Jennifer Foster: Ivey’s attack on Davis goes beyond puzzling

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis this week rolled out his “Taxpayer Protection Plan,” which he says will save Alabamians an estimated $664 million a year.

In doing so, he outlined his support for, among other things, transparency and accountability measures on “community service grants” (read: legislators’ pork projects) that State Treasurer (and Republican rival) Kay Ivey had proposed weeks ago.

Davis credited her with the ideas and got behind them.

Ivey could have just said thank you and acknowledged the bipartisan consensus as an indication of the importance of and need for the measures.

Instead, she attacked Davis.

Her reactionary statement was disappointingly self-aggrandizing and self-centered. (She even managed a dig at constitutional reform: A convention “is a bad idea,” she said. Why, Kay? Because our 1901 document is working so well? Or because we can fix all its problems with another 799 amendments?)

In all, Ivey’s statement was another example of what we’ve been talking about here: The dearth of collegial discourse in American politics today.

Why does it threaten Ivey that another candidate agrees with her? It should empower her. She should embrace the opportunity to build consensus with a candidate on the other side of the aisle. Only one candidate will go on to be governor. But the others who unsuccessfully seek the office can still affect positive change for Alabama by virtue of their platforms, their capability to reach out to voters and their ability to mobilize support for individual issues. They can press a common agenda.

Unless, that is, they are only interested in doing so as individuals, and only from the top.

Incidentally, Davis emerged the victor from another word-skirmish last week. GOP gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne announced with a flourish that he would refuse campaign donations from the Alabama Education Association. He challenged his rivals to make the same “pledge.”

Byrne didn’t mention in his fiery speech just how much money he was expecting to get from the AEA (exactly … zero dollars). So other candidates slung zingers Byrne’s way, accusing him – perhaps rightly – of disingenuousness.

But Davis said simply “Byrne’s denunciation of AEA is the opposite of the consensus building that a governor needs to practice.”

His statement was remarkable not for its measured tone, but for the reality behind it: The AEA’s distaste for Davis is such that the organization made no secret about recruiting – in fact, basically begging – just about anyone else to run for governor against him.

But there is Davis, insinuating that although Paul Hubbert’s AEA has been in the wrong on policy issues in the past (and, as Opelika-Auburn News editorial page editor Joe McAdory pointed out in his column last week, has become synonymous with politics, not teacher development), it still represents teachers; as such, it must and should have a seat at the table when it comes to state law, education policy, the interests of classroom teachers, etc.

When I assess candidates, I want to know that they can handle adversity. I want to know that they can govern in the interests of everyone, not just those who support them. I want to see in them a confidence in their own ideas that allows them to have a comfort level around opponents. I want to see a willingness and determination to accept constructive criticism and learn from it, because that makes them better public servants.

I do have policy disagreements with Davis. But in these seemingly unimportant exchanges, he has earned credibility with me.

And that’s the first step to winning my vote.

Jennifer Foster is a political enthusiast who lives in Auburn and writes a column for the Opelika-Auburn News. She may be reached at