Tag: alabama

Meet Martha Roby (AL-02).

Already making the right sort of enemies.

I was going to wait until Ms. Roby had a campaign website up – she only announced last week, and this was Memorial Day weekend – but apparently the local Democrats are already beginning to play the “create multiple accounts and go after her for being a mom*” in local comment sections, so best to get this up now.

So.  AL-02.  R+16 in the Cook Political Report; Bobby Bright won this one by something like 1800 votes.  Against an incumbent and/or a Democratic President’s coattails, he would have lost.  Bright claims “Blue Dog” status; he has slightly more reason than some, given that he did break with his party to vote against the ‘stimulus‘ package.  The DCCC has him on their list of Representatives to protect, so he’s almost certain to get away with that, too.  They may even drop more money on him this time, assuming of course that they have it to spare.

But enough about this calculated insult to progressive Democrats by their own party; let’s look at Martha Roby.  She’s young (32 years old), currently on the City Council for Montgomery, where she apparently represents a majority-minority constituency (if this report is correct, in her last election she won majorities among both white and African-American voters in her city district).  She’s popular in her home area, plans to run as a conservative, and it can be safely assumed that her candidacy is going to be supported by the NRCC. Continue reading Meet Martha Roby (AL-02).

Free the Hops!

I’m as hyper-partisan as anybody else – but, really, I’m not going to get behind keeping Alabamans from getting access to something approximating decent beer.  Which is currently being stymied pretty much by one guy (from my party, unfortunately) who wants to filibuster the whole thing because he doesn’t like booze.

Background here.
Typically lecturing, yet more or less accurate The Next Right post on the problem here.
Latest word on the struggle here.
And, of course, the post that triggered this one here. I’m reprinting the specific instructions:

For those of you already tweeting (and the rest of you once you sign up), here are the necessary components your message should contain:

@SENATORERWIN #alpolitics #fth (insert your message here)
Here’s a sample of an one possible message you can use:

@SENATORERWIN #alpolitics #fth Please let the Senate vote on Free the Hops

As I’ll be updating this article from time to time indicating how many messages Senator Erwin has received, it’s important that you include the information above in your tweet so I can tally the results.

Please note that the Alabaman container/ABV rules do not currently prevent beer from being sold; they merely prevent good beer from being sold. Even if you think that the stuff that’s available in Alabama now is perfectly acceptable, show a little pity for the people that don’t, ‘kay?