Posted on 06/24/2005 10:45:33 AM PDT by AzaleaCity5691
Wallace to run for Baxley's job Friday, June 24, 2005 By SALLIE OWEN Capital Bureau MONTGOMERY -- Public Service Commissioner George Wallace Jr., son of two previous governors, said he is running for lieutenant governor in the Republican primary next June.
A recent survey indicates he has unusually high support among labor and minority voters for a GOP candidate, so Wallace said he would "strengthen the party's ticket."
Despite the position's reduced influence, Wallace, 53, said there is room for him to make an impact. "The lieutenant governor can be more proactive and innovative," he said.
The office's primary duty is presiding over the Senate, and the lieutenant governor succeeds the governor in certain situations. Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, a Democrat, is running for governor.
"There's a disappointment in the Senate for this latest regular session," he said. "The people expect them to be about the business of doing their work and go home."
He said he has not made a formal announcement of his candidacy. George C. Wallace served four terms as Alabama's chief executive -- 1963 to 1967, 1971 to 1979 and 1983 to 1987. Lurleen B. Wallace was elected governor in 1966 and she served until her death in 1968.
Republicans Luther J. Strange III, a Birmingham lawyer who lobbies in Washington, D.C., and Morris Jackson "Mo" Brooks Jr., a Madison County commissioner and former legislator, are also running for lieutenant governor, according to campaign filings. Luverne lawyer Terry Butts, a former state Supreme Court justice, also has said he is running.
Others from both parties have also said they are considering it. Jim Spearman, executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, said no one from his party has announced for the position, though Jim Folsom Jr. is often mentioned as a possibility. Folsom, a former governor whose father was also governor, was not available for comment.
Wallace released summary results from a statewide poll he commissioned from a Virginia firm. It showed him winning a hypothetical Republican primary without a runoff and leading Folsom by more than 10 points.
Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, state GOP chairwoman, said she could not comment on the poll, but "anytime somebody can broaden the spectrum of folks voting Republican it's a good thing," she said. Cavanaugh said party officials must remain neutral on primary candidates.
Wallace has won statewide office as both a Republican and a Democrat.
Voters elected him state treasurer in 1986 and 1990 as a Democrat. The next two campaigns were disappointments -- a narrow 1992 loss to Terry Everett for the 2nd Congressional District and two years later a primary defeat in the lieutenant governor's race. He said he switched to the GOP in 1995 or 1996, winning election to the PSC in 1998 and 2002.
The lieutenant governor serves a four-year term and receives $52,000 a year in salary and expense allowances.
And now the Roy Moore ticket runs into a major stumbling block
"Public Service Commissioner George Wallace Jr., son of two previous governors,"
How can this guy have two fathers? I realize George Wallace was Governor but who was the other father that served as Governor?
Both his mother and father served as Governor.
Lurleen Wallace was elected Governor in 1966 after his opponents in the legislature (led by Ryan DeGraffenreid) defeated the Constitutional amendment that would allow him to succeed himself, so Lurleen was basically elected to be "an instrument of her husbands continuing governance of Alabama"
She was elected with the tacit knowledge that George would be the one making all decisions.
I'd be inclined to support George, Jr. for this position. The fact he also has good support amongst non-Caucasians is a good thing. He also has the most experience for the position of Lt Gov as well.
Was it in '66 that DeGraffenreid died in the plane crash ? I know his namesake son made it to President Pro Tempore of the Senate in the '90s.
Boy...is my face red!!!
First, given that every other racial group in the country has a hyphenated americanism, and given the fact that Caucasian is a scientific racial classification, whereas all the other ethnic names are more "continent of basic ancestral origin"
It's really screwed up, but I prefer the term European-American
Second, yes, DeGraffenreid was the one killed in the plane crash
Lurleen is a woman.
Yeah, this wasn't a situation of Georgie having "Two Daddies." George, Sr. didn't play for the pink team. ;-)
Wallace was no Bill Allain, that's for sure.
I actually remember when Wallace first ran as a liberal and got beat by John Patterson. Patterson was famous as the guy who cleaned up Phenix City.
I went to college with Wallace's daughter. She was a tiny really pretty blond. She had a state trooper with her all the time.
Well, technically African-American can encompass anyone born in Africa. Tereeeezzzzzza Heinz-Kerry was "technically" an African-American as is Glynis Johns who played the sufragette mom in "Mary Poppins" even though they are lily-white. The racial/ethnic term for Blacks would be Negroid. But go up to any Black person and use that term, unless they were an erudite scientist without bias, you'd likely get a bloodied nose. I never heard the phrase "African-American" before until an episode of "The Cosby Show" when Denise (Lisa Bonet) was instructing her stepdaughter not to use "Black" as a racial term. I figure you have the right to call yourself whatever you want racially, as long as it is "technically" correct (unlike that lying scumbag Churchill fella). Of course, even the term "Native American" isn't entirely "true." They're merely Asians who moved east. I guess in the end, you just have the 3 basic racial food groups (European/African/Asian).
I should get the ref, but seemingly it flew over my head. Care to enlighten me ?
Yup, that was the infamous 1958 barnburner contest. Attorney-General Patterson ran as the candidate of the Klan, and Wallace was the moderate who was considered a protege of Big Jim Folsom. Patterson so utilized the issue of Wallace being too cozy with Blacks that he rode it to a win. Wallace, in a fit of anger, blasted that he'd "never get outnig*ered again." It's almost all but forgotten that Patterson ran the more racist campaign and helped "create" the modern Wallace most remember (also forgotten was the fact that Patterson had a fairly close relationship with the Kennedy White House !). Patterson would later go on to serve as a judge with distinction and retired within the past decade (he's still alive).
Bill Allain was the governor who followed Bill Winter over in Mississippi
It was also rumored (and there were several instances that seemed to give evidence to it) that he was in fact a homosexual.
There was a scandal towards the end of his term that forced him out permanent like.
I was in Florida at the time he was Governor so only remember him from the news.
I have heard the movie "The Phenix City Story" was fairly accurate. I knew some Federal agents who worked in the Phenix City area and they said it was as bad or worse than portrayed. Also said some of that gang was the same bunch Buford Pusser dealt with in Tennessee.
Ah, I didn't know that about Allain. Mississippi's Governors were all so confusing to me, there were 4 from the '60s on that had a "William(s)" in their name... John Bell, Waller, Winter, & Allain. As I recall, John Bell Williams had a nice career going in DC until he had the "audacity" to endorse Goldwater. One can understand why he departed DC to the friendlier shores of Jackson.
I've never seen the film, unfortunately. I know there was a book that was written about the players. The major figure was the incumbent state attorney-general Silas Garrett who was complicit on the "hit" on Patterson's dad, and he fled the state to go to a nervous hospital in Galveston. I visited Phenix City (for the first time) in February, but the city doesn't advertise much about those "dark days" in the Summer of '54.
Buford Pusser (who is on my homepage, btw), is a Republican hero of mine. To this day, the investigation into his murder was deliberately covered up by the equally corrupt Ray Blanton Administration. Pusser died 6 days before I was born in the Summer of '74. Had he lived, I would not have been surprised to have seen him become a major political figure in our state, perhaps even Governor.
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