New polling shows Mike Durant ahead of Katie Britt in Senate race; Mo Brooks falls into third place
According to new Emerson College Polling, Mike Durant is currently leading in the Republican Primary with 33%, followed by Katie Britt with 23%, and Mo Brooks with 12%. No other candidate reached double digits. Twenty-six percent of voters are undecided. In the race to fill the Senate seat left by retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, the majority of voters (52%) indicate that they’re more likely to support a candidate if they are endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Last week, Trump rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks in a significant blow to the congressman’s campaign. Trump cited Brooks’ performance in the race, poor campaign staffing, and what Trump saw as a softening of Brooks’ stance on election fraud claims. Trump said he will be making another endorsement announcement in the “near future.” Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling, noted, “while Durant holds a lead over Britt and Brooks in the primary, he is shy of the necessary 50% to avoid a runoff in June.” Kimball continued, “Whether Durant or Britt clinches the nomination might depend on who former President Trump chooses to endorse. Among the 26% of Republican primary voters who are undecided, 60% are more likely to vote for a candidate if Trump endorses them.” Additionally, the poll indicated that 52% of Alabama primary voters approve of the job Kay Ivey is doing as governor, while 33% disapprove. Ivey holds 48% of support in the Republican gubernatorial primary, followed by Tim James with 11% and Lindy Blanchard with 8%. Twenty-two percent of Republican voters are undecided. The Emerson College/The Hill Alabama poll was conducted March 25-27, 2022.
Gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard calls for suspension of 2019 gas tax
Gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard held a press conference on Tuesday vowing to work to repeal the 2019 gas tax in order to help Alabamians with rising inflation and oil prices. The press conference was held at a gas station on Lurleen B. Wallace Blvd. S in Tuscaloosa. During her speech, Blanchard discussed the impact of high gasoline prices on residents of the state and called on incumbent Governor Kay Ivey and state legislators to suspend the gas tax immediately. “One of the biggest long-term threats to our country is our ballooning debt and deficit,” said Blanchard. “Big spending bills and inflated taxes aren’t just a national problem, they’re an Alabama problem, too. Our current taxes, along with Joe Biden’s inflation, is just too much. A recent study showed that increasing prices at the pump are impacting Alabamians more than any other state in the nation. I know you need help immediately! Today, not tomorrow, not after the election. That’s why we are here today.” Blanchard also announced Tuesday an online petition to pressure Ivey to suspend and ultimately repeal the gas tax. “It’s the job of our state leaders, like the Governor, to find solutions to help our people, and I believe that starts with putting more of your money back in your pockets,” Blanchard said. “I will be the Governor that finally steps up, rolls up her sleeves, and gets it done.” Gubernatorial challenger Tim James also called for a repeal of Alabama’s 2019 gas tax increase — as well as an end to the state’s sales tax on groceries — saying families need relief from soaring prices. Ivey has stated she did not support a temporary freeze on state gas taxes “at this time” and put the blame for rising prices on “Biden policies.”
AG Steve Marshall joins multistate lawsuit to end CDC’s mask mandate
Attorney General Steve Marshall joined twenty other attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the mask mandate for public travel despite court rulings that it is violating the law. The attorneys general want to eradicate the unlawful mask mandate and obtain a permanent injunction against enforcement. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the CDC has repeatedly overstepped its legal authority with impunity,” stated Marshall. “It has done so based upon its flawed reliance on a limited federal statute authorizing traditional quarantine measures directly related to preventing the interstate spread of the disease. Despite courts consistently ruling against the CDC’s ‘unprecedented assertion of power,’ including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the CDC in a case brought by the Alabama Association of Realtors in 2021, the CDC remains defiant. “After being called out for illegally prohibiting evictions and shutting down the nation’s cruise industry for over a year, the CDC continues to impose a mask mandate for traveling on non-private conveyances, including aircraft, trains, road vehicles, and ships. The CDC’s defiance of the law must be challenged, and I have joined 20 of my attorney general colleagues in filing suit against the CDC to halt this illegal mask mandate.” In the press release, Marshall argued that the CDC’s mask mandate harms states and interferes with state laws banning forced masking. The lawsuit argues that the CDC’s mask mandate exceeds the agency’s authority in several ways. First, the statute used to justify the mandate does not authorize economy-wide measures. Second, the statute only authorizes rules directly related to preventing the interstate spread of disease—it does not permit mask requirements for individuals who show no sign of infection. Marshall joined attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia in filing the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Tuesday.
