Steve Flowers: Jimmy Holley
Legendary state senator Jimmy Holley has decided to not seek reelection to the State Senate next year after 44 years in the legislature. He will be missed in the State Senate. For the past decade, Holley has become a mentor and confidante for incoming State Senators, especially the members of this quadrennium’s freshman class. Senator Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road), has told me on more than one occasion that he has relied on Senator Holley’s wisdom and experience on a daily basis. Holley is generally considered the most knowledgeable person in the Senate when it comes to parliamentary procedure and the rules of the Senate. Others like Senator Clyde Chambliss (R-Prattville) have been mentored by Holley. In fact, at the beginning of each quadrennium, there was a clamor and struggle to seek the seat next to Jimmy Holley by members so that they could learn the intricacies of the senate rules and gather his institutional knowledge and wisdom. Jimmy Holley has been my close friend for 40 years. We served together and sat next to each other for 16 years in the House of Representatives. We represented adjoining counties. I have never seen a more diligent and capable legislator. When his hometown of Elba lost their schools to flooding, I saw Holley singlehandedly fight and secure extra funds from the Special Education Trust Fund Budget to build them new schools. Years later, when a tornado destroyed Enterprise High School, which was and is the largest high school in his district, he secured funds from the state to build a new, state-of-the-art high school for Enterprise. Jimmy would work at being a good and knowledgeable legislator. When most legislators would simply show up to vote and enjoyed the nightly social events hosted by lobbyists and associations, Jimmy would go back to his hotel room and study legislation and sharpen up on the rules. One day Holley and I were sitting at our desks working on a myriad of legislation put out by the Rules Committee. I looked at the calendar and was unfamiliar with a looming bill about three bills down on the agenda. I asked Jimmy about a certain piece of legislation. He calmly told me all about the bill and told me I probably was not going to vote for it since it was a trial lawyer bill. He knew my pro-business propensity. It occurred to me that he had read the bill in its entirety as well as all the bills on the calendar the night before in his hotel room. Jimmy was born and raised in Elba in Coffee County and has lived his entire life there except for the four years he went to college in Tennessee, which is by the way where he met his lovely wife, Mary. Jimmy and Mary have two fine and successful sons. They all live close by Jimmy and Mary, so they have had the opportunity to watch their grandchildren grow up and go to all their ballgames and school events. They have a wonderful family life. However, even though Jimmy is only 77, he has had some health problems. The state and primarily his four-county senate district will miss him immensely. Holley has spent over half of his life as a lawmaker. He is in his sixth term in the Senate and, prior to that, served five terms in the state House of Representatives. He currently chairs the Senate Government Affairs Committee and has been a fixture on the Legislative Council. His district includes Coffee, Covington and Pike Counties, and the northern portion of Dale County. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed (R-Jasper) summed up Holley’s departure well. He said, “Senator Jimmy Holley is an institution in the Alabama Senate, and our Body will not be the same without him. I further appreciate the decades of service he has given to his district and to our state in his long tenure in the Senate, and I am grateful for the wisdom and experience he has shared with our membership.” Jimmy Holley has a place in Alabama political history as one of the all-time legendary state lawmakers. Merry Christmas. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
AG Steve Marshall files lawsuit to block Head Start vaccine mandate
Attorney General Steve Marshall joined 22 other attorneys general and filed a lawsuit to block the Biden administration’s Head Start mandate for program employees to vaccinate against COVID, and for pre-school pupils to wear face masks, or risk losing all federal funding. The lawsuit argues that the mandate conflicts with Alabama’s vaccine passport law and that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t have the legal authority to impose the mandate. The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Louisiana. Attorney General Marshall joined with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to bring this action, along with his colleagues from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The mandate requires all personnel to be “fully vaccinated” and wear masks at all times, while also requiring students ages two years and older to wear masks. Two of Alabama’s state agencies—the Alabama Department of Human Resources and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education—would be affected by the mandate, as would all of Alabama’s Head Start teachers, staff, volunteers, and students. “The Biden administration clearly has no plans to back down from its errant pursuit of nationwide vaccination,” Marshall stated. “Likewise, the State of Alabama has no plans to back down from its righteous pursuit of nationwide injunctions.” Marshall added, “The victims of these mandates will not be ‘the unvaccinated,’ as President Biden would like you to believe. Rather, the harm will be felt by the rural pre-school children who will be left with no place to go if their centers are shut down. A program that the federal government created is at risk of being destroyed by those who claim to care most about its participants.”
