With optimism high, Democrats running for governor report end-of-year cash on hand
In 2010, Alabama Republicans completely dominated the Democrats by winning supermajorities in both houses of the Alabama Legislature and every statewide race on the ballot. The GOP repeated that performance in 2014, and Democrat fortunes appeared to be at an all-time low.
This year, however, Alabama Democrats are more optimistic than they have been in a long time. Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate special election, the first Democratic win in any statewide race since 2008. The Republican Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, has been convicted of felony ethics violations. The Republican House Majority Leader Mickey Hammon, R-Decatur, has pleaded guilty to felony campaign finance ethics violations. Republican Gov. Robert Bentley pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and resigned the governorship in April 2017. In 2016, the Court of the Judiciary suspended the Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. The momentum generated by the Jones campaign combined with Republican ethics issues have made Alabama Democrats much more optimistic entering 2018 than they were at this time in 2014.
Nowhere is this new optimism felt more strongly than in the 2018 gubernatorial race where a number of Democrats are organizing gubernatorial campaigns.
On Wednesday, the Alabama Secretary of State’s office posted 2017 end of year campaign finance filings on their website.
Read more: http://www.alreporter.com/2018/01/05/optimism-high-democrats-running-governor-report-end-year-cash-hand/