Joe Turnham: Segall ready to clean the mess

The Third Congressional District of Alabama is a large land swath that runs from Cherokee County down to the Pike County line. From the foothills of the Appalachians to the edge of the Wiregrass, the people that live in this congressional district are a microcosm of our state. I know many of them personally and have traveled nearly every county road in the boundaries of the 13 counties that comprise this district.

Having been the Democratic nominee for Congress myself in 1998 and 2002, I have passionately sought to learn about the issues and challenges that face these 750,000 fine Alabamians. In my few words here today I would like to give an analysis of Congressman Mike Rogers and give my heartiest endorsement to his challenger, Democrat Josh Segall.

Since winning the job by 3,800 votes in 2002, Congressman Rogers has been part of a failed leadership that is now the minority in Congress. Our national budget and trade deficits have soared in the last six years and our economy is now on the precipice of a meltdown. The war Rogers authorized has cost $1 trillion and America’s standing in the world is at low ebb. Rogers’ columns he submits to the Opelika-Auburn News are written as if Rogers is almost an outsider peering into someone else’s dysfunctional institution. Yet he was in the majority for four of his six years in Congress and has an almost perfect voting record with President George W. Bush.

Rogers is a good person, has a nice family and tries his best to serve others. He has been my congressman for six years, but today I write and urge readers to make a solid change for the better. Segall is a bright, well-educated professional and can do this job. He comes from a great Montgomery family. Josh’s dad, Bobby, is one of Alabama’s finest attorneys.

Segall has laid out a plan at segall2008.com. Segall wants to clean up the mess of the last eight years of George Bush and the Republican Congress. He understands the calamity our nation faces and has built an impressive campaign. However, Josh is being outspent as Rogers has built up an incumbency advantage of special interest money. Mike’s TV ads featuring two good ole boys opining by the tailgate of a pickup truck use cultural stereotyping as a way to say “Josh Segall don’t belong here.”

But most of the men and women in the Third District are not smiling today. West Point Stevens, Avondale and most of Russell Corporation have closed under Rogers’ six-year watch in Congress. Places like Tallapoosa, Macon and Chambers counties have not shared in economic good fortune. Auburn University’s tuition is up for the fifth time and college loans are harder to get. Home values are down in many counties and more voters in the third district are uninsured than ever before. Many must drive to Georgia to find work.

Gas was under $2 a gallon when Rogers took the oath of office but he has not crafted nor enacted an energy policy to wean us off foreign oil. Josh Segall has a plan and will be an active and smart participant in the many great public policy debates this nation must have if it is to remain a prosperous superpower. Rogers has not been a real player at the table in any great debate.
Polls show that Rogers is in trouble. Segall can win this race and bring the right change for America if you will just give him a chance on Nov. 4. God Bless America!

Joe Turnham is the Alabama Democratic Party Chairman.