Posted on 05/19/2006 12:47:48 PM PDT by Kuksool
Former Chief Justice Roy Moore waited until the final three weeks of the Republican campaign for governor to air his first TV commercial, which gives many voters their first glimpse of the trial that cost him his judgeship.
Moore, campaigning in Enterprise on Wednesday, said he waited because he lags behind Republican Gov. Bob Riley in fundraising and he wanted to get the most impact from his money by hitting the air close to the June 6 primary election.
"We are lower on money. We don't have a tenth of what my opponent does," he told the Republican Women of Coffee County.
Moore's first ad, which began airing statewide Wednesday, shows him being questioned by then-Attorney General Bill Pryor during Moore's trial before the state Court of the Judiciary in 2003. The court threw him out of the chief justice's job after he refused to abide by a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from display in the state judicial building.
Most voters have never seen Pryor questioning Moore about the acknowledgment of God because TV news cameras were not allowed in the trail. Moore's video comes from an official recording made for the court. He has included portions of it in some speeches and on his campaign Web site, but it has not received prime time attention until now.
"We wanted to show what really went on in Montgomery in November 2003 - something that politicians and government officials didn't want the people to see," Moore said.
"It wasn't about the rule of law. It was about the acknowledgment of God, upon whom our laws are based," Moore said in an interview.
William Stewart, former chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said the interchange between Moore and Pryor "is a powerful message. It shows Bill Pryor in the worst possible light and Judge Moore in the best possible light because he's standing up for God."
Stewart said the ad may create sympathy for Moore, but it won't be enough to turn around Riley's big lead in the polls because Moore has not defined what he would do as governor on important issues that concern voters, such as jobs, education, prisons and Medicaid.
Moore's first TV ad will be followed with another next week highlighting issues in the governor's race, campaign spokesman J. Holland said.
In addition to the TV ads, Moore put up billboards May 1 that show a photo of him and his family rather than talking about campaign promises.
Holland said Moore spends so much time talking about issues like term limits for legislators and restricting the use of eminent domain that he wanted to use the billboards to show that he has children and understands the everyday concerns of parents raising a family.
Moore's new TV ad isn't the only one showing him.
Riley, who began radio ads in January and TV ads a short while later, has a new TV ad that begins with Moore administering the oath of office to Riley in January 2003. That was before Moore and Riley had a split later that year over Moore's response to the federal court order to move his monument.
Riley's spokesman, Josh Blades, said the ad is designed to show where the administration began, with severe financial problems facing the state, and show where it ended up, with a budget surplus and low unemployment.
"The best way to show that is to show the inauguration," Blades said.
Riley has been on radio and TV for months because of his big fundraising lead.
The latest campaign finance reports, filed in late April, show Riley has received $4.3 million in donations and Moore $893,879. Moore said he trails because, unlike Riley, he is not accepting campaign contributions from political action committees.
Hope he gets elected!America needs guts!
The only vote Alabama is concerned about right now is getting Taylor Hicks to be the next American Idol.
Ditto....
Ann Coulter had a good article about him. Has anyone read Roy Moore's book, "So Help Me God"?
Whooo! SOOOUUULLL Patrol!
There's not a Democrat in the Country that wouldn't agree with that statement.
There's not a Democrat in the Country that wouldn't agree with that statement.
Forget Moore. Let's elect another "electable" RINO!
Based on the Republican voters in Alabama I've spoken with, he doesn't have a chance. Most regard him as a "nut" and an embarrassment to the state.
You haven't a clue who I support. Put all the fundamentalists up for election you want. I will vote for the one who supports the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
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