MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Some Democrats are still looking for a gubernatorial candidate who can generate more excitement among voters and someone the party can unite behind after Alabama's chief justice said Wednesday she will not run.
Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb said in a statement that she plans to remain chief justice and that she was honored by people across the state encouraging her to run.
"Their support has been humbling and perhaps made this decision the most difficult I have ever been called upon to make," she said.
It leaves Democrats looking for an alternative to candidates Artur Davis, a U.S. representative from Birmingham, and Ron Sparks, the state's agriculture commissioner.
William Stewart, former chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said some in the Democratic Party have been looking for a "viable" candidate since Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. announced April 1 that he would not run for governor.
Stewart said the Democrats are searching because Sparks has not creating a lot of voter excitement yet and because of long-standing differences that some in the party have with Davis, who is seeking to be the state's first black governor.
Davis led Barack Obama's presidential campaign while several key figures in the Alabama Democratic Party were backing Hillary Clinton, creating problems, Stewart said. Friction also was created during Davis' 2002 congressional victory over Democratic incumbent Earl Hilliard, who was supported by many key figures in the party.
Cobb was elected chief justice in 2006 and is the only Democrat on the nine-member Supreme Court. State law would have required her to resign as chief justice if she entered the race, and Republican Gov. Bob Riley would have appointed her replacement. That would have guaranteed a return to an all-Republican court.
At least six candidates have said they are running on GOP side.
Sparks said Wednesday it's normal for party members to search for potential candidates early in a campaign, and he's not troubled by it. He said Cobb has been an outstanding judge and he will seek her support.
Davis also praised Cobb. "As governor, I would work closely with her to improve the quality of life for Alabama's children, and I look forward to supporting her re-election in 2012 to the Alabama Supreme Court."
Just last month, Davis had sought to short-circuit a potential campaign by Cobb. On June 15, Davis recruited one of the state's best-known plaintiff lawyers, Jere Beasley of Montgomery, to be his campaign chairman. Beasley, his Montgomery law firm and several of his friends in the legal profession were major financial contributors to Cobb in 2006 and had encouraged her not to leave the chief justice's job.
Also last month, Davis' campaign complained about some Democrats searching for an alternative.
"It is a testament to Congressman Davis' independence that an increasingly small group of political insiders desperately continue to search for alternatives in the Democratic primary," campaign spokeswoman Anna Ruth Williams said June 18.
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