Steve Flowers: Young Boozer, State Treasurer
Young Boozer is state treasurer, again, and deservedly so. Boozer was first elected as Alabama’s State Treasurer in 2010. He did an excellent job during his first four years and was reelected in 2014 without opposition. Thus, he served eight consecutive years as state treasurer. He could have been elected to a third four-year stint. However, constitutionally he was term-limited to two successive terms. John McMillan was elected treasurer in 2018 after serving eight successful years as Agriculture Commissioner. Mr. Boozer was not ready to leave public service, so he agreed to become Assistant Superintendent of Banking with Superintendent Mike Hill. During last year’s regular legislative session, the legislature passed a medical cannabis bill along with the legislation to allow for medical marijuana. They created an agency to oversee the prescription and regulatory process. The commission asked John McMillan to be Executive Director of the Cannabis Commission. Governor Kay Ivey subsequently appointed Young Boozer to McMillan’s remaining 15-month term ending in 2022. Boozer is running for reelection this year. He easily will be elected for another full four-year term through 2026. That will make him the longest-serving treasurer in state history. The legendary Agnes Baggett currently holds the record. Young Boozer is perfectly scripted to be state treasurer. He grew up in Tuscaloosa and went to college at Stanford University. The elite California college is known for producing national entrepreneurs and bank presidents. Young graduated with honors and then went to Wharton Business School for a master’s in business. He went on to have a successful career as a national and international banker. He came home to be Executive Vice President of Colonial Bank in Montgomery. Young served on the Stanford University Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2008. Therefore, you would have to say that he is probably the most qualified person to have ever served as Alabama’s State Treasurer because, essentially, the state treasurer is the state’s banker. He is uniquely qualified and is doing the job for the right reasons. Young Boozer is one of the best political names I have ever seen. It is a name you remember. However, this Young Boozer is Young Boozer III. His father, Young Boozer II, was a legendary football hero and businessman. The original Young Boozer was in the timber business in Geneva County and was Mayor of Samson. He died at age 33 of flu during the Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919. His widow moved the family to Dothan, where Young Boozer II went to high school. Young Boozer II was a superstar high school baseball and football player and student. He was brought to play both sports at the University of Alabama. In his class was the great Dixie Howell, who was also from the wiregrass, and also in that class was a lanky kid from Fordyce, Arkansas named Paul “Bear” Bryant. This trio of Dixie Howell, Bear Bryant, and Young Boozer went out on a train to Pasadena, California, and beat Stanford in the 1935 Rose Bowl and established the south and especially the University of Alabama as a football power to be reckoned with forever. Young Boozer II was a hero of that Rose Bowl game. He intercepted a pass in the waning moments of that game and clinched the victory. Young Boozer II went on to be an ultra-successful businessman in Tuscaloosa. He was involved with Coach Bryant in several successful business ventures. Young Boozer II started and built Cotton States Life Insurance Company which he ultimately sold to Alfa Insurance, and it made him very wealthy. He was a gregarious, unassuming man who was always smiling and joyous. Our current state treasurer, Young Boozer III, has a son who is appropriately named Young Boozer IV. What if this Young Boozer has a son, and he names him Young Boozer? He will be named Young Boozer the fifth. See you next week. 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.
