Unknown Is a Nominee for Alabama Governor

By ROBBIE BROWN

ATLANTA - A relatively unknown Alabama state representative won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, easily defeating a well-financed, establishment-supported opponent in a runoff election.

The representative, Dr. Robert Bentley, beat Bradley Byrne, a former state senator and college system chancellor who was endorsed by the current governor and a congressman. He won 56 percent of the vote to Mr. Byrne's 44 percent.

"No one thought we had a chance," Dr. Bentley, 67, a physician, said Tuesday evening in a celebration at the University of Alabama football stadium. "But you know, God is good."

Political experts offered several theories for Dr. Bentley's come-from-behind victory: an anti-establishment political climate, an outside group's negative advertising campaign against Mr. Byrne, and a state registration system that allows Democrats to switch over to vote in Republican primaries.

Although Dr. Bentley campaigned aggressively (his slogan: "Alabama is sick, and we need a doctor") and had been rising in the polls for weeks, he was a virtual unknown before his second-place finish in the crowded primary on June 1. In that election, he defeated two more prominent opponents: a former governor's son and a former State Supreme Court chief justice who is nationally known for trying to put a statue of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse.

"He was the outsider," said Bill Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Alabama. "He didn't represent the Tea Party, but he did represent the nonestablishment."

Based on his unlikely rise, outsider background and limited-government ideology, Dr. Bentley drew comparisons to other new Republican stars: the nominee for governor Nikki Haley in South Carolina and the Senate nominees Sharron Angle in Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky. But unlike those candidates, Dr. Bentley was never endorsed by the Tea Party.

With a soft-spoken, mild-mannered campaign style, Dr. Bentley played up his medical background. Campaign advertisements show him in a white doctor's coat and he legally added "Dr." to his name, hoping that it would appear on the ballot (it did not because the state refuses to include any honorifics). He promised fiscal conservatism and Christian values, but struggled in fund-raising, receiving $621,000 in contributions compared with Mr. Byrne's $2 million.

"I'm not from a political family, I'm not backed by powerful interests," Dr. Bentley says in a video advertisement. "The only special interest I'll ever serve is you, the people of Alabama."

The two candidates were ideologically similar, political experts say, but on the campaign trail Dr. Bentley tried to paint Mr. Byrne as a newcomer to the Republican Party. He noted that Mr. Byrne had voted for Bill Clinton and Michael S. Dukakis for president.

An outside group named the True Republican PAC also ran advertisements questioning whether Mr. Byrne believed the entire Bible is literally true (he says he does) and whether he opposes teaching creationism in public schools (he says he supports it).

Also, a powerful, Democratic-leaning teachers' organization, the Alabama Education Association, came out strongly against Mr. Byrne. The group has opposed Mr. Byrne ever since he carried out an overhaul as chancellor of the state's two-year college system that weakened the education association.

In the November election, Dr. Bentley will face Ron Sparks, the agriculture commissioner and Democratic nominee.

By Phillip Rawls • The Associated Press • June 24, 2010

Bradley Byrne is criticizing his opponent in the Republican runoff for governor, state Rep. Robert Bentley, for voting for a proposal to change Alabama's teacher tenure rules.

Byrne's new ad accuses Bentley of being "more liberal than you know." It says he voted to allow a teacher "serving a 10-year prison sentence to receive taxpayer-paid benefits totaling $164,000."

But a check of legislative records by The Associated Press shows Bentley's vote was cast on a proposal made by Republican Gov. Bob Riley and supported by the state Republican Party chairman. It passed 96-0.

The vote cited in the text of the ad, roll call 1275 on House Bill 42, also occurred in 2004 -- four years before the teacher mentioned in the ad went to prison.

The AP's check of legislative records shows the vote was to approve changes that the Republican governor recommended in a teacher tenure bill. The House agreed with his changes 96-0, and among the Republicans joining Bentley in voting yes was Rep. Mike Hubbard of Auburn, chairman of the Alabama Republican Party.

Byrne and Bentley are campaigning for the GOP nomination for governor in the July 13 primary runoff.

Byrne said the ad could have cited any of several votes Bentley made in support of the teacher tenure bill pushed by the Alabama Education Association.

Byrne, who was in the state Senate in 2004, said Alabama would be better off if Bentley and other legislators had joined him in opposing the bill.

"I filibustered that bill for two weeks," Byrne said.

In Byrne's ad, Bentley gets accused of being cozy with AEA in his support of the 2004 law rewriting the teacher tenure process. The revisions provided that dismissed teachers could continue to be paid until an arbitrator held a hearing
and found the dismissal was proper.

