Not so puny anymore: Alabama set to honor brown shrimp
Alabama has an official bird, official folk dance and official nut. Now the state is poised to have an official crustacean. The Montgomery Advertiser reports state lawmakers passed legislation Thursday to give brown shrimp the title of official crustacean. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Trip Pittman, a Republican of Montrose, passed the Senate earlier in the session and will now move to Gov. Robert Bentley for signing. The Seafood Association of Alabama says brown shrimp account for more than half of the domestic catch in the state. AL.com reports lawmakers are considering two other state symbols this session: the queen honey bee as the state’s agricultural insect, and the Lane Cake as the state’s official dessert. Louisiana, Maryland and Oregon are the only three states to have official crustaceans. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Del Marsh aims to patch budget deficit with gaming deal
In an aggressive move to fill a projected deficit in the state General Fund, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh is reportedly circulating a package of gaming legislation that would create four casinos. According to an AL.com report, the proposal reportedly includes a state gross receipts tax provision of 13 percent on gaming revenue at the tracks, located in in Birmingham, Mobile, Macon County and Greene County. Marsh’s proposal also provides for a 1 percent local gross receipts tax that would be shared by the local jurisdictions where the tracks are. The proposal would require an unusually high threshold of support for enactment, needing a three-fifths vote of confidence in both legislative chambers, plus approval from Alabama voters in a state constitutional amendment. March asked fellow senators to study the bill this weekend. If he deems support for the deal sustains it, he told reporters Thursday, he will introduce similar language next week. Marsh’s new gaming efforts are bolstered by a recent study conducted at the Auburn University at Montgomery Institute for Accountability and Government Efficiency, which concluded that the state could garner some $323 million or in new tax receipts — $64 million a year during the first year — were it to allow casino gambling at the state’s four pari-mutuel facilities and adopt a state lottery. Alabaster Sen. Cam Ward recently told AL.com, presciently, that he expected to see a new gaming bill come forward before the end of Session this year. “I think your lottery has a pretty good chance of passing,” Ward said. “The dilemma there is who is going to get the money. If it all goes to education, it doesn’t solve our budget problem.” AL.Com has posted a draft copy of the legislation here. Photo credit
Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton on different paths for early fundraising
Jeb Bush wants Republicans to know he’s breaking fundraising records. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants Democrats to think she won’t. While many Republicans expect Bush to have raised $100 million by the time he declares his candidacy, Clinton advisers say that’s their modest goal for the entire primary season. The reality is that both campaigns will be flush with high-dollar donors. Bush and Clinton could each pull in more than $1 billion if they become their party’s nominee. But the disparate early signals Bush and Clinton are sending about campaign cash underscore the contrasting ways the heirs to two political families are positioning themselves in the 2016 presidential contest. For Bush, building a fundraising juggernaut is seen as a way to surge ahead of rivals while ensuring he has the money to stay competitive if the race drags on into next spring or summer. The former Florida governor isn’t expected to launch his campaign until at least June, giving him more time to raise money aggressively for his Right to Rise super PAC before he’s legally barred from coordinating with the organization. For Clinton, who so far faces no serious primary competition, lowering fundraising expectations is a bid to dispel the notion that she is her party’s inevitable nominee. She’s holding a smattering of lower dollar campaign fundraisers, with tickets running $2,700 per person, during the next two weeks. Clinton had originally planned to wait until May to start fundraising, but told advisers she was concerned about the prowess of Bush’s money operation and wanted to start sooner, according to a person familiar with the campaign plans. That person was not authorized to discuss the campaign’s plans and insisted on anonymity. Clinton has so far taken no direct action to bolster the Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA Action, nor has she signaled to supporters that they should be funneling money to it. Instead, the Clinton campaign is trying to infuse its fundraising operation with more of a grassroots feel. Top donors are being asked to call and email their contacts, then track their contributions on personalized fundraising pages. There’s a greater emphasis on attracting smaller donors, something President Barack Obama did effectively during his two campaigns. “It’s good politics,” said Ira Leesfield, a Miami lawyer and longtime Clinton financial backer. “If a person sends 100 bucks, 50 bucks, they’re probably going to go out and vote.” Another benefit for skipping opulent fundraising parties? “No one has to hire a caterer,” Leesfield quipped. Bush invited more than 300 donors to Miami’s glamorous South Beach this week for a private two-day retreat at an eco-friendly seaside hotel. Donors received policy briefings from Bush advisers and mingled at a rooftop cocktail party. Bush, who has headlined more than 60 fundraisers this year, told donors he had set a record for Republican political fundraising. Right to Rise doesn’t plan to release any fundraising numbers until July and Bush did not provide donors a figure to back up his assertion. Advisers said Bush was comparing his current totals with the $37 million his brother George W. Bush raised in the first four months of the 2000 campaign, before the era of super PACs and unlimited donations. It appears likely Bush will hit $100 million by the time his super PAC releases figures this summer. While most Republican strategists expect Bush to lead his rivals in the early fundraising race, it’s unclear how significant his advantage will be. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky have all displayed fundraising prowess. And some billionaire donors are yet to commit to a candidate. Without the big gang of rivals, Clinton sees little incentive in focusing on fundraising at this stage, at least publicly. Her finance team has set a $100 million goal for the primary and does not plan to take general election money initially. During her failed 2008 race against Obama, Clinton raised $229 million before bowing out of the primary, though some of that money was allocated for the general election. Clinton’s first campaign predated the 2010 Supreme Court decision clearing the way for super PACs to collect unlimited donations. Priorities USA raised about $75 million for Obama’s re-election, significantly less than Republican outside groups. But it attracted attention for aggressive advertisements criticizing Republican nominee Mitt Romney‘s business record, sometimes relying on cheaper online ad buys or free media, rather than purchasing extensive — and expensive — TV time. Priorities USA officials say they expect the organization to keep a narrow focus on television and digital advertisements during the 2016 contest. Bush, meanwhile, is considering a plan that would shift some core campaign functions to his super PAC. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Senate OKs bill to give dying patients “right to try” promising meds
