the earlier returns were the result of a "computer glitch."[17] Democratic requests to repeat the recount with Democratic observers present were rejected by Alabama courts and then-Attorney General Bill Pryor. Siegelman and his supporters complained that these judges (and Pryor) were either elected as Republicans or appointed by Republican presidents.[18] After over a week of fights in courtrooms and in the media, Siegelman, on November 18, 2002, made a televised address, saying that, "I've decided that a prolonged election controversy would hurt Alabama, would hurt the very people that we worked so hard to help", and abandoned his efforts to secure a recount of the Baldwin County vote, allowing Riley to take office.[19]
In response to the allegation of a "computer glitch", Siegelman later stated: "[N]ow one would expect that if there was some kind of computer glitch or some kind of computer programming error, that it might have affected more than one race, but it further raised suspicions about vote stealing when the votes came back and they were certified, and the only person who lost votes was Don Siegelman, the Democrat, and the only person who gained votes was Bob Riley, the Republican."[20]
A number of analyses of the competing claims were undertaken at the time, with conflicting results. In one such study, Auburn University political scientist James H. Gundlach concluded that a detailed analysis of the returns, compared with 1998 results and returns from undisputed counties, "strongly suggests a systematic manipulation of the voting results."[21] The Gundlach study also suggested a mechanism by which this could have been effected, and proposed a conclusion that Siegelman won. An earlier analysis reported by the Associated Press, using a less sophisticated comparison of gubernatorial and legislative returns, was claimed to indicate that the revised returns were more accurate, and that Riley probably won.[22] The Gundlach paper offers a refutation of the conclusions of the Associated Press study.
Largely as a result of this controversy,[23] the Alabama Legislature later amended the election code to provide for automatic, supervised recounts in close races.[24] Riley took office January 20, 2003.
Related Research Articles
Lucy Mae Bruner Baxley Smith was an American politician who served from 2003 to 2007 as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama and from 2009 until 2013 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, Lucy Baxley was elected President of the Alabama Public Service Commission, and was the only Democrat to win statewide that year. Until Democrat Doug Jones's victory over Republican Roy Moore in the 2017 U.S. Senate special election, Baxley was the most recent Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama.
James Douglas Martin was an American businessman and Republican politician from the U.S. state of Alabama, who served a single term in the United States House of Representatives from 1965 to 1967. His 1962 campaign for the United States Senate against the Democrat J. Lister Hill was the first serious showing by a member of his party in Alabama since Reconstruction.
The Alabama gubernatorial election of 2006 occurred on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Bob Riley defeated Democratic Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley. Riley garnered 21% of African Americans' votes.
John Peter Sophocleus is an American economist and libertarian political activist.
The Alabama gubernatorial election of 1998 was held on 3 November 1998 to select the Governor of Alabama. The election saw incumbent Governor Fob James (R) against Lieutenant Governor Don Siegelman (D). The result saw Don Siegelman win a decisive victory over Fob James. As of 2019, this is the most recent election in which a Democrat was elected Governor of Alabama.
Bill Canary, also William Canary, is a Republican campaign consultant in Alabama. His wife, Leura Canary, was the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
Ronald D. Sparks is an American politician from the state of Alabama. He is the former Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. Sparks is a member of the Democratic party, and was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Alabama in the state's 2010 gubernatorial election.
Beth Killough Chapman is an American politician from Alabama. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the state's 51st secretary of state from 2007 until she resigned on July 31, 2013 in order to accept a position with the Alabama Farmers Federation.
Troy Robin King is the former attorney general of the state of Alabama. He previously served as an assistant attorney general and a legal adviser to both Republican governors Bob Riley and Fob James. King was appointed by Governor Bob Riley in 2004, when William Pryor resigned to accept a federal judgeship.
The 2010 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010. Republican Governor Bob Riley was term limited and unable to seek re-election. The party primaries were held on June 1, 2010, with a Republican runoff on July 13. In the general election, Republican Robert J. Bentley defeated Democrat Ron Sparks.
Martha Kehres Roby is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Alabama's 2nd congressional district since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, she defeated the incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Bobby Bright during the 2010 elections. Roby and Terri Sewell were the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in regular elections.
The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Alabama were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 to elect the seven U.S. Representatives from the state, one from each of the state's seven congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election. Primary elections were held on March 13, 2012; runoff elections were held on April 24.
Elections in Alabama are authorized under the Alabama State Constitution, which establishes elections for the state level officers, cabinet, and legislature, and the election of county-level officers, including members of school boards.
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.
A special election for the United States Senate in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate through the end of the term ending on January 3, 2021, arising from the resignation on February 8, 2017, of Jeff Sessions to serve as the 84th United States Attorney General. Democratic candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore by a margin of 21,924 votes (1.7%). Jones is the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state since 1992.
↑ James H. Gundlach, A Statistical Analysis of Possible Electronic Ballot Stuffing: The Case of the Baldwin County, Alabama Governor's Race in 2002 (Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Alabama Political Science Association, Troy, Alabama, April 11, 2003) Click here to view.
Note on references: Many of the sources cited above (as added in May 2008) are not available from free online sources. The Birmingham News, the Mobile Press-Register, The Montgomery Advertiser, and The Anniston Star have online archives on a fee basis. The Birmingham and Mobile newspaper archives may be accessed via www.al.com, while archives of The Anniston Star can be accessed at www.annistonstar.com. Archived articles of The Montgomery Advertiser may be purchased at www.montgomeryadvertiser.com Archived articles from all of these newspapers are also available to subscribers, or on a per-document fee basis, on Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis.
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