The teacher cited in the ad is Charlene Schmitz of Washington County. She was accused of using a cell phone and computer to entice a 14-year-old boy for sex in 2007. She went to prison in 2008 to serve a 10-year sentence.

Schmitz continued to receive pay while in prison because she was appealing her criminal case, and an arbitration hearing could not be held while she was appealing.

Bentley said he co-sponsored a bill, passed by the Legislature this year, that revised the tenure law to prohibit any more cases of imprisoned teachers drawing pay if they were convicted of sex crimes involving children or committed one of Alabama's most serious felonies, such as murder or first-degree robbery.

Bentley said he voted yes in 2004 because the bill was a compromise worked out by the governor and AEA.

"We saw that it did not work as well as we thought, and we clarified that this year," he said.

Byrne, a former member of the State Board of Education, said that even with the recent revisions, an educator convicted of taking school funds could still draw pay and benefits while in prison because the revision doesn't cover enough crimes. He said the whole tenure law needs to be rewritten, including taking out the arbitrators and eliminating tenure for administrators.

"The fix is no fix," he said.

Read more here: http://www.cw.ua.edu/2010/06/17/bentley-is-the-best-candidate/

Copyright 2010 The Crimson White

Bentley is in good position in GOP race

Published: Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.

When Tuscaloosa State Rep. Robert Bentley announced he was running for governor in the Republican primary this year, it sounded like an improbable decision, if not quixotic quest.

Although little known outside his Tuscaloosa House district, Bentley, who is a physician by profession, has been a conscientious, if low-key member of the Alabama Legislature for two terms and has shown a refreshing willingness to cross party lines on issues of principle.

But again, he began his campaign on a statewide bus tour as someone offering himself for governor with almost negligible name recognition outside west Alabama.

With Republican Gov. Bob Riley constitutionally prohibited from seeking a third consecutive term, however, the field was open for newcomers, and indeed, stranger things have happened in Alabama. Such as in 1978 when similarly unknown businessman Fob James was elected after defeating a former governor, the attorney general and the lieutenant governor on his way to his first term in the governor's mansion.

And while this year's field of gubernatorial hopefuls does have some candidates with moderately high name recognition - such as controversial former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore on the Republican side and Democrats U.S. Rep. Artur Davis and Ron Sparks, who has won two statewide races for commissioner of agriculture - there is certainly a plausible case to be made for a dark horse to ultimately win the Nov. 2 general election for governor.

For the past few days, the Bentley campaign has been touting a poll that shows the June 1 Republican primary to be wide open at this point, with Bentley definitely in the hunt for a spot in the runoff that will surely be necessary in a race with seven candidates.

Of those seven, Bentley is grouped at the top in the Dresner-Wickers poll released April 5 with Moore, businessman Tim James (Fob's son) and former legislator Bradley Byrne.

For the record, Byrne was identified as the leader with 25 percent of those polled saying they would vote for him, followed by Moore at 19 percent, Bentley at 18 percent and James at 16 percent. But fully 22 percent of the voters likely to cast their ballots in the GOP primary say they are undecided, meaning that of the top four, there is really no front-runner in the race.

Money, of course, is always an issue for a statewide candidate, especially one with negligible name recognition.

But Bentley seems to be holding his own, with television commercials already on the air and a little more than $1 million listed as cash on hand at the end of January. That's considerably more than the $145,000 Moore reported to the Secretary State, but less than the $1.8 million Byrne had in his coffers and a long way from the $2.6 million Tim James had in his war chest.

But Bentley does appear to be well positioned to make a move in the GOP gubernatorial horse race.

Copyright © 2010 TuscaloosaNews.com - All rights reserved. Restricted use only.

TUSCALOOSA | Five of Alabama's gubernatorial candidates offered their ideas on how to improve children's well-being at the Doing What Matters for Tuscaloosa's Children conference Monday at the Bryant Conference Center. 

"My question today is, what are you going to do? The time has come that these men seeking office give us real answers to our problems," Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said in his opening remarks at the annual conference. 

Gubernatorial candidates Robert Bentley, Artur Davis, Tim James, Bill Johnson and Ron Sparks participated in a panel discussion about ways to improve children's health, education, safety and security. The discussion was moderated by Hattie Kaufman, senior assistant dean for advancement at the University of Alabama School of Law. The candidates were given one and a half minutes to answer questions, with many focusing on education. 

Davis, a Democratic congressman from Birmingham, recalled a quote by former U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey - "The measure of a good society is how we treat people" - and said that Alabama has fallen short. 

"We're No. 1 in football, and we have a simple rule for our coaches. It's Top 25, or you're gone," he said. "But when it comes to the quality of life for our children, we sit at 49. It's time to do better and elect a governor who will make this a No. 1 priority." 

