Monday, October 26, 2009

Constitutional reform and the gubernatorial race

As mentioned last week, Congressman and Alabama Democratic gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis announced while in Huntsville his support for a full rewrite of Alabama's inadequate, racially-bias consitution.  It's obvious that his Democratic opponent and Alabama Agricultural Commissioner, Ron Sparks, wasn't down with that.  Sparks called Davis' announcement "smoke and mirrors".

Well, it became very obvious to me after listening to Sparks and his stance on the reform that all he really cares about is "doing as little as possible and not rocking the boat" of special interests like ALFA.  Also Sparks platform on economic develop is full of holes with the idea of placing casinos in urban centers across the state lik downtown Birmingham like that is cure-all to the economic ailments. 

Back to the constitutional reform, the Birmingham News printed an op-ed in its Sunday edition discussing how Davis' announcement may actually elevate the level of discussion.  Alabama Citizen for Constitutional Reform's chairwoman Lenora Pate said it best:

 "It's just amazing, isn't it, that (candidates) want to trust the people and ask them to vote for them, but they don't want to trust us to vote on this issue," she said. "Something is inherently inconsistent with that."
However, remember Sparks and all the 7 Republican gubernatorial contenders feels like Davis is just doing a irresponsible magical routine involving "smoke and mirrors".  Those in Montgomery thinks it A'OK because their complacency on this is over the power they have on our lives and basic things when it should be held in the hands of our local governments. Honestly, I believe a lot of the state's major economic developmental issues would be resolved with a home rule law that allows all county or municipal governmental entities decide for themselves on zoning and land-use issues. I guess us the voters are just wise enough to vote for them, but not wise enough to vote on the solution to the problem they created. 

The more I learn about the candidates, the more I do lean towards Davis' platform because I'm tired of complacency amongst our elected officials.

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