William Shakespeare once wrote that “past is prologue.” That is especially true in Alabama politics, where events, conflicts and situations that happened decades ago are repeated again and again.
A lifelong Republican, I have served as state vice chairman of the College Republicans, a member of the executive committee for almost 30 years, and one of the few former members of the legislature who served both when the GOP was in the superminority and supermajority.
First elected to Alabama's House of Representatives in 2002 during the Republican superminority years, I filled a seat in the back of the chamber, held an office next to the janitor's closet, and compiled a long list of dreams deferred.
Only eight years later, the Alabama Republican Party’s candidate recruitment efforts, hard work at the grassroots level, and displeasure with the liberal Obama administration helped state conservatives capture a supermajority.
Suddenly elevated to the Alabama State Senate and a member of the supermajority, I helped pass conservative reforms that Republicans once only dreamed about – enacting school choice, expanding ethics laws, codifying pro-life policies, and ending the cycle or proration with commonsense budgeting reforms.
Since the 2010 realignment in Alabama politics, our Alabama Legislature ranks as the most conservative in the nation, and other Republican states are looking to us for ideas and examples to follow.
Much of that continuing success belongs to the strong, steady, conservative leadership of Gov. Kay Ivey, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, State Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, and Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter.
Ledbetter has reigned over one of the most effective tenures for Republicans in recent memory – passing the strongest pro-life legislation in the nation, cutting roughly $1.5 billion in taxes, including levies on groceries, baby food, and diapers, and ushering in other landmark legislation core to our conservative cause that has strengthened our state. His leadership style has eliminated the distractions and dysfunction that plagued the House in previous quadrenniums, transforming it into one of the most efficient governing bodies anywhere in the country.
Along with that closet office, my long-ago perch as low-ranking member of the House superminority allowed me to watch and learn from the mistakes and infighting of the Alabama Democratic Party as it slowly descended into chaos. Today, the Republican Party seems on the verge of being the Democratic Party of 1986.
That chaos was caused by the Democrats’ increasing polarization, fracturing, and putting petty party politics above the important work of addressing the needs and priorities of the people of Alabama. The Democrats simply forgot to focus on what secured their supermajority in the first place – their voters, neighbors, church members, and friends.
It's a lesson – and a forewarning – that Alabama GOP party brass would be wise to study.
Democrats in Alabama ultimately relinquished control on elections in 2010, giving up gubernatorial wins before that with the election of Govs. Guy Hunt, Fob James, and Bob Riley. Yet their fate was sealed in the 1980s as fragmenting factions splintered the party into a shadow of its former glory.
Those roles seem reversed today as Democrats in the Alabama Legislature are once again working to will themselves out of the political wilderness and are strategically targeting specific districts, while some Republicans, for reasons beyond comprehension, have formed what amounts to a circular firing squad.
Republicans must come to our senses before our loss of unity leads to the loss of elections and the loss of the supermajority in the State House.
In Alabama, we are blessed to have leaders like Ivey, Ainsworth, Ledbetter and Gudger, who understand the importance of working together to deliver for the people of Alabama. For the good of our state and the future of the ALGOP, Republicans must stop targeting other Republicans, instead turning our attention and attacks on the liberal Democrats seeking to recapture what was once theirs.
With more new residents moving to Alabama from other states, especially in Huntsville and the northern portion of our state where the federal workforce is exploding, once reliable red legislative districts are turning purple, and elections that conservatives could win with little effort just a few cycles ago are becoming increasingly competitive.
Dividing, dismembering and destroying our Alabama Republican Party from within simply opens the door for Democrats to snatch away our supermajority and stop our conservative reforms dead in their tracks.
Rather than continuing to ratchet up ALGOP infighting to increasingly serious DEFCON levels and risking all we have gained, perhaps all involved would be wise to follow the words of the greatest Republican, Ronald Reagan, who said, “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means.”
Cam Ward has been a member of the Alabama Executive Committee since 1999 and formerly served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and Alabama State Senate. Currently he serves as the Director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles.
