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U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., has abandoned his House seat in his historic bid to become Alabama's first black governor. Republican Gov. Bob Riley cannot seek re-election because of term limits. Both parties will select their candidates Tuesday, with July 13 runoffs available if necessary.
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Both the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries are too close to call, with many voters still making up their minds, a Capital Survey Research Center poll indicated.
Among likely Democratic voters, 42.4 percent of survey participants said they were undecided or declined to answer when asked to select a favorite. Among likely Republican voters, 29.7 percent said they were undecided or declined to answer.
"It's just a toss-up," Gerald Johnson, the polling center's director, told The Birmingham News recently. "There is no consensus on a candidate in either primary."
Johnson said the poll showed four Republicans could finish first or second in Tuesday's primary and make it into a runoff for governor: Greenville businessman Tim James, former two-year college Chancellor Bradley Byrne, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and state Rep. Robert Bentley.
On the Democratic side, Davis led Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks among surveyed voters who picked a favorite. But Johnson noted a runoff was possible because polling results were within the margin of error and the large number of respondents who said they were undecided or didn't answer.
Despite Davis's efforts, several polls peg the eventual occupant of Alabama's governor's mansion will be a Republican. In a poll conducted in April, Rasmussen indicated all candidates vying to become the GOP nominee outpoll the Democratic candidates.
Davis, who represents Alabama's 7th Congressional District, is one of only a few House Democrats who voted against the national healthcare bill, but that vote doesn't seem to have had any impact on his bid, polling indicates. Fifty-nine percent of Alabama voters said they thought the healthcare plan passed by congressional Democrats is bad for the country, Rasmussen reported. Just 31 percent said they thought the law is good for the country.
A mysterious ad, reportedly part of a $1 million buy that began airing in the waning weeks of the campaign served as a platform for Davis to urge reform of the state's campaign finance system, The Birmingham News reported recently. Davis says the state's campaign system allows money sources to be hidden through various means, including transfers between political action committees, making it possible for a well-heeled special interest group to spend gobs of cash to influence an election while hiding its activities.
"This is an example of everything that is wrong with Alabama politics and campaigns in this state," Davis said.
Among the Democrats seeking to replace Davis are attorney Terri Sewell, state Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr., Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot, attorney Martha Bozeman and Eddison Walters, a Tuscaloosa small-business owner.
Freshman Rep. Bobby Bright, who squeaked past Republican state Rep. Jay Love in 2008, thanks in part to a bitter squabble within Republican ranks, is running unopposed in his quest to remain Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District representative. Four Republicans want a shot at unseating Bright: Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby, businessman Rick Barber, state Board of Education member Stephanie Bell and John Bowling McKinney III.
In Alabama's 3rd Congressional District, Republican incumbent Mike Rogers defeated Democratic lawyer Josh Segall 53 percent to 47 percent -- Rogers' closest margin of victory since his first election in 2002, online encyclopedia Wikipedia indicated. Segall is chomping for a rematch, but must get by Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing in the Democratic primary.
Alabama's 5th Congressional District is represented by freshman Democrat-turned-Republican Parker Griffith, who now faces a GOP challenge from Navy veteran Lester Phillip and Madison County Commissioner Morris Brooks in the primaries. Democratic hopefuls include political consultant Steve Raby, attorneys Mitchell J. Howie and Taze Shepard, and optical physicist David Maker.
U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, who switched from Democrat to Republican in 1994, is expected to have an easy route to re-election, Rasmussen polls indicated.
In the likely matchup between Shelby and his only announced Democratic opponent, attorney William Barnes, Selby led 59 percent to to 32 percent.
In a quickly extinguished flare-up, Shelby clarified comments made in February in which The Cullman Times quoted him as questioning President Barack Obama's citizenship.
"Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate," the newspaper quoted Shelby as saying. "You have to be born in America to be president."
Questions about Obama's citizenship have been raised by so-called birthers who claim Obama isn't a U.S. citizen and cannot be president. The rumors, circulating since Obama's presidential bid, have been debunked.
"At the town hall meeting in Cullman, Senator Shelby laid out the constitutional qualifications for the presidency and said that, while he hasn't personally seen the president's birth certificate, he is confident that the matter has been thoroughly examined," Shelby's spokesman said in a statement issued shortly after the article appeared.
