Ron Sparks - How He Came to Be Running for Governor

by: mooncat

Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 14:18:02 PM CST

The video below the fold is kind of a bonus from our recent interview (see Part 1 the importance of being pro-active and Part 2 on the lottery and gambling) with Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.  Many of us followed his actions closely back in 2007, hoping he would get into the 2008 U.S. Senate race -- and were disappointed when he declined to run -- and then watched with a sense of déjà vu this past spring as he seemed to waffle about whether he would run for Lt. Gov. or Governor, finally coming down in the Governor's race only after Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom, Jr. announced he intended to seek re-election. 

Sparks has received some criticism here for his handling of those decisions, so perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised when he volunteered an explanation.

TRANSCRIPT:

I'm going to take it a step further.  Y'all probably didn't ask for this, but I'll take it a step further.  I never dreamed that I'd be running for governor.  I really didn't.  I thought Jim Folsom was running for governor.  I really did.  And, on a number of occasions communicated with him and thought he was running.  Really didn't know whether Artur would or he wouldn't.

I know that I commited early on to Vivian ... and if I killed my commitment to her then I'd kill it to anybody.  I personally would have liked to have run for the United States Senate but I didn't because I commited to her and that was my word.  And I didn't want to go out there and run a campaign, when I had time to be the Commissioner of Agriculture, and split our party and allow Jeff Sessions to come in and beat the devil out of either one of us while we're out there splitting our party.

But, to make a long story short, when Folsom decided it started making me think a little harder.  You know, the people have been good to me, they've elected me two times, I've won 62 counties, I was the number one vote getter in 2006, why wouldn't I step up for the people of Alabama?  What was my choice?  What is my choice?  I have no choices. 

You've got Folsom continuing to run for Lt. Gov.  I've worked with Artur Davis.  I don't think there's a smarter man in the state of Alabama.  A good man.  I've worked with him, I like him.  It's pretty obvious we have some different opinions when it comes to this campaign. But in his heart I think he is as good a guy as you could ever find.  But, I personally think --my opinion, I'm just saying this -- he has the right to run for any office he wants to run for.

But I feel like we sure did leave a void in a district that needed more help than any district in the United States.  And I think if we had all come together, there was some major things that we could have all accomplished.  If there was a spot for me in a different place, if we'd all worked together, I'm fine.  But I believe that we're giving the Republicans a shot at us that they don't deserve.  I'm willing to carry this thing as hard as I can for the people of Alabama, for the party ...  I'll be OK.  I feel like we're going to win it, but I'm going to be OK.  I just want the state to be OK.  I want the elected officials to be OK.

I've lived through some things in Alabama that were disastrous --1983.  Some of those things that happened to the Democrat party, and I hope that we never have to experience those kind of things and try to come back from, that we never really recovered from.  And I hope we can come together and have some unity and win some major seats and not go backwards and win some seats in Alabama that we all deserve.

But you know, we've got to be careful in this race.  And I've had a number of radio stations, they try to get me on the race issue, they try to get me to ask the race question -- I'm not going there. ... Well, I'm just not going to go there.  You know I just think we all need to examine, we need to look at numbers, we need to look at reality and what, you know ... 

I endorsed Hillary.  But after she didn't win I came out very strong for Barack Obama.  I'm a Democrat.  I came to Cullman County ...  I did robocalls for James Fields.  That was a remarkable election but, at the same time, when James Fields won like he won, President Obama got 17%. 

Well, in my first election, I was the only statewide Democrat to win Cullman County.  I've won Autauga County, Elmore County, Houston County.  Didn't lose a county in North Alabama except for St. Clair.  Lost one county south of Montgomery which is Baldwin.  There's no Democrat going to win Baldwin.  You're not going to win Baldwin, you're not going to win Shelby and you're not going to win St. Clair.  And you'll be lucky to win a few other ones that I can name.  I think it shows that if you've got the right message and you're open and honest you can pull those independents or republicans that believe in ... there are a lot of straight ticket voting in this state.

I would hate to be the governor of the state of Alabama sitting there knowing I didn't have a revenue stream.  It's going to be disastrous.  I want to be a governor that does have a revenue stream.  I'm willing to fight for that revenue stream that I've laid on the table so that we can educate our children, so that we can take care of our senior citizens and so that we can do some things that we've not been able to do now.

• Back in 2007, Sparks said this about Vivian Figures and the potential to split the party:

“Senator Figures told me she was going to be a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008”, said Sparks.  “I believe that the best chance Democrats have to win that set is if we are unified and avoid a primary battle”.

• When talking about the primary this year, notice that Sparks didn't quite say "if Davis had just stayed put, everyone would have had a place," but what he said about "if we had all come together, there was some major things that we could have all accomplished" did bring to mind what countrycat wrote awhile back about the unwritten rules of Alabama politics -- which Davis is mostly breaking:

Start at the bottom

Wait your turn. You start at the bottom and move up only when there's a vacancy.  And if someone else with more clout or seniority wants the office, you "wait your turn while we find an office you can run for!"

Genuflect before the gatekeepers

Don't rock the boat

• Lastly, Sparks' caution that "we have to be careful" about the race issue is right on target.  Democrats certainly shouldn't be the ones using skin color (or sexual orientation or any other personal characteristic) as a political wedge.  However, he seemed to be hedging just a little bit with this just two sentences later:

You know I just think we all need to examine, we need to look at numbers, we need to look at reality and ...

Numbers?  Reality?  My personal opinion is that Sparks knows he should stay as far from the race issue as possible, but also hopes voters believe that Artur Davis will poll closer to the numbers of Barack Obama in Cullman County and the rest of Alabama than to those of James Fields in 2008 -- and is struggling to find an acceptable way to say that.  I'm not sure there is one, but Sparks definitely hasn't found it yet.