Alabama

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Alabama

1 Overview
2 Facts
3 Alabama Congressional Delegation
4 Alabama State Government
5 Alabama Cities & Counties
6 Elections
7 Alabama News, Etc
8 Organizations
9 Political Blogs
10 See also

Overview

The State of Alabama was admitted to the Union as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819. The population of Alabama is 4,447,100 as of 2000. The capital is Montgomery, with other (comparatively) large metropolitan areas including Birmingham, Mobile, and Huntsville. The state motto is "Audemus jura nostra defendere" (We dare defend our rights). The current government blueprint is the Constitution of 1901, which has the dubious distinction of being the largest government document of its kind in the world due to provisions that require amendments to be made to the constitution for even minor local changes in law. This has led to growing calls for a new constitution to be drafted.

The governor of Alabama is Robert Renfroe "Bob" Riley. He was born in Ashland, Alabama on October 3, 1944. He is a Republican and is serving his first term, having defeated the unpopular and ethically challenged incumbent Democrat Don Siegelman in 2002. Siegelman was indicted on May 27, 2004, (and later convicted) along with his former chief of staff and one other person, of having illegally rigged bids for state medical contracts. Despite the rumors of ethical misdeeds, Siegelman almost beat Riley anyway, a testament to Alabamians' stubbornness and the power of the NRA endorsement that Siegelman was somehow able to secure in the final weeks of the campaign.

Prior to his election, Bob Riley served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Third District. Although Riley is a staunch conservative, he has drawn the ire of many of the more rabid anti-tax groups such as the Club For Growth for his proposed reform of the Alabama tax code, which was rejected in a referendum on September 9, 2003 by a 68%-32% margin. Since that failure, Riley has been considered vulnerable for defeat in his coming reelection attempt.

The lieutenant governor is Democrat Lucy Baxley. She is the first woman to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Alabama. Prior to her 2002 electoral victory over GOP candidate Bill Armistead, she served two terms as State Treasurer. The incumbent Lt. Governor at the time, the infamous Republican Steve Windom (who once urinated into a jug during a session of the state Senate for fear of someone taking his seat were he to go to the restroom) had chosen not to run for re-election, instead entering the GOP primary for governor, which he lost. As a testament to her surprising popularity, when Baxley was re-elected for a second term as Treasurer in 1998, she received the highest number of votes cast for any candidate for constitutional office. In the election for Lieutenant Governor in 2002, she received a higher number of votes than either candidate for Governor. By virtue of her office, Lt. Governor Baxley is President and Presiding Officer of the Alabama Senate.

The two United States Senators from Alabama are Jeff Sessions and Richard C. Shelby. Both are Republicans and are considered prohibitive favorites for re-election. Shelby was actually a Democrat until 1994, when he defected. Despite being quite conservative ideologically, Shelby has a reputation for being independent-minded. This is due in large part to the time he spent as the chief Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Shelby is in Senate Class III and will face long shot Democrat Wayne Sowell in 2004. Sessions is a member of Class II and defeated Democrat Susan Parker easily in 2002. In contrast to Shelby, Sessions is considered to be a party hack. Sarah Wildman wrote an article for the December 30, 2002 issue of The New Republic that lambasted Sessions as having a worse record on race than the recently demoted Trent Lott.

The Alabama House delegation is split 5-2 in favor of the GOP and will likely remain that way for the forseeable future due to the way the districts are drawn.

Facts

45 Alabamians have been killed in the War in Iraq.

Alabama Congressional Delegation

Senate
- Senior Senator:Jeff Sessions (R)
- Junior Senator:Richard C. Shelby (R)

House of Representatives
- AL-01 Rep.: Jo Bonner (R)
- AL-02 Rep.: Terry Everett (R)
- AL-03 Rep.: Mike D. Rogers (R)
- AL-04 Rep.: Robert Aderholt (R)
- AL-05 Rep.: Bud Cramer (D)
- AL-06 Rep.: Spencer Bachus (R)
- AL-07 Rep.: Artur Davis (D)

Alabama State Government

Executive Branch
- Governor: Bob Riley (R)
- Lt.Gov: Jim Folsom Jr. (D)
- Secretary of State: Beth Chapman (R)
- Treasurer Kay Ivey (R)
- Attorney General: Troy King (R)
- Auditor: Samantha Shaw (R)
- Agriculture and Industry Commissioner: Ron Sparks (D)