Joe Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime
Presidents typically say a few words before they turn legislation into law. But Joe Biden flipped the script Tuesday when it came time to put his signature on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. He signed the bill at a desk in the White House Rose Garden. Then he spoke. “All right. It’s law,” said the president, who was surrounded by Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, and top Justice Department officials. He was also joined by a descendant of Ida B. Wells, a Black journalist who reported on lynchings, and Rev. Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till. Biden said it’s “a little unusual to do the bill signing, not say anything and then speak. But that’s how we set it up.” He thanked the audience of civil rights leaders, Congressional Black Caucus members, and other guests who kept pushing for the law for “never giving up, never ever giving up.” Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation more than 120 years ago. Until March of this year, it had failed to pass such legislation nearly 200 times, beginning with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep. George Henry White, the only Black member of Congress at the time. Harris was a prime sponsor of the bill when she was in the Senate. The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is named for the Black teenager whose killing in Mississippi in the summer of 1955 became a galvanizing moment in the civil rights era. His grieving mother insisted on an open casket to show everyone how her son had been brutalized. “It’s a long time coming,” said Parker, who was onstage with Biden when the president signed the bill. Parker, two years older than Till, was with his cousin at their relatives’ home in Mississippi and witnessed Till’s kidnapping. In his remarks, Biden acknowledged the struggle to get a law on the books and spoke about how lynchings were used to terrorize and intimidate Blacks in the United States. More than 4,400 Blacks died by lynching between 1877 and 1950, mostly in the South, he said. “Lynching was pure terror, to enforce the lie that not everyone, not everyone belongs in America, not everyone is created equal,” he said. Biden, who has many Black men and women in key positions throughout his administration, stressed that forms of racial terror continue in the United States, demonstrating the need for an anti-lynching statute. “Racial hate isn’t an old problem — it’s a persistent problem,” Biden said. “Hate never goes away. It only hides.” The new law makes it possible to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime leads to death or serious bodily injury, according to the bill’s champion, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. The law lays out a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and fines. The House approved the bill 422-3 on March 7, with eight members not voting, after it cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. Rush had introduced a bill in January 2019, but it stalled in the Senate after the House passed by a vote of 410-4. The NAACP began lobbying for anti-lynching legislation in the 1920s. A federal hate crime law was passed and signed into law in the 1990s, decades after the civil rights movement. “Today we are gathered to do unfinished business,” Harris said, “to acknowledge the horror and this part of our history, to state unequivocally that lynching is and has always been a hate crime, and to make clear that the federal government may now prosecute these crimes as such.” “Lynching is not a relic of the past,” she added. “Racial acts of terror still occur in our nation, and when they do, we must all have the courage to name them and hold the perpetrators to account.” Till, 14, had traveled from his Chicago home to visit relatives in Mississippi in 1955 when it was alleged that he whistled at a white woman. He was kidnapped, beaten, and shot in the head. A large metal fan was tied to his neck with barbed wire, and his body was thrown into a river. His mother, Mamie Till, insisted on an open casket at the funeral to show the brutality he had suffered. Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were accused but acquitted by an all-white-male jury. Bryant and Milam later told a reporter that they kidnapped and killed Till. During a video interview after the bill signing, Parker credited current events for helping the anti-lynching bill move through Congress and to Biden’s desk. Parker specifically mentioned the police killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, which sparked months of protests in the United States and other countries after videotape of the officer’s actions circulated. He drew a connection between Floyd and Till, saying, “That’s what caused Rosa Parks to not give her seat up, and that sparked the civil rights movement because she thought about Emmett Till.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
U.S. opens second COVID boosters to 50 and up, others at risk
Americans 50 and older can get a second COVID-19 booster if it’s been at least four months since their last vaccination, a chance at extra protection for the most vulnerable in case the coronavirus rebounds. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for that age group and for certain younger people with severely weakened immune systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later recommended the extra shot as an option but stopped short of urging that those eligible rush out and get it right away. That decision expands the additional booster to millions more Americans. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC’s director, said it was especially important for older Americans — those 65 and older — and the 50-somethings with chronic illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes to consider another shot. “They are the most likely to benefit from receiving an additional booster dose at this time,” Walensky said. There’s evidence protection can wane, particularly in higher-risk groups, and for them, another booster “will help save lives,” FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said. For all the attention on who should get a fourth dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, only about half of Americans eligible for a third shot have gotten one — and the government urged them to get up to date. Two shots plus a booster still offer strong protection against severe illness and death, even during the winter surge of the super-contagious omicron variant. The move toward additional boosters comes at a time of great uncertainty, with limited evidence to tell how