At a mid-afternoon campaign stop across from the Chilton County Courthouse featuring a few local and state candidates, Bentley shook hands and answered questions in the cool fall weather that set the stage for what promises to be a hot campaign leading up to the Nov. 2 general election.
Without preamble, Bentley applied the “L” word to his opponent, an unflattering reference in conservative Alabama.
“I'm running against the most liberal Democratic candidate that's ever run for governor,” Bentley said of Sparks.
Bentley went on to label himself as pro-life and anti-illegal immigration. And as a physician, Bentley said he opposes nationalized health care, while “my opponent favors it.”
“I believe in state sovereignty,” while Sparks does not, Bentley charged.
In a race that pretty much has avoided personal attacks, Bentley's reference to Sparks ratcheted up the rhetoric and prompted a reply from the two-term agriculture commissioner from Fort Payne.
“I'm conservative,” Sparks said. “I'd like to know one thing that I've done to consider me the most liberal in the history of this state. I've created jobs, I'm fiscally responsible and I've helped business, helped consumers.”
Sparks said Bentley's campaign is about “rhetoric, sound bites and gimmicks.”
“If I didn't have a plan, I'd be saying that, too,” Sparks said last week. “There's not one thing you hear in one of this speeches that ‘I'm going to move Alabama forward, I'm going to educate children and build highways.'”
Bentley's campaign is as much about Washington, D.C., and Democrats in charge, including President Barack Obama, as it is about Alabama.
“He ought to be running for Congress because everything he does is a federal issue,” said Sparks, who is counting on bingo and lottery income to help the state reverse recession-affected finances. “I'm talking about things a governor can do.”
Bentley is a 67-year-old retired dermatologist and two-term lawmaker from Tuscaloosa who emerged from a back bench in the House where his party is in the minority to become the frontrunner in the 2010 governor's race.
Bentley stumbled briefly when a campaign ad nearly claimed he was a Vietnam veteran when, in fact, he served stateside during the Vietnam War as a physician in North Carolina. Sparks is a Coast Guard veteran.
Bentley's campaign was helped significantly by an all-out ad war against Bradley Byrne financed by the Alabama Education Association. A lawyer, former senator from Baldwin County and two-year college system chancellor, Byrne was unacceptable to the AEA leadership.
In his party primary runoff, Bentley defeated establishment candidate Byrne by campaigning as an outsider within his own party.
Buoyed by the post-primary bounce, Bentley led Sparks in the polls by up to 20 percentage points. But by mid-September Sparks had cut the lead to 13 percentage points, 52 percent to 39 percent, give or take 4 percentage points, and 9 percent undecided, in one poll.
In this era of political outsiders, tea parties and mavericks, Bentley is forcing the GOP hierarchy to accept, or at least, support him.
Please see Bentley | A5
Bentley
Continued from A1
State GOP Chairman Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, who served with Bentley in the House, appeared at a party unity luncheon shortly after Bentley had dispatched Byrne.
Capital Survey Research Center pollster Gerald Johnson said polls show that Bentley, unless he blows his lead, is the favorite to win.
Johnson added, however, that with a month to go until the election, anything can happen. Sparks' star can rise if voters realize the choice facing them is more school funding cuts or accepting Sparks' pro-bingo taxation plan, and they may choose bingo, Johnson said. (Johnson's polling group is part of the AEA that supports more school funding and which declared Bentley and Sparks as acceptable candidates.)
Bentley's political star rose last year during a Business Council of Alabama forum where he surprised attendees. Then he was featured in a widely read political blog as a candidate to be reckoned with.
Bentley kept plugging, shaking hands and delivering his anti-Washington message, all on a mostly self-financed campaign, until the runoff. His money worries are over relative to Sparks, with one more finance report due in late October.
In their latest campaign finance reports filed in mid-September, Bentley reported raising an astonishing $4.2 million since last year, including $3.3 million since winning the runoff.
Sparks reported raising $2.2 million since last year. Not once did his contributions top $1 million for any reporting period. But that hasn't kept Sparks from the campaign trail.
“I'm out here working with my hair on fire trying to get votes,” Sparks said.
Bentley was aided early by his association as a delegate for 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor.
Huckabee took the state in the presidential preference primary, and Bentley also got a boost from the Christian Coalition of Alabama and its vast e-mail list. Earlier this year, Bentley hooked up with Huckabee campaign experts after discarding his hometown campaign leadership.
Dr. Randy Brinson, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, met Bentley during Huckabee's campaign.
“I was impressed with his whole demeanor and passion and concern for moral issues,” Brinson said.
Brinson said his organization's database helped Bentley reach millions of voters in 2009 when he was trying to introduce himself. Also aiding Bentley was Republican gubernatorial candidate Kay Ivey switching to the lieutenant governor's race. Then there was the anti-Byrne campaign by the AEA, Brinson said.
“We sent 9 million e-mails on his behalf last year on issues or events,” Brinson said. “It was very important to get his name ID out.”
Brinson said Bentley carved out a plausible stand on electronic bingo gambling “where people need to vote on it even if he's against it.”
“He took a position on health care, which I liked as a fellow physician,” Brinson added.
Bentley said he opposes nationalized health care because he believes it will reduce access to medical care and ultimately force physicians to accept government insurance. Bentley predicts that many doctors will refuse to participate and become cash-only businesses.
Terri Connell said she came to Bentley's Clanton rally to meet him. A medical field employee, Connell said Bentley is “well-respected in the medical community.”
“As governor, he will be able to go along with other states against Obama-care,” Connell said.
Harold Jarman of Clanton said Bentley is “for the hard-working family person,” is “honest” and has “integrity.”
“I think he will hold people accountable and make them work for the benefit of the people,” Jarman said.
“He's an outsider campaigning against the system,” said Becky Hayes of Clanton. “He's not for big government. That's important to me.”
Bentley describes himself as a populist who appeals to party outsiders.
“Common, ordinary people voted for me,” Bentley said.
Bentley said he is not a tea party member but has unwavering views about government's role.
“I want government to get out of the way,” he said.
But populism can be a double-edged sword, Brinson said.
“He needs to be more specific on solutions because what's going to happen is we have a tremendous budget failure and we have to get more revenue,” he said. “Being anti-Washington is a popular stance, but the reality is how is this going to relate to the state?
“People want to hear anti-establishment rhetoric, and that resonates with a lot of people right now but you still have to have solutions to all these problems because the challenge of the next governor is you have to have the support of people as you come into office,” Brinson said. “You need strong support of business and the public.”
No comments:
Post a Comment