Republicans seek appointments in Jefferson County
The Mid-Alabama Republican Club (MARC) met on Saturday for their regular meeting and a legal briefing on the Congressional redistricting case in federal court by attorney Albert “Bert” Jordan. Hoover City Council President John Lyda is the President of MARC. Former State Representative Johnny Curry asked the MARC members to write Governor Kay Ivey on his behalf. “My name is Johnny Curry – I seek appointment by the Governor to tax assessor for the Bessemer Cutoff,” Curry said. “Currently, there are no Republicans in the Bessemer Courthouse. I served four terms in the Alabama Legislature representing Hueytown.” “I am not the only Republican seeking the office,” Curry said. “I can win reelection.” Appointments are up to Gov. Ivey. Ivey is a Republican, but some Republicans have criticized her in the past for appointing Democrats in Democrat-controlled areas of the state – areas like Jefferson County. The Jefferson County Tax Collector’s Office in the Bessemer Division became open following the sudden death of Assistant Tax Collector Eric Burks in July. Former Judge Brian Huff was also at the MARC event. He is also seeking an appointment from Gov. Ivey. Huff said that he previously was a Jefferson County judge appointed by Gov. Fob James and then elected in 1998. “I lost in 2012 along with all the other Republicans,” Huff said. “Now a vacancy has opened in divorce court in Place 1 in Jefferson County.” “My name went down to Governor Ivey on Wednesday with three other peoples,” Huff said. “I think the bench is important in Jefferson County.” “I would appreciate any support that you can give me,” Huff said. Huff is currently in private practice. He is a former Circuit Judge at Jefferson County Family Court. He is a graduate of Gardendale High School and West Birmingham Christian School. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama and a law degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Greg Fanin is running in a special election for Alabama House District 16, which was vacated by Rep. Kyle South when South accepted a position as head of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce. Fanin said that he became a Republican in the 1980s. “I was a Reagan Republican,” Fanin explained. “I served in the Army.” “I am asking for your vote,” Fanin said. “September 26 is the date.” HD16 includes parts of Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, and Fayette Counties. “I have a super strong connection to Jefferson County,” Fanin said, citing attending school in the county growing up. “I am asking for your support.” Fanin is a veteran of both the Army and the Air Force. He currently serves as the Commissioner of Coal Mines (ASMC) appointed by Gov. Ivey. He is a real estate appraiser and President of Gemini GEM Inc. He is the father to two daughters, Erin and Meg. He attends the Church of the Highlands. Allison Hepola is the head of the Republican Women of Shelby County. She asked for members of the MARC to support the club in its ongoing efforts to elect Republicans. Hepola was also soliciting signatures so Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could have ballot access in Alabama’s upcoming Presidential primary on March 5. Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight thanked the members of the MARC for their help electing former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mike Bolin in a special election last month to fill an open position on the county commission. The GOP victory means that the Republicans maintain their narrow 3 to 2 control over the County Commission. Chris Brown is the Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. Brown similarly thanked the group for their efforts in electing Bolin to the Commission. “I am very proud f the cooperation we got from the Alabama Republican Party,” Brown said. “The Jefferson County GOP knocked on over 2,000 doors in three weeks.” Brown also thanked U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville for recording a robo-call to remind voters to get out and vote for Judge Bolin. The Republican Party lost its last countywide elected official in Jefferson County in 2018 when Sheriff Mike Hale (R) was unseated by Mark Pettway. Gov. Ivey defeated Democratic nominee Yolanda Flowers 67.38% to 29.36% in 2022, but Ivey lost Jefferson County to Flowers. Brown was unmoved by the last decade of history, saying that if you look at where the growth is in Jefferson County, Gardendale, Trussville, Vestavia, and Hoover, are Republican areas. “I think we are at a point where we can flip the county back to the Republicans,” Brown declared. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Mid-Alabama Republican Club discusses congressional redistricting issue
