| Countrycat and I hit the road early Friday morning, headed to Montgomery for the State Democratic Executive Committee Board Meeting. We wanted to be present for the "show cause" proceeding when Charley Grimsley made his case for being allowed on the Democratic ballot in spite of maxing out to the campaign of George W. Bush (R) in 2004, contributing $5,000 to Roy Moore (R, Crazy) in 2006, $500 to Beth Chapman's (R) campaign to defeat Nancy Worley (D) in 2006 and at least $1000 to a right wing PAC whose mission was to "expose John Kerry's liberal voting record" in 2004. Alabama Ethics Commission. Since we were in Montgomery and there's been a lot of talk about the Statements of Economic Interests of several gubernatorial candidates, we decided to stop by the Alabama Ethics Commission to see the actual statements. Only the 2009 statements are available online so you have to go to Montgomery to actually obtain records for 2008 and before (or pay a mailing fee.) Unfortunately, we arrived just as they were locking the doors and turning out the lights for lunch. So, we headed on to the AEA Building for the SDEC Board Mtg.  Cat-A-Van. Since the Ethics Commission was a bust, we were early and caught sight of a couple of folks attaching a banner to a bright yellow school bus in front of the building.  It was a banner for AEA's Cat-A-Van, complete with Cat in the Hat. How could we resist that?
AEA President Anita Gibson (pictured with the Cat) was one of the people attaching the banner. She told us the Cat-A-Van travels to schools around Alabama and people from the local communities (often well known community leaders) wear the distinctive striped hat and accompany the Cat in the Hat to read to students. The point of the program is to get kids excited about reading. Very innovative! Finally, the SDEC Board Meeting. Mr. Grimsley (standing, below) spoke on his own behalf from prepared notes. Voluminous prepared notes. He spoke for over 45 minutes which was surprising given that ADP officials had indicated this proceeding was expected to last 20 to 30 minutes, start to finish. Obviously, the fix was in from the beginning -- not in a particularly nefarious way, just that Board members weren't about to stick their neck out and possibly create voter resentment by denying Grimsley a spot on the ballot. They prefer to just kick the ball over to Democratic voters on June 1. I think that's a rather spineless position, but then I'm not on the Board. It's their prerogative and that's what they were comfortable doing.  Several Board members (list of members in attendance here) seemed surprised by the length and content of Grimsley's presentation. There was eye-rolling, whispering and, later on, what looked like napping. IMO, the expectation was that Grimsley would make a short (5 to 10 minute) presentation of why he is an asset to the party, take a few questions, they would vote and the whole thing would be over. In other words, he went way overboard, talked far more than he should have (especially since he knew there were cameras going) and paid considerably more than he had to for the opportunity to get on the Democratic ballot in 2010.
Grimsley's remarks struck me as bizarre -- they included a lengthy discussion of what was apparently a messy divorce; sexual behavior; polygraph test; details of his own contributions to Republicans (at least $25,000) as well as those of his opponent ($25), Dr. Paul Hubbert and Jere Beasley; childhood stories; an assertion that he is "working day and night to save the PACT program; tears; part of a gospel song and a reading of William Daley's Keep the Big Tent Big ... The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer. ... witness the loss of Rep. Griffith and his fellow moderate Democrats who will retire. They are perhaps the truest canaries in the coal mine.
... in its entirety! Personally, I think Grimsley would have done better to leave out Parker Griffith, the damage the far left has done to the Democratic party and the complaints about "left-wing bloggers." When Grimsley finally finished, the Board asked him a few questions. He said he wanted to say one more thing, even though it might hurt his case, but mercifully, Dr. Joe Reed advised him, "When you think you've got one, leave it like it is." They obviously wanted Grimsley to just stop talking. The Board then went into executive session for a short time. There was no official statement of the outcome there, but Grimsley went away with a big grin. Chairman Turnham said he would have a statement in a short while, after the principals in the case had been notified. Back we went to the Alabama Ethics Commission which was now open. The staff there was extremely helpful, explaining that not all the 2009 documents are currently available because people have until April to file their Statements of Economic Interest. Even candidates need only have a current statement on file, so those who already hold office, such as Ron Sparks, Kay Ivey and Robert Bentley, have until April to file a report in order to qualify as candidates. Even with those limitations, they had information we wanted -- statements for Sparks, Bradley Byrne and Tim James (Davis has to file a more exhaustive and free federal form, so we'll use that.) Countrycat and I dropped our entire lunch fund (for the year) at the Ethics Commission ($2.50 per online report, $4.50 for the ones from 2008 and before) -- y'all feel free to hit that yellow "donate" button on the left. I promise you we spent a month's worth of blog revenue for these documents! We also discovered the Ethics Commission has an extremely small staff for the 50,000 or so statements they process every year. What happens if folks fail to file their statements? They incur a $10 per day fine,to a maximum of $1000, but that is rare in practice because of the risk of embarrassment. What happens if someone reports incomplete or erroneous information? The Ethics Commission has three investigators who respond to complaints (form available online) and apparently look into these matters in a fairly timely way, according to the staff. Our final stop was the Alabama Democratic Party HQ where we chatted with Vice-Chair Nancy Worley while waiting for the official statement on the Grimsley affair. She is quite concerned about the apparent electioneering at Jacksonville State in the recent special election. We met the young man who was ejected from the campus while distributing literature on behalf of the Democratic candidate. Chairman Joe Turnham talked with us about the Board's decision on Grimsley -- he indicated that in a tough election year there is a sentiment that we should be adding people to the party, not subtracting them, emphasizing that the Board didn't decide in favor of Grimsley or against the plaintiff, but to let Democratic primary voters have the final say. Countrycat then took a piece of Joe's hide off regarding Grimsley's contribution history -- for once I looked like the nice cat! We also met one of their new interns -- great to see fresh faces at the ADP -- and left with all the information we requested. I would like to say the trip home was uneventful, but between countrycat holding the phone with one hand, driving with the other and gesturing to make her points with ... well, the hand that wasn't holding the phone ... and the 18 wheeler waaaayyy out of its lane in one of the several construction zones in Birmingham, the best that can be said is, at least we aren't dead. Video from the SDEC Board meeting will be up in a few days. Countrycat has a full calendar this weekend and is sick to boot, so check back Monday. |
