The Alabama State Senate District 7 special election between Democrat Laura Hall and Republican Paul Sanford takes place tomorrow. As usual, polls will be open from 7 am to 7 pm. Vote early and as often as the law allows.
"Debate" tonight:
Representative Laura Hall (D, HD19) and Paul Sanford (R) will participate in a televised "debate" this evening from 6:30 to 7 pm. You can watch it live on WHNT-19 in the Huntsville area. The Huntsville Times is a co-sponsor of the event. We've been told the format includes 60 second, 30 second and 15 second responses from candidates, so don't get your hopes up for any substantive discussion. Maybe they'll even have a lightning round with just a show of hands. Remember how awful the WHNT/Hsv Times "debate" was back last summer for the AL-05 congressional seat? I think they asked them their favorite color.
Friends of Laura Hall are also hosting a debate watch party at her campaign headquarters. They'll have free food and drink and you can sign up to help on Election Day while you're there.
DATE: Monday, June 8th
TIME: 6:00pm LOCATION: Laura Hall for Senate Campaign HQ
2227 Drake Ave., Huntsville, AL 35805
Paul Sanford and the Issue of Education:
Conservative bloggers have made much ado over Paul Sanford's issues page -- and the fact that Laura Hall's website does not have one. So, I surfed on over to see where Sanford comes down on the issues. Imagine my surprise to find that Sanford has a position on "illegal aliens" and on "the second amendment" but not on education. OK, the first two don't actually surprise me -- he's a Republican so he has to push the immigrants and guns buttons -- but I'm genuinely surprised he hasn't articulated a position on education when so much of the state's budget is spent on education and there is widespread, bipartisan agreement that improving education is the ticket to economic success for Alabama and her citizens.
The word "education" is only mentioned once on Sanford's issues page:
Future public education needs will demand the building of new schools and upgrading existing schools.
No word on where the money will come from. Sanford advocates "finding every possible way to cut waste and inefficiency rather than raising taxes" which is well and good, as far as it goes. Problem is, where is that waste and inefficiency and will cutting it get the new schools, infrastructure and "tax incentives and other perks" for new industry Sanford proposes? At a UAH candidate forum in February, Sanford was asked about funding for higher education and how UAH could make ends meet if they face a budget cut.
I think, obviously I can speak -- I have a brother, a brother-in-law that's a professor at a university -- his workload is ... Gosh, I would die for. I would actually die for. I don't know if his workload is typical of the average professor in a university, but he teaches like 2 classes, he does a lot of it over the internet, he spends about 4 hours a week actually working in the classroom, combined, and about another 4 hours away from the classroom. I mean it's a pretty sweetheart deal. I don't know if that's the average professor's workload. If it is, maybe I need to go back to school and become one ...
...
I think you have to look at the classroom size, how many students are in the classroom. Are we effectively meeting the workload in the classroom level? Can we consolidate classes and look at cutting expenses that way?
Do university professors really work too little? Are our university class sizes too small? Sounds like that's the way Paul Sanford sees things.
Here's a problematic statment I found on Sanford's issues page:
Our tax structure must continue to be favorable to the citizens and businesses of Alabama. We have an eager, educated, and plentiful workforce that should be used to entice corporations to relocate to Alabama.
Sounds like he wants to continue selling Alabama the same old way: Come to Alabama where we have low taxes and lots of cheap, non-union labor! That might have worked when we were competing with Georgia and Tennessee, but foreign competitors like China and Central America have even lower taxes, more workers and fewer unions or none at all. The old economic strategies won't be enough for Alabama in the 21st century.
Laura Hall in her own words:
I would also like to call your attention to my interview with Rep. Laura Hall earlier this year. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. I specifically asked her about a constitutional convention and a ban on PAC to PAC transfers -- she supports both. We also covered a lot more ground. Here's an excerpt:
Q: What's your greatest achievement since you've been down there? You're a hard worker you say and you're proud of the work that you do. What are you most proud of?
Rep. Hall: There are several things but one of the bills that I'm most proud of that I've done is the Landlord-Tenant Bill which took a number of years. Because there were different people at the table, from homebuilders to realtors to Alabama Arise and consistently looking at issues that have been brought to our attention. The idea with the Landlord-Tenant Bill was to provide a safe place for individuals to live and also to require them to be responsible. It was not just on the tenant but also on the landlord. That's one. A safe haven for babies has been another one. Increasing the funding for AIDS drug assistance program. When I started we were getting about $150,000 and had a waiting list of more than 700 individuals and that no longer is the case.
Q: Explain that one a little bit more.
Rep. Hall: AIDS drug assistance program. Those individuals who cannot afford drugs ...
Q: And those are very expensive drugs?
Rep. Hall: Yes. So that fund is available. Funds were allocated through Public Health It's a total of about $5 million now that is allocated to that particular line in the budget. Without that we would have a waiting list of individuals needing drugs. If you know anything about the disease, one of the things that has improved the quality of life for individuals with AIDS is being able to take their medication and getting it at the right time. So, for me, that is significant.
This video is from Part 1 of the interview, linked above.
Even though Republicans poured a lot of money into the campaigns of the opponents of Hall and Keahey, Hubbard said those Senate seats were never really targeted as winnable by the party.
Hubbard said the District 7 lines were originally "drawn to be Democratic." He said he would be "ecstatic" if Sanford wins, but conceded that the demographics of the district don't favor the GOP. He said nearly one-third of the voters in the district are black.
Anything close will be a moral victory and an actual win will mean the end of the Democratic Party in North Alabama. That'll be the spin, anyhow.
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The Alabama State Senate District 7 special election between Democrat 