Club for Growth PAC endorses Rep. Barry Moore for re-election
Club for Growth PAC has announced they are endorsing Rep. Barry Moore for reelection in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. Club for Growth PAC supports conservatives in key elections across the country. In 2020, the PAC won more than 80% of its races. It is a political arm of the Club for Growth. The Club for Growth focuses on conservative economic policy and does not take positions on social issues or the immigration/borders debate. “In his first year in the House, Rep. Barry Moore has proven to be a true economic conservative who has fought against the Establishment to support lower taxes, fewer regulations, and term limits,” said Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh. “We look forward to supporting his winning reelection campaign.” On Twitter, Club for Growth stated, “Rep. Moore has proven to be a true economic conservative who has fought against the Establishment to support lower taxes, fewer regulations, and term limits.” Moore released a statement on Wednesday, expressing appreciation for the endorsement, Yellowhammer News reported. “Since being sworn in almost twelve months ago, I’ve worked night and day for the people of the Wiregrass, keeping the promises I made to be transparent, put their interests first, and fight the Washington establishment that always wants to spend more hard-earned taxpayer dollars and erode our God-given rights,” Moore stated. “Washington needs more public servants with callouses on their hands, and it’s an honor to bring to Washington our Alabama values and the work ethic I learned growing up on my family farm, serving in the National Guard, and making a living as a small business owner,” he added. I appreciate Club for Growth for their endorsement and for recognizing that I am already doing the job the people I serve elected me to do.” The Coffee County native was also endorsed by Club for Growth PAC in 2020. Moore is a veteran, a small business owner, and a former member of the Alabama State House. Barry and his wife, Heather, have four children.
Alabama woman admits to more than $1M in pandemic fraud
An Alabama woman pleaded guilty to charges of helping prepare dozens of fraudulent applications for federal pandemic relief funds involving more than $1 million, news outlets reported. Corine Campbell of Saraland, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was accused of helping with more than 50 bogus applications for money through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program. The case began when a man who claimed to have a landscaping service sought and received almost $21,000 in assistance money even though he was in prison during the time covered by the application, documents showed. Another man who claimed to have a janitorial service received money based on an application. According to Campbell’s plea agreement, she forged credit union statements showing the two men had the exact say account balances. She also pleaded guilty to a firearms charge filed after investigators searched her apartment and found a weapon she wasn’t allowed to have because of a previous theft conviction. A judge scheduled sentencing for Campbell for April 25. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Virus hospitalizations, school cases increasing in Alabama
COVID-19 numbers are again headed in the wrong direction in Alabama, with hospitalizations up more than 50% from a month ago and school cases climbing in the state with the nation’s second-highest death rate during the pandemic. Although the state’s health system is in far better condition than it was in August and September, when hospitals were all but full and officials feared the network was nearing the breaking point, numbers are slowly creeping upward, said Dr. Scott Harris, the head of the Alabama Department of Public Health. “We are a little concerned about how our numbers are trending,” Harris said in a discussion held on Facebook live Monday night by the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. About 400 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide Monday compared with about 250 a month ago, according to health department statistics. Harris called that number “very manageable” for a system that was treating about 3,000 pandemic patients daily in the fall. “But still, a 25% increase over the last couple of weeks is a reason for concern,” Harris said. The new, fast-spreading omicron variant has been confirmed in the state, but health officials don’t believe it has overtaken the delta strain yet. Omicron cases don’t respond to monoclonal antibody treatments that have helped patients in recent months, posing a problem once the variant arrives in force, officials said. Alabama schools reported 750 cases of COVID-19 this week, up about 25% from the 589 last week. The largest increases were in the large metropolitan areas around Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery plus rural Walker County, northwest of Birmingham. With only about 47% of the state’s population fully vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19, more than 16,350 people have died from the illness in Alabama, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins. The death toll is the 16th highest nationally and the second highest per capita at almost 335 deaths per 100,000 people. Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said there’s still time for additional vaccinations to stem a tide of new infections. People who aren’t vaccinated make up the vast majority of the people being treated in hospitals, he said, comparing a coming wave of infections from the new omicron variant of the virus to an approaching tornado. “There’s a storm coming and we need to get in our safe place, and the safest place we can be is with vaccines,” said Saag, who recovered from a bout with COVID-19 early in the pandemic. The rolling average of daily new cases in the state over the past two weeks has increased by 332, a jump of 66.6%, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. While there were about 197 new cases per 100,000 people in the state during the period, that ranks 50th nationwide. Dr. Aruna Arora, president of the state medical organization, said doctors are nervous about what’s going to happen to people who haven’t been vaccinated and gotten boosters. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
