Kal Barber Joins Givhan Campaign
From the Sam Givhan campaign:
Huntsville, AL – Today, State Senate District 7 Republican candidate Sam Givhan announced that Kal Barber has joined the campaign as Campaign Manager.
“I am excited about Kal joining us as campaign manager. He was a great asset to Roger Richardson and his knowledge of Huntsville coupled with his hard work in grassroots will be invaluable,” said Givhan.
Kal Barber worked recently as Roger Richardson’s campaign manager during the primary election. Kal has been active in Republican politics since his childhood, and has worked as a volunteer on several campaigns including both of Governor Bob Riley’s campaigns. He is a local business owner, a husband and father of five daughters.
“I have been fortunate to have worked on several campaigns in the past and can use what I have learned over the years to enhance Sam Givhan’s campaign”, Barber said. “I am excited about working with Sam, Campaign Chairman Stan McDonald and the rest of the campaign team. I feel that Sam Givhan has a good plan in place for the district. I hope to bring a fresh prospective that ultimately increases his base of support.”
“We will have a spirited campaign to win the Republican nomination during the next month and Kal Barber is the final piece our team needed,” Givhan concluded.
Givhan is running for State Senate District 7. The Republican Run-off will be held on April 21, 2009.
Why Kal? I hope to see the other candidates supporters rally to Paul Sanford and beat out Givhan. It’s time to begin staffing the state legislature with younger non-attorney individuals and move away from the status quo. Let’s vote in variety of expertise and perspective to the state body.
I have to admit, I don’t know as much as I should about Givhan; but I do trust Kal’s judgement after working with him on Roger Richardson’s campaign. I’m curious, Hntsvillian, why you think Paul Sanford would be better than Givhan?
I will also say that I believe quite a few Democrats voted for Givhan in the primary.
By the way, on a quick note, be looking for new blogs and information coming from me on Monday (for those of you who enjoyed my afternoon show on WVNN)
I have to agree with Hntsvillian that the last thing we need in Montgomery is another lawyer. I like Paul’s common sense and business like approach to the issues and feel he will better represent the needs of the people of District 7. I, too, am disappointed with the past candidates lack of vocal support for Paul (with the exception of Allan Rhodes, who announced his support for Paul immediately). Their lack of ability to take a stand leads me to believe that its not a bad thing they are out of the running.
Full Disclosure: I will be voting for Paul Sanford, and I am not in any way connected to his campaign.
I guess what Hntsvillian is asking is for an explaination of my decision to support Sam. I would be happy to share my decision making process over the last week or so. I will warn you, this is going to be a novel, hope you all enjoy.
I was asked by Sam to meet with him listen to what he had to say and get an answer to any questions. I have been around him and I thought I knew where he stood on most of the issues. I was wrong, I did not know because he was told to keep the issues fairly generic. He truly had a good grasp on most of the issues, he just did not develope them into his campaign. I had to question three things. The first was the question of his contributions. Prior to this conversation, the day of the Primary election in fact, I was able to have the same conversation with the person who was pointed out as the man who actually made the donations, Buck Watson. Mary Scott Hunter and I were standing there talking to Mr. Watson and the subject of these contributions came up. Mr. Watson immediately fessed up to those contributions stating that in some cases he made the contributions on behalf of the firm without consulting Sam because he had the blessing from the other partners and Sam’s vote had already been cancelled out. I gave Sam the opportunity to explain these contributions, too. He explained them identically, almost word for word, as Mr. Watson. Granted these contributions shouild have been done in the Firm’s name, but Mr. Watson controlled that decision and there is nothing Sam can do to the contrary, to include the $2500 donated to the State Democratic Party. Sam made a $500 donation to Bob Harrison when he ran against Laura Hall with the hopes to unseat her for someone who was easier for Republicans to work with, the lessor of two evils if you will. What does not appear in the SOS contribution reports is two $4000 contributions to Sen. Richard Shelby, they appear on Sen. Shelby’s reports as $8000 from his wife (a homemaker) and nothing from Sam. But noth check were signed by Sam. He brought copies of the checks and I saw them with my own eyes. The second issue was the PAC money. The largest of the questionable donations, was from the STA PAC. It was explained to me by Chris Brown that the money came from