Analysis of General Election

By Steve Flowers, Guest Columnist

A few last thoughts and observations on our November 6 General Election in Alabama.

Our new 55th Governor looked and sounded more like the old Kay Ivey than the one we have seen the past few years and during the campaign.  She was vibrant, succinct and to the point, and had a perfectly timed and unscripted victory speech.  Her green jacket was becoming.  She will be a good governor.  She will tackle the tough issues the state must face in the next four years, especially our infrastructure needs.

She is extremely qualified and ready to be governor.  She is a real Republican with a real Republican super majority State Legislature.  There are 27 Republicans and eight Democrats in the Senate.  The numbers are 77 Republicans and 28 Democrats in the House.

Kay also has a unique and advantageous relationship with all of the Alabama Senate.  She was the presiding officer of the Senate the last six years and was considered fair and impartial.  She worked with and developed a very good working relationship with the GOP leadership.  The three primary leaders of the Senate, Del Marsh, Jabo Waggoner, and Greg Reed, have a close-knit, trusting bond with Kay.

Kay not only becomes the 55th Governor, she is the first Republican female elected as governor and the second female governor in our state history. Ironically, Kay cut her teeth in politics working in our first female governor, Lurleen Wallace’s campaign for governor.  Kay was a student at Auburn University.  Little did she know that 52 years later she would be the second female governor of our State.

The more things change, the more they stay the same in Alabama politics.  The Alabama that Kay Ivey and I grew up in and knew 50 years ago was totally Democratic.  In fact, the word tantamount was used continually to describe the dominance of the Democratic Party.  It was an accurate statement.  The dictionary describes tantamount as “the same as.”  Today I use the word tantamount when explaining winning the Republican Primary in Alabama.  We were a one-party state 50 years ago and we are a one-party state in statewide politics today.  The difference is we changed parties.  We are now a Republican state, yesteryear we were a Democratic state.