Joe Hubbard, having some fun with GOP rumormongers after his opponent, David Grimes, refused to denounce a Republican push poll spreading misinformation. Back in June, both candidates pledged to run positive campaigns.
1st woman: "You know, I heard a rumor Joe Hubbard is more liberal than two Nancy Pelosis. Two."
1st man: "My brother said he saw Joe Hubbard riding up Dexter on a long eared mule."
2nd woman: "I heard Joe Hubbard uses a pay phone instead of a cell phone. Carries it on his back."
2nd man: "I heard ... Joe Hubbard let's Obama win at golf."
Joe Hubbard: "Some people will say anything. I'm Joe Hubbard and I'm asking for your vote on Nov. 2nd."
You’d think it would be simple to wage a campaign for elected office - you determine what issues are important to you, what you plan to do if elected, then you hit the trail and attempt to convince voters that you’re the best candidate for the job. And yet increasingly - and sadly - campaigns are devolving into a game of who can make the other guy look bad.
Enter Alabama State Representative David Grimes - Republican, District 73 - and the most virulent form of campaign cancer in our system of elections - push polls. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a campaign or affiliated group strings together a disingenuous, false allegations-driven series of questions that frankly, aren’t questions at all. They’re loaded and are intended to plant a negative opinion of, or at least cast serious doubts in a prospective voter’s mind about the opposing candidate. In a simpler sense, it’s tantamount to asking someone: “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”
Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governor's Association: "By contributing $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, Fox has crossed a bright line. Fox can no longer pretend that it is a ‘fair and balanced' news organization when Rupert Murdoch greenlights a million dollar contribution to defeat Democratic governors."
News Corp. Spokesman Jack Horner: "News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."
News Corp. "Standards of Business Conduct": "No payment shall be made to, or for the benefit of, any public official in order to induce or entice such official to: enact, defeat or violate any law or regulation for the Company’s benefit; influence any official act; or obtain any favorable action by a governmental agency or official on behalf of the Company. ... No gifts in the form of cash, stock or other similar consideration shall be given, regardless of amount."
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Don Siegelman didn't say this, but he could have: "The new politics -- it's no longer good enough to beat you on policy. They have to completely drown you and put you in prison and destroy your family and your reputation and finances, then dance on your grave."
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Peter Beinart: "In today’s GOP, even bigotry doesn’t spare you from bigotry."
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Alabama GOP, in a push poll "asking" about Joe Hubbard, Democratic challenger to incumbent Rep. David Grimes (R): "How do you feel to know that Joe Hubbard is a lawyer who has sued local businessas and has defended many corrupt Montgomery politicians?"
David Grimes (R), who with Hubbard, pledged to condemn negative campaigning: "I don't find anything personally offensive nor do I find anything that breaches the promise ..."
It's nice to see Alabama Democrats willing to speak to overtly progressive groups, like the National Organization for Women. State House candidate Joe Hubbard will speak to the Montgomery chapter this Saturday at 2 pm in the second floor auditorium at the Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library.
The Montgomery chapter of the influential women's non-profit organizaton works to ensure equality for all women and eliminate discrimination in all aspects of society. Shirley Rawls, the chapter President, invited both Hubbard and his opponent, incumbent David Grimes, to speak at this Saturday's meeting at the Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library. According to Ms. Rawls, Hubbard is the only candidate who has confirmed to attend.
"It's an honor to have the opportunity to join such a meaningful organization to discuss issues important to many of the women in this community. I know how much the support of a strong woman can mean to families. I look forward to meeting with members of NOW and working with this organization in the months to follow.
In other HD73 news, it looks like that "clean campaign" pledge of June has faded in the August heat. Hubbard is calling for his opponent, Republican David Grimes, to repudiate misleading "push poll" calls in the district that make false claims about Hubbard under the guise of an opinion poll.
"I deeply regret that my opposition has stooped to this level of negative campaign tactics, instead of focusing on the issues that matter most to this district," Hubbard said. "This push-poll is not only unethical, it violates the promise David and I both made to the people in this community when we signed the clean campaign pledge."
Promises, promises. When the heat is on, Republican promises fly right out the window.
Well, this was a failed attempt to divide and conquer. In House District 73 (Montgomery area) Democrat Joe Hubbard is challenging incumbent Republican David Grimes. Grimes barely survived a primary challenge from his own party on June 1, but there was also something else going on in HD73 June 1 -- an attempt to get an Independent candidate on the ballot. Why? Well, if you're the incumbent, it's always advantageous to split the "throw the bum out" vote.
On June 1, the last day for a candidate to file as an Independent, a petition was filed with the Secretary of State’s Office that, if certified, would have placed Anthony James Macon on the ballot in November as an Independent. Macon, however, did not file this petition. Greg Masood, a political operative and former lobbyist for Alabama Association of Realtors, filed the 59 page petition.
Of the 449 signatures Masood filed on Macon’s behalf, at least 423, or three percent of the votes cast for Governor in 2006, had to be signatures of voters registered in House District 73. Of all the signatures submitted, only 48 were found to be from registered voters in the district -- “375 short,” said an official at the Secretary of State’s Office, “a record in futility.”