his affiliation with Alabama Power and their employees. Sam agrees that everyone would know where that money came from if there was transparancy in the PAC and he does support eliminating the PAC to PAC transfers. I know Chris Brown and he would not take Democrat money and he certainly would not allow his client to take money with Democrat ties. He was assured of where that money originated before it was accepted by Sam. The third thing I asked him was the most important to me. I wanted to Sam to look me in the eye, with my reputation as a Conservative on the line as much as his, and insure me that he would not pull an Enfinger on us and switch parties upon election or before re-election. He looked me square in the eye and told me he would rather not serve at all than serve as a Democrat. He explained to me his conservative upbringing in a Democrat area (Safford, AL). I immediately related because my family moved to Decatur, IL and I grew up there. For those of you uninformed about Central Illinois, my Congressman growing up was none other than Dick Durbin. I met him when I was 10 years old at a town hall meeting. At that time he was a “Reagan Democrat” and he said a lot of good things about Reagan at that meeting. Reagan was up for re-election that year. I immediately asked my mom to contact the local Republican office and I walked my neighborhood handing out material to re-elect Ronald Reagan. Dick Durbin created an adult conservative. I have not supported a Democrat or anyone that smelled like a Democrat in my entire life. Sam was raised a Conservative Republican and that is how he lives his life. I know that now. You know that now.
Why support Sam? He will not support any new tax increase or anything packaged that ultimately creates a tax shift. He will work to get property appraisals back to every 4 years. He wants to increase the amount of money that actually makes it into each classroom by eliminating pork projects from the Education Budget. He supports a lowest-estimate mandate on the budget because it will create a mechanism to take any surplus and use it to replenish the “Rainy Day Fund” in years of growth, and eliminate proration during slow years. He wants to work in a coalition of North Alabama legislatures to bring more of our tax dollars back up here from Montgomery to address our infrastructure problems. One issue that he originally not clear on was Illegal Immigration. After his interview with Dale Jackson, he realized that this had become much more than an issue that the Federal Government was failing. He approached me after the show and asked me to educate him on E-Verify and explain to him why it will help. This showed me that I was behind the right guy because he recognized that he was wrong in his assessment and he listened to the people. There are very few legislatures who actually take the time to listen and then request an education on the subject. I went to his house, showed him how to get to E-Verify and explained how it worked. He then registered himself as an employer, got his log in, logged in and verified that one of his employees was eligable to work in the US (because she is a US citizen anyway). He did this not to check the employment status of his employee, but to see if it was a cumbersome process for business owners. It was not. He then agreed that requiring E-Verify would make it harder for Employers that do use Illegal Immigrants to continue to hire them and get away with it. It also creates a state of “due dilligence” for the Employer who hire only Legal workers. Is it the missing link to stop the problem, no it is not, but in a One Year Term it is certainly a step in the right direction.
Folks, Sam Givhan is the right candidate for this job. He has the best stance on the the issues. As the issues come up he is willing to educate himself on the problems and the best possible solutions and include the will of his constituants. Yes, he does appeal to some democrats. If I recall correctly, isn’t that what is required of our nominee from April 22nd thru June 9th. Lets not forget the ultimate goal when we vote for our nominee on April 21st we need a candidate that appeals to Independents and even Democrats (who just happen to be the majority in this district) and in some cases be the Lessor of two evils when they fill out their ballots in June. Are they attracted by a sucessful professional and small businessman who has contributed to the community on several levels or someone running as the home grown tomato that own a family BBQ joint ?
Get passed the B/S, do the research and make the right decision. The Republican need this seat badly and the outcome can set the trend for 2010. Most importantly, GET OUT AND VOTE!!!! ….and sorry for the novel :,)
Also, I apologize for any mis-spellings or bad grammar. My kids have been going nuts while I have been writing this. Is Spring Break over yet?
Found another discrepincy, I accidentally doubled the contribution to Sen Shelby. It should have been two contributions of $2000 each totalling $4000.
