Posted on 10/03/2005 1:03:30 AM PDT by Crackingham
The Republican race for Alabama governor will take shape in the coming week, with ousted state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and incumbent Gov. Bob Riley expected to announce their candidacies and set up a classic battle between the GOP's two cornerstones: religious conservatives and business groups.
Moore has scheduled an announcement about his gubernatorial plans today in his hometown of Gadsden. Riley is having a 61st birthday party Saturday in Birmingham, where many of his supporters expect him to kick off a re-election campaign.
For months, Moore has been saying that he was praying about whether to run for governor, and that if he ran, he expected it to be as a Republican. Some of his supporters have urged him to run for chief justice — the job he lost in November 2003 for refusing to follow a federal judge's order to remove his large Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building — but Moore has made no mention of that.
Howard Phillips, a friend of Moore's who ran for president three times and started the Constitution Party, said he believes the former chief justice has gotten the answer to his prayers.
"I believe he feels led to run for governor," Phillips said.
Former state Sen. Roy Smith, a Republican, is co-chairman of the We Need Moore 2006 Committee, and he's optimistic Moore will launch a campaign for governor on Monday.
"I expect him to announce to run, but I'm not certain," Smith said.
Smith also expects Riley to announce at the end of the week. So does one of Riley's strongest supporters. Alabama House Republican Leader Mike Rogers said he's "excited and hopeful" that Riley will seek a second term.
Once Riley and Moore have their events in the coming week, that doesn't mean the Republican slate will be final. Another Republican, state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, is considering entering the race and said she will decide in December.
"Things are looking real good. I'm raising money — more than I expected," she said.
SNIP
William Stewart, a political scientist at the University of Alabama, and Smith, the former senator, expect the Republican primary for governor to line up like those races.
"It's definitely the religion-oriented Republicans versus those motivated by money," Stewart said. "Riley will raise more money, but I don't think money will be the answer because people will vote with their hearts."
SNIP
In Alabama, polls done when Moore was in the media spotlight promoting his book "So Help Me God" earlier this year gave him the edge. But recent polls, done after Riley's response to damage in Alabama from hurricanes Dennis and Katrina, show him in the lead.
Stewart cautions against putting too much stock in polls this early. "Moore hasn't started his campaign yet. He is a charismatic speaker, and that can change those polls numbers," he said.
Good, I hope he wins. He is a good antidote to liberal activism. I hope he wins so he can undo the radical liberal revisionism disaster.
I support Riley.
If this nutjob glory hound gets in I for one will never set foot in that state.
This guy ought to be on TV hawking videotaped lessons in self-promotion. A true expert.
The MSM will be promoting this race in order to try to foment division between the social conservatives and the rest of the party. I do hope people won't take the bait.
Hasn't this guy done enough damage already? Apparently not, it seems.
Senator Harri Anne Smith (R) will be in shortly. She has 6 million in the bank already. And is the most conservative senator in Montgomery.
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/senate/senators/senatebios/sd029.html
But that public symapthy with the arguement of liberalism gone amuck goes away by one issue grandstanders and who seek elected office on that one issue.
Bookmark bump
Too bad i can't vote for him...oh wait!
If i go down there and register as a Dim...
I can vote for him as many times as i want..
Being fully and well protected by Democrats
from having to show any ID, or prove who i am,
or do anything other than say i live in
Alabama, an you mean Republicans is tryin ta
disenfranchise me...just because i wuz born
in Syri..uhhmmm no, i meant Lebanon.
You would think it'd be a no-brainer, as on one hand we have Riley, who proposed the largest tax hike in state history, and one the other, a Constitutionalist such as the Honorable Roy Moore.
I think if he gets elected I'll move there. :)
Good, stay home. We are getting more people here in this area anyway. We need someone in there to help out a local representative in the state government. I read in the paper that the rep sued the government to get rid of pork in the education bill. The state supreme court blocked it.
The pork, that is.
And if he ever were elected President of the USA would you
be like so many from Hollyweird and threaton to never ever
set foot in America(except to promote your latest movie of
course-or to walk down the red carpet-or tobe interviewed
on the mainstream media news to tellthe world how crappy you think america is since an honorable man was chosen to
be president of the USA.That you disagree with Roy Moore is
ok--I suppose if he had any reason to acknowledge you he would say the feeling is mutual.To call him a nut job suggests you've been stroking your pen too much.
I wonder what Roy's campaign signs are going to look like. I wonder if the cement trucks will be kept busy.
Roy Moore reminds me of the worst televangelists.
IMO he seems driven by a self serving agenda more than a conservative one.
Nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments at all, but he made it an issue in a BIG way.
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