James, a Republican, said he wants to promote public education and combat the dropout rate by implementing a Reading Corps program in which college students and volunteers give additional help to children who are behind their grade level in reading. 

"You judge the character of a state based on how we treat our children and elderly. There's one thing I do believe in, and that is public education," said James, a Greenville businessman and the son of former Gov. Fob James. 

Ron Sparks, the state commissioner of Agriculture and Industries and a Democratic candidate, said he would raise money for education by taxing gambling. 

"The one thing we need to hear is that it takes money to educate our children," he said. "And our state is broke." 

Davis said he was the first candidate to propose raising the mandatory school attendance age to 18. "We need to say to young people that if you drop out, you lose your driver's license," he said. "We frankly need to say that if your child stays in school, we will give your family a $500 tax credit." 

Johnson, who resigned as director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs last year to run for governor in the Republican primary, responded to Davis by noting that not all Alabama children will go to college, and that provisions needed to be made to help those who do and offer programs for those who will not. 

"We have to make sure that our children are engaged in a program that supports their future aspirations," he said. 

"My mind is on children who don't have breaks and opportunities," James said. "We try to say that life is fair, but life is not fair. It's time to remove the crutches and tell children they have to work hard." 

Sparks cited Davis' analogy to Alabama's No. 1 football team, and said that to be No. 1 in education, some tough choices have to be made. 

"I'm telling each and every one of you that I will not raise taxes on working men and women of Alabama," he said, "but I will raise taxes on those doing business in Alabama and not paying taxes. And that is gambling. We need to designate that money towards education." 

Bentley, a Tuscaloosa dermatologist and state legislator, closed with remarks about his experience dealing with state budgets. A Republican, he is serving his second term in the House. 

"Next year we'll have a difficult problem because all the stimulus money will be gone. You need someone with experience dealing with budgets," Bentley said. "You need a government with solutions to problems. The state is sick. Our economy is sick, and ladies and gentleman, you need a doctor." 

The Democratic and Republican primaries will be June 1. The general election will be Nov. 2. 

Sponsored by Challenge 21, Tuscaloosa's Promise and the Children's Policy Council of Tuscaloosa, this year's Doing What Matters for Tuscaloosa's Children conference addressed problems that children and their families face in West Alabama. 

Charles Nash, UA's vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the university began the conference four years ago. 

"We started through Tuscaloosa's Promise, and the promise that we make to our children about healthy starts, their health, their education, about caring adults and a safe place for after-school hours and an opportunity to give back to the community," he said. 

Copyright © 2010 TuscaloosaNews.com - All rights reserved. Restricted use only.

Gubernatorial Candidates Tackle Education

Kim Garner
February 01, 2010

An education forum in West Alabama played host to five of the gubernatorial candidates, Monday. Republican candidates Robert Bentley, Tim James, and Bill Johnson along with Democratic candidates Artur Davis and Ron Sparks appeared in conjunction with the annual "Doing What Matters for Tuscaloosa Children" program. This year, the event featured the gubernatorial candidates debating issues affecting the state's school children.

Throughout the debate, several topics continued to surface including the dropout rate, the creation of an education lottery, and the taxation of gambling. Candidates varied on their responses as to how to best tackle the major issues creating turmoil in schools across the state.

Republican candidate Tim James says he feels as if the taxation of gambling won't fix funding problems in schools. "Sure, if you had gambling and taxing you'd raise a little money," James says, "But you'd also have tremendous social costs that would go with it." James says the issues on the forefront of his mind are economic development and the dropout rate, which he believes is closely connecting to the reading rate. "We have to raise the reading scores by the time they leave the 3rd grade," James explains, "if we do it, dropout rates collapse, prison numbers collapse, teen pregnancy--you name it, go down and you've created an educated workforce. That's how we improve Alabama." James says his focus on reading rates is based in statics showing children who can read by the time they leave the 3rd grade are more likely to graduate from high school.

Democratic candidate Ron Sparks, however, is in support of taxing gambling, and says although he has been criticized by some of the other candidates for his views, he believes gambling is not going away. "There's millions of dollars going to other states," Sparks explains, "that's from Alabama citizens, we're going across the line everyday buying lottery tickets."

Democratic candidate Artur Davis also shares the belief that gambling should be taxed, however; he describes a more drastic taxation than what his fellow candidates could support. "I am all for taxing gambling," Davis says, "the difference between me and Ron Sparks is I want to tax it above the national rate, at 20 to 25 percent." Davis says he believes gambling taxes in other states shouldn't determine what Alabama decides. "Folks in Mississippi don't like what they do in Mississippi," he says.  "Mississippi gives a huge tax break to its gambling interest...doesn't put its gambling proceeds back to investments back in the community. We don't need to copy that pattern in Alabama. We need to do better."