On Saturday, attorney Bert Jordan briefed the influential Mid-Alabama Republican Club (MARC) on the pending federal litigation over Alabama’s disputed congressional redistricting. On Monday morning, the State of Alabama will defend a congressional redistricting plan passed by the Alabama Legislature in July’s second 2023 special session. Plaintiffs have challenged that plan as violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Hoover City Councilman John Lyda is the President of MARC. “Burt Jordan has practiced law here for 43 years,” Lyda said. “His law firm, Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff, & Brandt, represents the City of Hoover, and I am very grateful for that.” Lyda said Jordan represented Perry Hooper Sr. in his disputed Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court race in 1992. He has been counsel for the Alabama Republican party. He also served as County chairman from 1995 to 1999. Jordan criticized the media coverage, particularly that of al.com in this case, as inaccurate. “I know al.com could do a better job,” he stated. “In early 2022, a U.S. District Court consisting of three judges issued an injunction because the 2021 Congressional redistricting likely violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” Jordan said. “Section 5 was struck down in 2012 in a decision by Chief Justice John Roberts. John Roberts has received a lot of criticism for that decision.” Jordan explained that in 1982, the City of Mobile’s city council districts were upheld by the Supreme Court. The city had three council districts that were voted on city-wide, but no Black representative had been elected to the council, even though the city was 33% Black. The Supreme Court found that the Mobile redistricting did not violate Section 2 because there was no intent to prevent a Black person from being elected. It just hadn’t happened. Following the Mobile decision, Section 2 of the VRA was rewritten by Congress from showing intent to a results outcome. Jordan explained 27% of Alabamians are Black. The plaintiffs argue that based on the results test, then two out of the seven congressional districts should be majority Black. “Nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population,” Jordan stated. Jordan said that a key Supreme Court decision here was Thornburg v Gingles. “The Gingles factors: First, the minority group must be sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a reasonably configured district. Second, the minority group must show that it is politically cohesive. Third, the minority must demonstrate that the White majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it……..to defeat the minority’s preferred candidate. Finally, a plaintiff who demonstrates the three preconditions must also show, under the “totality for the circumstances,” that the political process is not “equally open” to minority voters.” Jordan said that the Court ruled that the 2021 Alabama congressional redistricting was “likely a violation of section 2 of the voting rights act. That is why we are where we are today.” Jordan explained that there are three separate lawsuits challenging the 2021 congressional redistricting that have all been wrapped together into one suit. Those plaintiffs are Milligan from Montgomery, Castor from Mobile, and state Senator Bobby Singleton from Hale County. “They say that the Legislature’s remedial plan does not comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” Jordan said. “It comes down to the racial composition of (Congressional) District 2. The complaint of the plaintiffs is that (the remedial congressional redistricting map passed by the Legislature in July) is not going to remedy the problem.” The Legislature increased the number of Black voters in CD2 to almost 40%. Jordan said that Milligan and the other plaintiffs will argue that “the Legislature did not produce two majority Black Districts”; thus, that violates the results test of Section 2 of the VRA. “The way the state is defending this is important,” Jordan said. “The state is defending this on the grounds that it united the Black Belt and is preserving communities of interest while minimizing the number of county splits. The counterpoint is this, as seen from Terri Sewell, is that Alabama has defied the Supreme Court.” “The Supreme Court has ruled that the 2021 redistricting likely violated Section 2,” Jordan said. “There has never been a final ruling. The state is arguing that there has never been a final judgment, only a preliminary ruling, so the burden of proof is still on Milligan, Castor, and Singleton.” “We don’t know how that will play out exactly,” in the hearing on Monday, Jordan said. “There will be a lot of legal discussion between the judges and the attorneys.” Jordan said that the VRA had been misused at times in the past for gerrymandering. “One of the ways that it was misused was in drawing bizarrely shaped districts such as North Carolina District 12 (in 1990),” Jordan said. That redistricting snaked through multiple counties in North Carolina, connecting communities of color into a majority Black district. One consequence is that it made it easier for Republicans to win the neighboring districts. The Supreme Court rejected the gerrymandered District 12, Jordan explained. Jordan said that that decision was then used as a precedent in a 1990s case that he and Ferris Stephens brought challenging what was then Alabama state board of education district 4, where Jefferson County was in a school district with just the Black neighborhood of Tuscaloosa connected by a narrow lasso. The Court overturned the school board redistricting because it violated the North Carolina District 12 decision. Jordan said that Singleton has presented a map to the Court where Jefferson County is kept as a whole but is connected with Bibb to Hale and Perry Counties in the Blackbelt. Jordan said that this is dilution and thus would not pass legal scrutiny. Jordan said that the Court has declined to eliminate partisan gerrymandering. “The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that it couldn’t resolve partisan gerrymandering because it can’t make the decision on what is too much and what is fair,” Jordan said. “There is a lot of elite thinking that partisanship is distasteful. It may be, but it may be the best thing that