Hubbard said that there was little doubt the independent candidate was recruited to hurt his chances in the November election. “When the special interests get nervous,” Hubbard said, “they get desperate. This ploy was a blatant attempt to keep the people of my hometown from getting an independent voice in the Alabama Legislature”
“They must see the same momentum we’re seeing. I’m not going to let back-room politics slow us down. We’ll keep walking the neighborhoods, meeting folks, and sharing our plan to address the challenges we face as a community.”
Joe Hubbard is definitely up against an opponent who will pull out all the stops to win. Visit his website and give him some support.
Finally, my Google alert on David Grimes (Republican candidate in AL-02) paid off with something blogworthy! It found Grimes' Slatecard page where 0 donors have given him $0.00. Pretty impressive.
I think Slatecard is trying to be the Republican version of ActBlue. You know how ActBlue works -- they process contributions for Democratic candidates and committees and just pass on the fee charged to process the charges - 3.95%. Each contributor gets an opportunity to "leave a tip" for ActBlue and the organization subsists entirely on those donations.
Is Slatecard like that? Well, kinda sorta like that. They charge a 4.5% transaction fee, which they claim is a bargain. That's a difference of .55%, a huge difference in the financial business, if you're handling a lot of money. Which Slatecard is not. They have raised over $370,000 for an unspecified number of candidates (Ron Paul took in $370 from 8 supporters, House Minority Leader John Boehner raised $31 from 4 supporters, Jeff Sessions has raised $11 from 4 supporters) with most of it being pretty small change.
Since June 2005, ActBlue has raised over $45 million for 2550 Democratic candidates and committees. They're doing a great job. Here in Alabama, Vivian Figures has raised $2888 from 53 people on ActBlue. Cheryl Sabel-AL-02 has raised $2871 from 28 people and Josh Segall-AL-03 has raised a whopping $7499 from 345 people via ActBlue. Conservatives are trying to copy the technology, but it isn't resonating with their supporters.
That's the problem when conservatives steal liberal ideas -- they don't work so well with the conservative base.
Cheryl Sabel's campaign just announced that she has received endorsements from the Alabama New South Coalition, the Bullock County Voters League, the Montgomery Chapter of Democracy for America and the National Organization for Women PAC. Sabel claims to be "the only real Democrat running in the District 2 primary" and these endorsements certainly indicate that she is the preferred choice for progressive Democrats in the 2nd District.
I don't know anything about the Bullock County Voters League, but New South, DFA and NOW are definitely on the progressive side of the scale, which is good. There is nothing radical about wanting government to strive to improve conditions for its citizens. That's called PROGRESS and it's in short supply after all these years of Republican rule.
"I am honored and proud to receive these endorsements," said Sabel. "These groups represent many people whose voices have long been ignored in District 2. My platform is that of the hard working people of the second district who are tired of the rhetoric of so-called 'compassionate Christian conservatives' whose intentions, actions, and policies are mean-spirited and detrimental to our country and our state. I am not a 'social conservative' -- I stand for social justice," said Sabel.
Cheryl Sabel is running for the nomination on a platform of: economic policies designed to allow people to earn a living wage and to ensure free, quality public education for all our children to include preschool through junior college or vocational training; tax policies to distribute the burden of taxation so that wealthy individuals and big corporations pay their fair share; farm policies that benefit our independent farmers; health care policies to provide quality health care for every man, woman, and child; and foreign policies to make our country more safe and more secure instead of squandering lives and money on invasions and occupations. She has pledged to hold quarterly town hall meetings in EACH of the 16 counties of District 2 to report to her constituents what is going on in Congress and to listen to the people in her district.
On the distinctly non-progressive side of the Alabama 2nd Congressional District race, Danny recently reported that candidate Harri Anne Smith was endorsed by John Giles, longtime head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
Jennifer Foster also reported that GOP candidate David Grimes is courting an endorsement from Mike Huckabee. Y'all remember that Huckabee finished first in the Alabama Republican primary back on super Tuesday. I wonder which, if any of the Republican hopefuls in AL-02 are seeking an endorsement from John McCain?
If you aren't close enough to knock on doors you can still help Cheryl Sabel with a contribution through her ActBlue account.
On the front page of today's Montgomery Advertiser was a fluff piece about State Rep. David Grimes (R-Montgomery). The jist of the piece is that Grimes is an absolutely fantastic legislator, despite personal obstacles, who is thinking about running for Congress if Terry Everett (R) retires:
"I couldn't move. I couldn't feed myself. I couldn't write," said Grimes, 54. "So, I made the promise at that moment that if I ever got back on my feet again, I was going to run for the House of Representatives."
The insurance broker not only fulfilled that dream, but is serving his second four-year term. He even talks about a possible bid for Congress in the future.
[...]
Rep. Barry Mask, R-Wetumpka, praised Grimes' convictions.
"He's one of those foxhole guys," he said. "Someone you'd want to have in a foxhole with you (in battle). I'd want David with me."
Grimes looks to U.S. Rep. Terry Everett, R-Rehobeth, as a role model. He said he would even like to succeed Everett once Everett leaves office.
"I'd love to follow a man like that," he said.
[...]
Grimes maintains public service is the best medicine.
"I've never regretted one minute," he said. "That's why I'm not worried about looking at higher office."
I'd say that this article certainly adds fuel to the fire on rumors of Everett's retirement. It even appears that the GOP is already looking for a replacement.
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It's nice to see Alabama Democrats willing to speak to overtly progressive groups, like the National Organization for Women. State House candidate 
Cheryl Sabel's