Doctors will be allowed to prescribe experimental drugs to terminally ill patients under a new law passed in the Senate. Senate Bill 357 gives patients the “right to try” drugs the FDA has designated as safe for clinical trials. The legislation was inspired by 9-year old Gabe Griffin of Shelby County. Gabe suffers from an incurable disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne causes generalized weakness and muscle wasting that increases over time and with muscle activity. Through a nonprofit, Hope for Gabe, created by his parents, the Griffin family putting focus on Duchenne to ensure that Gabe and others like him have access to drugs that could possibly save their lives. Gabe’s parents say clinical trials are his only option. His father, Scott Griffin, said, “As we get further down the road with Gabe’s terminal condition, we are running out of time. As a father, the last thing I want to do is sign my son up for a clinical trial where he may receive a placebo drug. If a drug is safe enough to be in an FDA trial where humans are already taking it, then Gabe should have the right to be guaranteed access and that is what this is about to Traci and I as his parents.” In a prepared statement, bill sponsor Sen. Cam Ward, an Alabaster Republican, said, “Terminal patients should have a right to try, and as a father and an elected official I believe we should do everything we can to help remove unnecessary bureaucratic red tape from the process so that doctors and terminally ill patients can determine the best course of action in each individual situation.” The bill will now move to the House for consideration. Read more about Gabe Griffin in an Alabama Today editorial.
Democrats’ edge among younger voters shrinking, Harvard poll finds
When it comes to building winning electoral coalitions, everybody knows people under 40 are among the most reliable voters Democrats have in their pockets. Republicans often don’t even even waste their time trying to cultivate support there, instead focusing on programs like Social Security and “tough on crime” law-and-order issues. That increasingly isn’t the case anymore, though. A new poll conducted by Harvard University social scientists shows that while Democrats’ edge among young people persists, it has shrunk considerably. And trends indicate it will continue to do so. Writes Nick Corasaniti in The New York Times: Indeed, 55 percent of those polled, which included likely voters from ages 18 to 29, preferred a Democrat to maintain control of the White House in 2016, compared to 40 percent who wanted a Republican. But that is a far cry from the 67 percent of millennials who voted for President Obama in 2012. The I.O.P. nationwide poll was conducted online by GfK March 18 to April 1 with a random sample of 3,034 adults aged 18 to 29. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. “The margin at the moment looks much more like the 2004 race than the Obama campaigns,” said John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. “If Republicans can hold the Democrat nominee to less than 60 percent of the young vote nationally, their chances are dramatically improved for a Republican electoral college win, in my opinion. While that doesn’t mean Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio is going to cobble together a majority led by young voters, it does mean that the issue arrangement of candidates around hot button issues is likely to shift in unorthodox ways in the near future. And for Democrats, it means running a full court press during the 2016 cycle to tighten the screws on their big tent for millennials, with an emphasis on Obama for America style get-out-the-vote efforts. Writes Corasaniti: Thirty-six percent said they “don’t know” who would be their top choice, and no candidate or potential candidate was able to get more than 10 percent of the millennials surveyed to name them as their top choice. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a favorite among young Democrats, with 47 percent calling her their top choice, although 28 percent also remain undecided. Turning these voters out will be a crucial to Mrs. Clinton as she seeks to build upon the coalition that propelled Mr. Obama to two victories. A study after the 2012 election by Tufts University found that the youth vote helped drive Mr. Obama to victory particularly in four critical swing states: Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Had Mr. Romney split the youth vote in those states, he could have won each of them.
Getting the state out of the marriage business
This past June, I wrote a guest editorial column published on AL.Com Here’s an idea: Get the government out of marriage all together. In it I posed the question, “Why is the government in the marriage business anyway?” My premise was that while the government has a duty to recognize the contractual obligations of a marriage it should get out of the business of defining marriage and allow churches decide on an individual basis who they want to marry. This week, Sen. Greg Albritton filed legislation that does just that. Senate Bill 377 changes the law dealing with marriage and all references of marriage to “contract of marriage.” While I disagree with the fact in his bill he raises the fees associated with marriage, this bill offers an opportunity to get the state out of the contentious place of blocking same-sex marriages and allows individuals and families to move forward and focus on the many other important things happening in our state. In an interview discussing his bill with AL.Com, Albritton said, “The sanctity of marriage cannot be sanctified by government of men. That is where we have gotten ourselves in trouble.” This week as the U.S. Supreme Court looks at the definition of marriage and seeks to answer the question of whether there is in fact a right to marry, it is a positive step for those in our state who have been caught in limbo that Alabama is looking to change its own laws. Photo Credit: Hal Yeager/AP
