Who's the best candidate for Alabama Democrats next Tuesday?

[yallerdawg]

I would argue, it ain't a Democrat!

Do we want to send a message to Washington, DC? Or whatever property Fake Precedent may be promoting next Tuesday? Getting "sick of winning" all the time?

Link to tweet

Senator Luther Strange has done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama. He has my complete and total endorsement!

How can Alabama Democrats actually impact this election and have a say in who represents us?

Whomever emerges next Tuesday will have more than a month to fight it out. There’s been very little runoff polling, and it’s not entirely clear what might happen. The good news for the Republican who emerges from that skirmish is he will be a heavy favorite in December’s general election in deep-red Alabama.

This Senate seat has been held by a Republican since Howell Heflin retired. Last election Sessions received over 97% of the vote unopposed! Before that in 2008 he handily beat Vivian Davis Figures, a noted Alabama Democrat.

Last year, the Alabama State Legislature tried to fix a little problem we have had down here in Alabama.

Alabama has an open primary. Voters in Alabama just register to vote. We don't register as Republicans, as Democrats, or as independents. We are registered voters or we are not. That means that Democrats may vote in the Republican primary and Republicans may vote in the Democratic primary. We just choose our preferred party's ballot when we get to the polling place. We are restricted, however, to voting in only one party's primary.

Unique to Southern states, Alabama also has a runoff primary. The law requires that to win the nomination a candidate must have 50 percent plus 1 vote in the primary. If no one has a majority of votes, 42 days later the contest goes to a runoff between the top two vote-getters. The legislature has enacted a new law, effective August 1, 2017, requiring that voters who participated in a particular party's primary may vote only in the same party's runoff election.

Crossover voting has a long tradition here in Alabama.

The strategy...backfired in Alabama when, after voting in their own primary, large numbers of Republicans crossed over to vote in the Democratic party's run-off for the governorship in 1986. In the ensuing legal battles, the outcome was overturned.

Voters were so disgusted and outraged by the behavior of the Democrats that they elected Guy Hunt, the first Republican governor of Alabama since 1872 and the first to be removed from office. This election was instrumental in making the Republicans competitive in what had long been a one-party state.

In another election with a similar outcome, a number of Democrats apparently voted in the Alabama Republican primary in 2010 to sabotage the nomination of Bradley Byrne, whom many considered the strongest candidate for governor. Voters ultimately chose Robert Bentley. We all saw how that ended.

I'm going to be looking at the worst Republican candidate on the ballot next Tuesday. The one most likely to upset the apple cart. The one that could drive Alabama Democrats to the polls in December (come on, anything is possible!).

Know of any crazy, dysfunctional, unpredictable Republican candidate on the ballot?