Posted on July 09, 2010 by Alabama Tea Blogger

Today, Huntsville Tea Party Activist, David Shockey, sent me an email stating how he views the the AL GOP runoff.  I was impressed and asked him if I could share it with our readers.  My reason for sharing this with you is to demonstrate the thought he put into his vote for next Tuesday and to open up the conversion for other Patriots around the state.  In the comments below let us know how you would score the candidates on the issues David lays out for us.

Scoring Byrne vs. Bentley

I’ve never met Byrne but I know a few people who are supporters.  I have met Bentley – I spoke with him for about ten minutes at a Republican breakfast a few weeks back.  I liked what I heard for the most part.

This type of comparison is called the weighted “Ben Franklin” method.  I’ve listed issues of importance and I give them a weight number between 1 and 10 depending on how important the issue is TO ME.  Pro issues get a positive number and con issues get a negative.  I made the following lists using information from each of the candidates’ issues pages and news articles.  I thought you might be interested in seeing my results but I encourage you do make your own comparison.

In the lists below the numbers in parentheses example: (+3) are the scores for each item, the numbers in brackets example [3] are footnote references.

Byrne
AEA opposes him (+10)
Voted to raise taxes in 2002 (-8)
Pledged not to raise taxes (+8)
Was a Democrat (-2)
Favors guarantee/bailout of PACT program (-5)
Sponsored tort reform legislation (+1)
Has a good ethics reform proposal (+5)
Has a good stance on constitutional reform (+3)
Promised to push for Alabama to opt-out of Obamacare (+7)
Thinks it is “up to the courts” to decide what is legal gambling (-5)  [2]
Has good 10th Amendment stance (+5)
Total score: +19

Bentley
AEA supports (-10)
Good healthcare reform proposals (+3)
Favors guarantee/bailout of PACT program (-5)
Good immigration reform stance (+7)  [1]
Promised to push for Alabama to opt-out of Obamacare (+7)
Has consistently opposed gambling (+3)
Has good 10th Amendment stance (+5)
Has good stance on eminent domain (+3)
Stated that the issue of “double-dipping” should be settled in court (-5) [2]
Has publicly encouraged Democrats to vote for him in the run-off (-10) [3]
Total score: -2

[1] Both candidates have publicly stated that they favor a bill like Arizona’s.  Bentley has a particularly well stated position on his site.
[2] I think that legislators who say that issues are “up to the courts to decide” are taking a cop-out.  If the law is so poorly worded that people go to court for a ruling then the legislature should pass a new law that is more clear.  If the courts must get involved it is because legislators didn’t do their job correctly.  Legislators should take responsibility for cleaning up the mess.
[3] This really bothers me.  Bentley has publicly stated that he welcomes Democrats who will vote for him in the run-off.  Bentley has run ads encouraging cross-over voting.  The AEA is doing the same thing to favor Bentley.  This has gotten so bad that Senator Sessions has weighed in on the issue with this letter: http://theattackmachine.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/senator-sessions-weighs-in-against-the-aea-is-he-for-byrne/ If you follow politics and know what incumbents do and don’t do in the primaries you know that this letter from Sessions is a big deal.  In it, he stops just short of endorsing Byrne because of this issue only.  Here are some more links about the issue…

http://www.decaturdaily.com/detail/63375.html
http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/6661/robert-bentley-advertising-for-democratic-crossover-votes-in-july-13th-runoff
http://www2.oanow.com/oan/news/opinion/jennifer_foster/article/jennifer_foster_what_happened_in_gubernatorial_primaries/157853/

Both candidates had substantive policy position statements on their web site.  Whether those positions jibe with their record is another question but I am in general willing to give them credit for their public statements despite some evidence of past positions to the contrary.

Generally speaking, I think that the radio and TV spots of both candidates are mostly garbage.  Here is a good article about their claims: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100704/NEWS02/7040322/Truths-line-Byrne-Bentley-attack-ads Anyone who bases their vote on what they hear on commercials is part of the problem with our election process.  Ignorant voters who give no more thought to their vote for public office than they would give to voting on American Idol are contributors to the mess we find ourselves in these days.  Educate yourself – then vote.

Once again, these scorings are subjective and based on issues that are important TO ME.  Unless you are sure that we have the same values and priorities, you should conduct a similar process to make up your own mind.

I gave a lot of weight to their position in regards to the AEA.  I despise the AEA and their deceitful attempts to influence this race thru ads published by “The True Republican PAC” and the “Conservative Alabama Coalition”.  Both of those groups are 100% funded by the AEA and are staffed by Democrats and AEA employees.  Because they are running these attack ads, Bentley can claim that he is not running negative ads.  He doesn’t have to because the AEA is doing it for him.  This really burns me up.

To summarize, I like both candidates and will certainly support the winner in the general election.  The issue of AEA meddling in the Republican primary (the AEA is heavily Democrat and many AEA members are high-ranking Democrat party officials) weighs heavily with me.  We should send a clear message that we will not stand for this.  Bentley has played coy regarding these ads, only stating that he votes with the AEA sometimes and against them sometimes.  If he were truly a party man he would disavow this kind of support.  But he hasn’t and that fits his reputation for being a compromiser with Democrats i.e., a Republican who breaks ranks and votes with Democrats or decides to sit out on votes where he is needed.  I don’t like wishy-washy politicians and Bentley seems like one to me.

I hope I haven’t upset anyone who has already made up their mind to vote for Bentley.  Feel free to let me know where I am wrong.