Kicking Jim Zeigler out of statehouse backfiring? Be careful what you ask for insiders

0
28
Zeigler Ethics
[Photo Credit: ALToday.com]

In a classic case of be careful what you ask for, State Auditor Jim Zeigler, who was told in April of 2018 that we was being unceremoniously kicked out the State House,  “because they needed the space” all of a sudden, has found a new space for his office to reside.

Ha! It’s in the same building as Ethics Commission.

Just when lawmakers thought they were getting Zeigler out of their hair, one the state’s best loud and vocal advocates for taxpayers is now going to be ever so close to the people responsible for maintaining ethics. Allowing him to lodge complaints without so much as leaving the comfort of his building.

Let’s be clear, if you think lawmakers wanted Zeigler out so they could use his space rather than to stop him from showing up at press conferences and watching what they were doing I’ve got a bridge to the beach in Az. to sell you.

There are so many people in Montgomery who don’t like Jim’s in-your-face style, but as his recent showing in the GOP primary revealed he is doing just fine in the mind’s of the voters. Rather than aim to silence him we need to encourage more lawmakers to be like him.

Zeigler is taking his job as a watchdog seriously. On a regular basis he’s questioning the actions and spending of those around him.

Let’s not forget, it was Zeigler who pressed the issue of Governor Robert Bentley‘s ethics violations, he spoke out against a bizarre corrections contract for $300 million to a firm already tied up in ethics and bribery charges in Mississippi, he’s been outspoken in advocating for the prioritization of limited infrastructure and transportation money asking ALDOT and John Cooper questions they clearly don’t want to answer.  As noted in his follow up yesterday, after THREE months of waiting as Cooper and his team dodge Alabama’s open records laws.

It’s clear the efforts to move him were nothing but a stunt but those wanting to silence him are going to have to try harder.