This day, nine years ago, was a bleak day for Alabama House Republicans.
A day earlier, then-House Speaker Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn) was convicted by a Lee County jury on 12 felony charges in his ethics case, meaning Hubbard's tenure in the Alabama House of Representatives was over.
The Hubbard era of Alabama politics was hard-charging, from his entrée into politics, a transition from the realm of Auburn University athletics to working for Bob Riley's 1996 congressional campaign, until the end at the Lee County Courthouse in Opelika.
After Republicans took the legislature in 2010, Hubbard was the first Republican speaker in 136 years. As one might imagine, such an abrupt historic shift in power did not occur gently. Republicans were aggressive, and along the way, the new Speaker made his share of enemies.
For the most part, the Republican caucus stuck with Hubbard throughout his ordeal. For some, that was a leap of faith in his innocence that could have jeopardized their political careers.
Later that summer in 2016, House Republicans elected Rep. Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) to fill the vacancy left behind by Hubbard.
Then-Speaker McCutcheon's read of the room was to dial it down from the strong-arm tactics of Hubbard's tenure.
"I am not my predecessor," McCutcheon declared after assuming the gavel. "The days of the imperial speakership are over. I will work every day, every hour, every minute and every second to be the people's speaker."
Perhaps the McCutcheon approach was right for that moment in Alabama politics. The legislature was in the middle of a bitter fight over BP oil settlement money, which would pit lawmakers from the northern and southern parts of the state against each other for several years.
McCutcheon maintained the speakership through the next quadrennium, adding seats to expand the Republican supermajority in 2018.
However, his leadership style left much to be desired for a Republican supermajority. Despite the downfall of Hubbard and Robert Bentley, Alabamians voted for a Republican supermajority that, at times, functioned as a meager simple majority.
McCutcheon may have been what the doctor ordered in 2016, but by 2022, after the embarrassing state-led COVID protocol ordeal in 2020 and 2021, it was time for Republicans in the legislature to reflect the will of the voters who elected them.
Waiting in the wings was House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter, whose path to leadership no one could have predicted.
Ledbetter had served in Rainsville city government, both as a councilman and the mayor. He lost a bid for State House in 2010 as a Democrat. Four years later, he won the same seat on the Republican ticket.
In 2017, he filled the majority leader void left by an embattled Micky Hammon, a Hubbard loyalist who would later plead guilty to mail fraud.
As a relative newcomer, Ledbetter showed he could play the statehouse game as well as anyone.
There was no playbook for Republicans. After 136 years of Democrat control, the ways of the past weren't applicable. Ledbetter devised his own path forward.
After the 2021 legislative session, McCutcheon announced he would not seek another term in the Alabama Legislature. In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, three candidates revealed their desire to be McCutcheon's successor — State Rep. Steve Clouse (R-Ozark), then-State Rep. Bill Poole (R-Tuscaloosa) and Ledbetter.
Poole dropped out of the race to serve as Ivey's finance director, and Ledbetter later defeated Clouse in late 2022 during a closed-door Republican caucus vote to be the GOP's nominee for the speaker role.
In January 2023, by a 102-0 vote of the entire House, Ledbetter won the speakership.
With three legislative sessions in the books, it is Ledbetter's House of Representatives and arguably a marked improvement.
It's not the "storming the statehouse" approach of Hubbard.
It's not the deference-to-the-executive, laissez-faire chamber politics of McCutcheon.
It is a balance.
Is the ideal scenario for conservatives? No, but we're a hard lot to please.
An honest assessment is that, at times, some of the priorities tend to favor special interests, such as big business and gambling.
Also, at times, members seem to adopt positions out of fear of retribution or peer pressure to earn acceptance within the caucus.
But Ledbetter's House of Representatives is a far superior product compared to the basket case, Paul Hubbard-AEA-infested, Democrat-led bodies of yesteryear.
Under Ledbetter's leadership, this Alabama House of Representatives does not have the markings of anything remotely "Obama Democrat."
To say anything of the sort suggests a shallow viewpoint lacking any semblance of a historical perspective of Alabama politics.
Compare the House of Representatives to the upper chamber. If you want a basket case, sit through a Democrat filibuster in the Alabama State Senate, chock-full of nonsensical speeches from Bobby Singleton and Rodger Smitherman.
Those prolonged antics from the loyal opposition in the House came to an abrupt halt under Nathaniel Ledbetter.
In 2025, the House got its work done. The clock ran out on the Senate this year.
Nathaniel Ledbetter is not the second coming of Ronald Reagan, but he comes closer to it than anyone else in that role in Alabama's 205-year history.
Jeff Poor is the editor-in-chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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