Dems aren’t going to seriously contest AL-5.
Dems might not. Steve Raby will. He is a longtime veteran of Alabama politics and he has done political consulting work for both Democrats and Republicans. He knows how both sides win campaigns and why. Mo Brooks only knows how to win votes in the Huntsville area.
Mo Brooks has Obama’s residual unpopularity going for him and thats it. If the race is solely about Obama Brooks will win. If Raby is allowed to pivot himself the way Cramer always did there’s no telling who wins.
In the 5th McCain steamrolled in every county in the district. Democrats still won on almost every other statewide ballot in the district. Obama or not the political machinery in the 5th outside of Madison, Limestone and Morgan is still Dem and the top of the Dem ticket will be someone who will play very well in North Alabama.
And Brooks will only have his own fundraising and the RCCC to back him because the lions share of state Republican (and Dem for that matter) money is going to the legislature because for the first time ever the legislature could go and who wins it in 2010 writes the rules in the state for the next 10 years.