Alabama GOP Picks Candidates to Run for Two Open Seats

By Annie Johnson, CQ Staff Tue Jul 15, 10:37 PM ET

Republican candidates for Alabama's two highly competitive open-seat House races were nominated in runoff elections Tuesday. The victories by state Rep. Jay Love, who will defend the 2nd District seat of retiring eight-term Republican Rep. Terry Everett, and insurance executive Wayne Parker, who is staging a bid to take over the 5th District seat of retiring nine-term Democrat Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, will enable Republicans to refocus on the general election battles after a long delay caused by the six-week runoff campaigns.

The Democratic candidates for both these targeted races, state Sen. Parker Griffith in the 5th District and Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright in the 2nd, got head starts by scoring outright victories in the June 3 primary elections. No Republican emerged from the crowded primary fields in either district with the majority vote needed to clinch the party's nomination, setting the stage for Tuesday's runoffs.

Love, though hardly a shoo-in against the high-profile candidacy of Democrat Bright, enters the general election campaign with a bit of an edge, based on a historical advantage enjoyed by Republicans in the southeastern 2nd District. CQ Politics currently rates the race as Leans Republican, in a district where President Bush took 66 percent of the votes in his 2004 re-election campaign.

Love -- who finished first in the state's June 3rd primary with fractionally more than 35 percent of the vote -- had 54 percent of the runoff vote with 96 percent of precincts reporting, handedly defeating state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, who had 46 percent. Smith qualified for the second-round vote by finishing second to Love in the primary with 22 percent.

Love benefitted from the support of leading congressional Republicans. A recent fundraising dinner for Love was hosted by Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Deputy Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

The largely self-funded winner also appeared to edge out Smith money-wise in an expensive and financially draining campaign. Pre-primary reports to the Federal Election Commission showed Love had raised a total of just more than $1 million as of June 25 -- $650,000 of that his own money -- and had $164,000 remaining on hand with three weeks to go in the runoff campaign. Smith's comparable figures were $878,000 in receipts, nearly $400,000 of that self-funded, and $100,000 cash on hand.

Both invested heavily in paid media ads, some of which caused campaign flaps. Smith ran an ad in which Alabama Republican Gov. Bob Riley appeared to be criticizing Love over a vote on tax increases for oil companies, a measure that Riley supported. But Smith subsequently was rebuked by Riley, who clarified he was staying neutral in the runoff campaign.

Smith, though, got backup support against an ad attack by Love, who suggested Smith has received gambling money for her campaign because a fundraiser was cosponsored by businessman Ronnie Gilley, who is building a development that includes a bingo parlor. Gilley responded that no gambling money was involved in the funds raised for Smith's campaign.

Love also has been criticized by Democrats for voting against Riley's plan to tax oil companies. But, said Philip Bryan, director of communications for the Alabama Republican Party, "It's been proven throughout history that, in times of increased prices at the pump, further taxing the big oil companies is not going to be a good thing for consumers."

Meanwhile, Bright was able to conserve most of his campaign resources during the extended Republican nominating campaign. He is viewed by Democratic strategists as an unusually capable nominee for the party in this district. Casting a profile as a conservative Democrat, Bright has an urban base in the state capital city but ties to the rural area of the district where he was born. He secured the endorsement earlier this month of the congressional Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative-leaning Democratic members of Congress.

"Bobby Bright is in line with the values of this Southern Alabama district and is well-known for creating jobs, lowering crime, and revitalizing Montgomery as mayor, " said Kyra Jennings, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which orchestrates the national Democratic Party's effort to win House seats.

The Blue Dogs also have endorsed 5th District Democratic nominee Griffith, who claims a center-right philosophy in attempting to fill the shoes of retiring incumbent Cramer. Cramer helped keep this conservative-leaning northern Alabama district in Democratic hands even when the constituency favored Bush with 60 percent of the vote. Griffith hails from Huntsville, the district's largest city, which also is Cramer's base.

Griffith will face Parker, who cruised to an easy runoff victory with 79 percent of the vote to 21 percent for businesswoman Cheryl Baswell Guthrie with 97 of precincts reporting.

Griffith's connections with Cramer may ultimately enable him to establish a lead in the contest, but the overall GOP leanings of district voters make Parker a full-fledged GOP contender. CQ Politics currently rates the race as No Clear Favorite.

Republicans hope to portray Griffith in a more liberal light, making note of the type of fundraising they say liberal Democrats have done in the state. "They are going to expect something for those dollars," Bryan contended.

Many political strategists agree that Cramer's surprise decision, announced in March just three weeks before the state's candidate filing deadline, set the stage for one of the GOP's biggest takeover opportunities nationally.

But Cramer's short notice caused a Republican recruiting scramble, and party officials were disappointed when some well-known figures decided against making the race. Parker, though, emerged as the strongest candidate in the six-candidate GOP primary field, in large part because of his past performances as a House candidate. He had a near-miss as the party's nominee against Cramer in the strong Republican year of 1994, losing by just a 1 percentage-point margin. But Parker disappeared from congressional politics after losing a 1996 rematch to Cramer by 13 points.

Parker was well-positioned to win Tuesday's runoff after taking 48.8 percent of the primary vote, just short of the majority needed to win the nomination outright. Guthrie had much more ground to make up, as she earned the second runoff slot with 18 percent of the primary vote.

The only one of Alabama's House incumbents who appears apt to draw notable competition in a re-election bid this year is 3rd District Republican Mike D. Rogers. Though strongly favored in a race currently rated as Safe Republican, Rogers has a Democratic opponent in lawyer Josh Segall who appears to have raised enough money to stage a viable campaign.

The other incumbents, Republicans Jo Bonner, Robert B. Aderholt and Spencer Bachus and Democrat Artur Davis, all are expected to score routine re-election victories.