much benefit an extra dose right now could offer. COVID-19 cases have dropped to low levels in the U.S., but all vaccines are less powerful against newer mutants than earlier versions of the virus — and health officials are warily watching an omicron sibling that’s causing worrisome jumps in infections in other countries. Pfizer had asked the FDA to clear a fourth shot for people 65 and older, while Moderna requested another dose for all adults “to provide flexibility” for the government to decide who really needs one. FDA’s Marks said regulators set the age at 50 because that’s when chronic conditions that increase the risks from COVID-19 become more common. Until now, the FDA had allowed a fourth vaccine dose only for the immune-compromised as young as 12. Vaccines have a harder time revving up severely weak immune systems, and Marks said their protection also tends to wane sooner. Tuesday’s decision allows them another booster, too — a fifth dose. Only the Pfizer vaccine can be used in those as young as 12; Moderna’s is for adults. What about people who got Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot? They already were eligible for one booster of any kind. Of the 1.3 million who got a second J&J shot, the CDC said now they may choose a third dose — either Moderna or Pfizer. For the more than 4 million who got Moderna or Pfizer as their second shot, the CDC says an additional booster is only necessary if they meet the newest criteria — a severely weakened immune system or are 50 or older. That’s because a CDC study that tracked which boosters J&J recipients initially chose concluded a Moderna or Pfizer second shot was superior to a second J&J dose. If the new recommendations sound confusing, outside experts say it makes sense to consider extra protection for the most vulnerable. “There might be a reason to top off the tanks a little bit” for older people and those with other health conditions said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry, who wasn’t involved in the government’s decision. But while he encourages older friends and relatives to follow the advice, the 50-year-old Wherry — who is healthy, vaccinated, and boosted — doesn’t plan on getting a fourth shot right away. With protection against severe illness still strong, “I’m going to wait until it seems like there’s a need.” While protection against milder infections naturally wanes over time, the immune system builds multiple layers of defense, and the type that prevents severe illness and death is holding up. During the U.S. omicron wave, two doses were nearly 80% effective against needing a ventilator or death — and a booster pushed that protection to 94%, the CDC recently reported. Vaccine effectiveness was lowest — 74% — in immune-compromised people, the vast majority of whom hadn’t gotten a third dose. To evaluate an extra booster, U.S. officials looked to Israel, which opened a fourth dose to people 60 and older during the omicron surge. The FDA said no new safety concerns emerged in a review of 700,000 fourth doses administered. Preliminary data posted online last week suggested some benefit: Israeli researchers counted 92 deaths among more than 328,000 people who got the extra shot, compared to 232 deaths among 234,000 people who skipped the fourth dose. What’s far from clear is how long any extra benefit from another booster would last, and thus when to get it. “The ‘when’ is a really difficult part. Ideally, we would time booster doses right before surges but we don’t always know when that’s going to be,” said Dr. William Moss, a vaccine expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Plus, a longer interval between shots helps the immune system mount a stronger, more cross-reactive defense. “If you get a booster too close together, it’s not doing any harm — you’re just not going to get much benefit from it,” said Wherry. The newest booster expansion may not be the last: Next week, the government will hold a public meeting to debate if everyone eventually needs a fourth dose, possibly in the fall, of the original vaccine or an updated shot. Even if higher-risk Americans get boosted now, Marks said they may need yet another dose in the fall if regulators decide to tweak the vaccine. For that effort, studies in people — of omicron-targeted shots alone or in
Sponsors: Lottery bills unlikely to get vote this session
Proposals to create a state lottery and allow casino gambling in Alabama are unlikely to be voted on this session, their sponsors said Tuesday. Republican Rep. Chip Brown had proposed establishing a state lottery and using proceeds to provide scholarships to help families pay a portion of tuition at two- and four-year colleges. Republican state Sen. Greg Albritton had introduced legislation to authorize a lottery, sports betting, and eight full casinos with slots and table games. Both said Tuesday that the measures seem unlikely to win approval this year. There are six meeting days remaining in the legislative session. “I would say more than likely, just given the time constraints, that we won’t be moving forward to put it on the floor,” said Brown of Hollinger’s Island. He said even if the bill got through the House of Representatives, there would be “potential problems” with it in the Senate. Albritton’s proposal has still not been voted on by the full Senate. “I think the issue is dead,” said the legislator from Atmore. In addition to the eight casinos, Albritton’s legislation proposed two smaller gambling sites with up to 300 slot machines each. Looming elections played a role in dampening support, Albritton said, but he mostly blamed the defeat on the number of entities — including current gambling operators — opposing the bill. The eight full casinos would be located at dog tracks and sites owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Facilities currently operating electronic bingo games argued that was unfair. “We know folks that are involved with this industry do not want to be regulated. They would love to get a license and validity to do extensive gaming, but anything short of that, they are against,” Albritton said. Alabama is just one of five states — along with Nevada, Utah, Alaska, and Hawaii — without a state lottery. Any lottery or casino proposal would have to be approved by state voters. Voters in 1999 rejected a lottery proposed by then-Gov. Don Siegelman. Since then, efforts to create a lottery or allow casinos have died from a fatal mix of conservative opposition to legalized gambling, disagreements on how to use proceeds, and turf wars over who could operate lucrative electronic gambling machines. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
