Alabama 5th District Candidate List
Posted by BrianHere is the list of qualified candidates for Alabama’s 5th congressional district:
Republicans
- George Barry - I don’t know much about Barry, but he had a strong contingency last evening at a Republican event to announce the candidates. Sounds very Ron Paul-ish in this article, which says he vows “to never raise taxes, increase the national debt or take a taxpayer-paid junket.” And that “the country’s borders need to be closed, and he will oppose the idea of merging Canada, Mexico and the United States to form the North American Union.”
- Cheryl Baswell Guthrie - Ran against Parker Griffith for state senate in 2006.
- Mark Huff - Plays double bass with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. His platform includes the FairTax and term limits.
- Dr. Angelo Mancuso - Either got confused on the way to qualifying or has seen the light. He is a former Democrat state representative, ran for state senate in 2006 as a Democrat, and is on the Alabama Democrat Executive Committee for House District 10.
- Ray McKee - The only candidate who ran for the seat before it was cool to run. Strong supporter of the FairTax.
- Wayne Parker - Lost to Bud Cramer twice in the mid 1990’s. Claims his first FEC report will show $170,000 raised and that he has another $80,000 pledged. Had a lackluster interview with Dale Jackson on WVNN on Friday where he made some good broad statements (pro free enterprise, personal responsibility, etc.), but was non committal when pressed about specifics.
Democrats
- Parker Griffith - Independently wealthy physician currently serving in his first term as an Alabama state senator. Mounted a strong challenge to Loretta Spencer for mayor of Huntsville in 2004.
- Dr. David Maker - Is either the smartest or nuttiest guy running for office. Studies antigravity. If this guy is on to something with the antigravity work then he doesn’t need to waste his intellect sitting in the legislature.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Calling Wayne Parker’s interview “lackluster” is being kind, I would say “poor.”
April 6th, 2008 at 6:38 am
… and boarderline embarrassing. (got cut off)
April 6th, 2008 at 7:08 am
You know me - I’m all about being kind!
April 6th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Follow up…
I thought Parker gave particularly poor answers to two questions.
When asked about the home mortgage crisis he said some of the blame fell on individuals who made poor choices. Good answer in keeping with his personal responsibility ethos. But then he went on to say that some blame lay with unethical lenders, which sounds more like what George Will would call the “rhetoric of victimology.” If a lender did something illegal then the debtor can use the judicial system to right the situation to some extent. However, unethical acts in this situation are usually equally divided between lender and debtor. Take “liar loans” that don’t require proof of income. If the lender says, “We’ll just write down that you make $100k per year,” and you nod your head (cause you really want the house) is the lender solely to blame? And who cares what their qualifications for loaning money are anyway? If I want to loan my money to a homeless man with no collateral then I should be allowed to do so.
The other sorry answer was, I believe, to a question about NAFTA. He essentially said that he didn’t know what he would do because he’s only been running for two or three weeks. Some might view that as a prudent approach and that he wants to carefully study the issue. I hear that and say, “Why in the world are you running for congress?” Has he not been keeping up with issues well enough to have an opinion? I could announce I was running today and at least give a thoughtful answer to any policy question.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:32 am
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April 8th, 2008 at 2:54 am
It was quite poor. Sounds like he decided to run yesterday.