This week's column

In case you missed it in Saturday's print edition of The Opelika-Auburn News, I'm posting my most recent column, in its original entirety, here for your convenience.

Getting the best from gubernatorial hopefuls

Lee County Republicans were treated to an entertaining evening with four of their seven gubernatorial candidates in attendance at a forum Thursday night.

As Joe McAdory and I discussed in our online wrap-up following the event, the candidates who appeared – Robert Bentley, Bradley Byrne, Kay Ivey and Tim James – share views on what they consider to be the biggest issues facing the next governor: Economic development, education and jobs, jobs, jobs.

But we are beginning to see them forge niches for themselves within their agreement.

Bentley is running as a physician, Byrne as a states’ rights advocate and reformer, Ivey as the experienced hand in state government, James as the businessman-outsider.

It occurred to me while we were listening to the candidates’ responses, Alabama has plenty of problems. What a shame it is that we won’t make use of the best of all these ideas.

In politics, there are many more losers of elections than winners. This election will be no exception: One winner, eight losers. But just because a candidate doesn’t end up with the most votes on Election Day doesn’t mean he doesn’t have great ideas to offer.

Bentley, the physician, wants to establish a tuition-assistance program called the Alabama Health Service Corps to help alleviate Alabama’s dangerous shortage of primary-care doctors.

Byrne, a former state senator and chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system, wants to assert afresh Alabama’s rights under the 10th Amendment when the federal government overreaches its constitutional bounds.

Ivey, a former teacher and longtime public servant, has a no-nonsense way of bottom-lining complex problems facing the state and a “bite-the-bullet” attitude when it comes to solving them.

James spoke passionately about his interest in doing everything possible to cut Alabama’s staggering 40 percent dropout rate in half, insisting that such success would reap benefits in every aspect of life in Alabama.

I wonder if any of the candidates would pledge right now to build a coalition with the opponents he or she defeats in November – and whether they would pledge, also, to leave pride behind in defeat and become an active part of creating solutions for our state.

Perhaps too idealistic, yes. But why shouldn’t we expect the best of all worlds from those seeking to serve us?

* * *

Fewer than 12 hours after the GOP candidates discussed the ramifications of the ongoing gambling saga in Alabama, state troopers directed by the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling converged on the VictoryLand and Country Crossing gambling halls, trying again to raid the facilities and remove the machines they say violate state law.

Once again, lower courts got involved, issuing injunctions that stopped the raids, and once again, the governor’s task force appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court for help. Once again, the Supreme Court declined to engage, so once again, things are left up in the air.

There is a growing consensus among gambling supporters and opponents alike that this continued uncertainty, the back-and-forth between the sides, cannot go on the way it has. We have to have closure, one way or another. Pro-gambling legislators will try to provide some, with or without the Supreme Court’s guidance, through a constitutional amendment they want to place before voters this fall.

Then there’s the civil trial set for federal court this summer in which a prospective competitor to VictoryLand alleges conspiracy, corruption, racketeering and improper influence of public officials against Macon County Sheriff David Warren and VictoryLand’s owner, Milton McGregor, allegations both men deny.

Gambling is going to dominate the state’s news and politics until election time in November.

And that’s a sure thing.