For Republican Robert Bentley, however, the issue of gambling has always been clear. "I have always voted against gambling," Bentley says, "Gambling never helps any area. They're talking about taxing gambling, but it skims money off the top of all of our economies so it always damages the economy of the state." However Bentley says he does believe the issue is ultimately up to the voters. "I don't want to have to deal with gambling for those next four years and I'm not going to do it. We need to vote, once and for all, let the people of Alabama vote yes or no. If they say yes, we need to tax it and regulate it."

Candidate Bill Johnson feels similarly that the voters should decide whether or not gambling taxes could benefit schools, although he does feel as though that money could make a substantial difference in Alabama's schools. "Three to five million could be huge amounts of money for Pre-K which we know is needed." Johnson says, "It would close the gap with out education trust fund budget, it could provide scholarships for kids that go to college, so there's all kinds of benefits that could come out of that."

Tuscaloosa school leaders in attendance say hearing what the candidates had to say was an excellent opportunity to make informed decisions. School board member Marvin Lucas says while funding is one of the most important things effecting schools, it will be good to know which candidate's beliefs best suit Alabama's schools. "We have to digest the information they give and take the good parts of it and look through the other parts and make sure we know which candidate we want to support when the election comes up or when the primary comes up."

Gubernatorial candidates speak at luncheon

Posted on 27 January 2010
Tags: Greater Shelby Chamber of Commerce, Pelham Civic Complex

By AMY JONES / Staff Writer

Eight gubernatorial candidates spoke about their plans for Shelby County and the state at the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce luncheon Jan. 28.

The eight - Democrats Ron Sparks, Artur Davis and Republicans James Potts, Bill Johnson, Tim James, Kay Ivey, Bradley Byrne and Robert Bentley - mainly talked about their goals for economic recovery and education.

Sparks, who spoke first, said he is throwing his support behind an education lottery in Alabama.

"We've got children walking the streets, begging for paper and pencils and soap. Ladies and gentlemen, I just don't believe this is the kind of Alabama you want," he said. "If there is legal gambling here in the state of Alabama, I'm going to tax it. That's why I'm supporting an education lottery."

He said the sheer amount of children whose lives have been changed in other states, including Florida and Georgia, make an education lottery a worthwhile idea.

"The state of Florida has given $20 billion to education," he said. "The state of Georgia has given 1.2 million scholarships to their children. If you want a change, then it's time to educate our children."

Next, Potts said he's interested in bringing jobs to the area, not gambling.

"We don't need to be taking money out of people's pockets in a gambling machine," he said. "We need jobs. Right now I have three neighbors that have been unemployed for over a year."

Bill Johnson said he would allow Alabama citizens to have the final say on an education lottery.

"I am for allowing the citizens to vote on gambling in Alabama," he said. "We've got Alabama dollars right now educating kids in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi. I want to give the citizens a chance to decide if they want some of those dollars to educate Alabama kids."

Tim James spoke on the importance of economic development and on how important Shelby County has been to his campaign, as many of his advisers and campaign workers are locals.

"I have a great constituency in Shelby County, and I didn't even realize it until today," he said.

Next, Kay Ivey spent much of her time speaking on her support for charter schools.

"As a former schoolteacher running for governor, I know we need capable public schools, so I fully support the competition of public schools with the formation of charter schools," she said. "Together, we will provide effective leadership with real results for Alabama."

Artur Davis also spoke about education reform and finding ways to make education accessible to everyone.

"We can't be afraid of reform. We can't be afraid of new ideas. We can't be afraid of charter schools," he said. "Education should be accessible to any young man or woman who has the talent and the work ethic."

Bradley Byrne spoke about the importance of developing the Birmingham metro area.

"This whole area of the state is extremely important to the rest of the state. We've got to understand that the Birmingham metro area is extremely critical to moving the rest of the state ahead," he said.

Byrne also spoke about his time as the two-year college chancellor, during which he took control of a system rife with interference from special interest groups.

"I had to spend a very difficult time of my life trying to clean up and mop up a very difficult situation. We had to put people in jail," he said. "If we're going to move our state forward, we have to stand up to PACs and special interests."

Robert Bentley, a Shelby County native, spoke last. He said he plans to stand in solidarity with those who are unemployed.

"Our unemployment rate here in Alabama is actually greater than the national average," he said. "I'm going to stand by the people who don't have a salary. I will not take a salary as governor as long as our unemployment is at the rate it's at now."

The gubernatorial election will be in November 2010.