Sen. Harri Anne Smith considers run for Governor

Democratic Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley may not be the only woman running for governor next year. Republican state Sen. Harri Anne Smith says she's seriously considering entering the race. "Over the next couple of months, I'll be traveling the state and meeting with party people and people in the community," she said. Smith, R-Slocomb, said she is so serious that she has had polling done, and she expects to make a decision before the end of the year. No Republican has officially announced yet for the 2006 governor's race, but Gov. Bob Riley and former Chief Justice Roy Moore are likely candidates. On the Democratic side, Baxley is running. Former Gov. Don Siegelman has formed a campaign committee, but has not officially announced. Smith, who has never run for statewide office, said she would not be intimidated by being up against politicians who have won statewide. She noted that when she first ran for the state Senate in 1998, she defeated a 20-year veteran of the Legislature in the Republican primary. "I was a long shot then. I worked hard and raised - at that time - more money than had ever been raised for a Republican primary," she said. Smith, 43, said she began to get calls from people asking her to consider the governor's race after former state Republican Party Chairman Elbert Peters of Huntsville put together a legislative voting guide last year that ranked her as the most conservative member of the Senate. Peters looked at 30 votes from current legislators on tax and fee increases, as well as social and education issues, to develop his rankings. Peters has no doubt that Riley and Moore will run. "They are running. They just haven't announced," he said. The former party chairman said he hasn't talked to Smith about her interest, but there could be room for a third serious candidate. Some Republicans are still upset with Riley's $1.2 billion tax proposal in 2003, and some Republicans disagreed with Moore disobeying a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from display in the state judicial building, Peters said. Smith "comes into it without anything like that," he said. "The unknown factor is how people will take to her." In 2003, Smith voted against every single tax that went into Riley's $1.2 billion package, but once the Legislature approved the taxes, she voted to support holding a statewide referendum that gave the voters the final say on whether the taxes took effect. The voters said no by a 2-1 margin. Smith said many people who have contacted her about running remain concerned about Riley's tax plan. "That will be an issue," she said. Before being elected to the Senate, Smith served as mayor of Slocomb, a town of 2,100 in southeast Alabama that's best known for its tomato crop. A graduate of Troy State University, she serves as vice president of Slocomb National Bank. If she runs, Smith would not be the first Republican female to seek the governor's office. Former state Sen. Ann Bedsole of Mobile ran in 1994 and lost the Republican runoff to former Gov. Fob James.

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