MONTGOMERY — Could U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) lose his seat to a Democrat?
According to State House Pro Tem Chris Pringle (R-Mobile), such a scenario is possible should House Bill 541 (HB541), which would require party registration for voters to participate in partisan political primaries, become law.
During the House floor debate for HB541, sponsored by State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity), Pringle raised the possibility of a Palmer loss and other potential GOP losses under a party registration system.
Such a swing would be a dramatic shift in Alabama politics, given Palmer won his last general election race over that election's Democrat nominee, Elizabeth Anderson, by 40 points, sweeping all eight counties that make up Alabama's sixth congressional district by 28 points or more.
Yarbrough's bill passed the House of Representatives by a 63-35 vote, with Pringle voting for it despite his apparent floor opposition.
Partial transcript as follows (emphasis added):
PRINGLE: You're a pretty conservative fellow, aren't you?
YARBROUGH: I think so.
PRINGLE: Did you vote for Roy Moore or Luther Strange?
YARBROUGH: What does that have to do with the bill?
PRINGLE: I'm just trying to figure out, did you vote for the most conservative Republican or the other one?
You can give me an answer.
YARBROUGH: I voted for Roy Moore.
PRINGLE: You know, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Mr. England. I have watched the Democrats do this to themselves. Their arrogance — they decided who they were, handpicking candidates for the legislature.
Exactly what happened to you last week when they threw your opponent off the ballot because you were paying the right person who's sitting on that committee. When we start hand-picking people and telling the voters, 'You're not smart enough to make a decision, we're going to make it for you.' That's arrogance beyond all comprehension.
I've never met the man. I don't know who he is. This is being driven by a man that keeps running for the legislature and losing. So, he's trying to change the Republican process because he can't get elected.
You will drive this party into the dirt with this bill. You understand that? You don't believe me? Did you ever meet Guy Hunt before he was elected governor?
YARBROUGH: You know, I didn't.
PRINGLE: I met him. He walked out of Sonny Callahan's office one day and I looked at him went, 'Who in the world is that?' I walked in the congressman's office, and he looked at me and goes, 'That's some fool named Guy Hunt. Thinks he's going to be governor.' He said he's illiterate.
When Guy got the Republican nomination, the Republicans went to him and said, 'Man, you can't represent us. You need to step down.' And he wouldn't do it. They took Guy Hunt to Georgia for six weeks. He disappeared from the state of Alabama. They remade that man. They taught him how to speak cuz you couldn't understand him.
When he spoke to you, you didn't know what he was saying. His hair — they changed his hair. They taught him how to use a fork and a knife. They taught him how to tie a tie. They made him into a candidate because the Democrats had screwed up so bad —they retaliated against the Democratic Party, and they elected Guy Hunt governor. And you don't think that won't happen?
Have you looked at the numbers in Gary Palmer's district? It's a purple district. He's going to be on the ballot when you start implementing this. You're not good enough to vote in the Republican, you don't think you're going to drive the independent voters against the incumbent Republican? I bet you Gary Palmer's not very happy about this bill. You want Gary Palmer to lose? He's one of our most conservative.
YARBROUGH: No, I don't want him to lose.
PRINGLE: Well, you're going to drive the independent voters against Gary Palmer. You realize that? They will retaliate against us for doing this to them because you're — I remember the Republicans always used to brag, we have an open tent. We want people to come to our party. We want to hear diverse comments. We want people who think for themselves to be Republicans.
And the Democrats are like, 'No, no, we want to close ours.' And we railed on them about trying to close their primary because we bragged about having an open primary. And now the Republicans want to close theirs down. And we don't want diverse thought. We want everybody lockstep walking in the most conservative hardcore right you can get.
I've got members in here. I was chairman of reapportionment. You're going to lose some of your members in here. You push this bill. We got some people in some purple districts. Gary Palmer being one of them. And those purple districts are going to go against the Republican Party, and they're going to send Democrats down here and they'll probably send another Democrat to the United States Congress from the state of Alabama.
I hope y'all understand what this means to the party. The party is asking us to commit suicide. You know, in 1998, I was the minority leader, and I wrote the plan. Billy Canary and I wrote the plan. We recruited candidates all over the state of Alabama. We raised the money. We did the polling data. We did the direct mail. We did the opposition research. We did everything.
The Republican Party did zilch, nothing to help us. They didn't give us money. They would not help us. They sat on their hands, and we were fighting to get enough Republicans in this chamber just to block a BIR vote. That's all we wanted — to be able to block a BIR so we could get a fair shake in redistricting. And they did nothing, and now we're doing the same thing.
You don't think it — it only takes nine seats difference in here and they're going to have enough to blow block the BIR. Think about that.
If the Democrats pick up a couple more seats, they'll be able to stop every bill in its tracks on the BIR vote. And you're going to hand them that. You're going to hand them some of our good districts. I'm looking at one right now that I'm terribly worried about getting beat.
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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