So Sam is the “lesser of two evils”? That doesn’t make a great case for Sam as the better candidate, it just makes him a better one than Laura Hall. I also find your remark about Paul being just a “home grown tomato that own a family BBQ joint” offensive and I hope not indicative of the kind of campaign you’ll be running. Please stay focused on the issues and stop the name calling now, lest the words “sleazy lawyer in Enfinger’s pocket” get thrown about.
“someone running as the home grown tomato that own a family BBQ joint ? ”
classy… particulary after your plea to get past the BS. Sam will do a good job, I am sure and may even deserve votes for reasons other than because you think his opponent is a local yokel who just smokes pork. ..who is also a successful small businessman.
I do apologize for the use of the “home grown tomato” comment. It was pretty late when I was writing that and in hind sight that was offensive. I apologize to Paul and to his supporters. If I had the time to read the comments prior to posting I would have removed that statement entirely.
To clarify, for those who did not get what context I was writing in when I made the “Lessor of two evils” comment, I was speaking from the point of view of a Democrat voter that did not particularly like Laura Hall and is willing to make that cross over vote. I do not feel like either candidate on the Republican side brings that kind of vote for to the table for voters in the run off. I was merely making the point that Sam does present a legitimate chance of attracting Dem and Independent voters versus Paul. When measuring up the two candidates chances past the run-off, Sam has a definate chance of winning and Paul just cannot attract voters outside of the Republican community. I know because I have received phone calls and emails the day after the election confirming that as a fact. He turned off several of Roger’s supporters who cast their first Republican ballot on March 3rd, and, according to the compaint it likely their last. Maybe that clarifies my position a little more.
Kal – a lot of people love home grown tomatoes: they’re fresher, better tasting, and packed with more nutrients :)
If calling someone a “home grown tomato” is as nasty as this race gets, I think we’ll be OK.
I will also be voting for Paul Sanford in the Run-off and taking as many with me as possible.
Kal: I have talked to a lot of people mostly in the Northern Madison County Area who are democrats that will not vote for Sam but will for Paul in the run-off. They like his Home Grown Position, (from Huntsville) and the fact that he owns a successful business is also a plus. Paul has a great chance of bringing in a large number of conservative democratic votes North of Huntsville in the General and I believe he can beat Laura Hall. We don’t need to taint the water during the run-off. I appreciate your support for SAM and respect your decision. Paul is however, my choice as the most Conservative in the race now.
I will also continue to declare that whom ever wins the run-off I will support in the General. Let’s get the best person elected on the issues. We will need the democratic conservative to vote republican in June. Good Luck!
Kal, Thanks for the clarification.
I think what we really need to realize about Kal Barber is that he has little to no experience in politics whatsoever, and that he is really “involved” in this race so that he can provide broadband access to all of rural alabama .
I found Kal’s comments rather eye-opening about how he views small business owners. It may be of note that Paul has graduated from one of the most prominant and respected Culinary schools in the world, has been a Chef at a rather nice Country Club in Nashville that hosted the LPGA while he was there, has worked for & managed restaurants across the country such as Ruth’s Chris Steak House, J. Alexanders, Houston’s, and other’s, before returning home to open our own place. I find it offensive that you find our little BBQ joint so irrelevant. Our revenue is close to a Million a year, we employ 20 workers, and generate a nice little chunk for the City, County, and the State. Is it just restaurant owners you find not professional, or do you include other small business owners as not being as “professional” as lawyers?
In my opinion, we have more than enough lawyers in Montgomery (no offense Sam), so maybe it is time to try something new – not a lawyer. Small business owners like Paul and myself work hard. You have no right to discount our abilities because we are not “lawyers. ” It appears after a comment such as yours, you are the last person to be judging someone’s professionalism.
Sam, you may want to have a little talk with your new campaign manager.
I had not made my mind up as to which candidate to support until reading this “ It was pretty late when I was writing” weak excuse for an apology.
I still am not sure as to whom is the ‘better’ candidate, but I can assure you that it will not be anyone who is represented by you, Mr. Barber.
Congratulations. You did yourself proud.
Wife of the “Home Grown”… Great comment, I appreciate you and Paul and the Business you run. Keep up the good work. We need people like Paul with the support you provide as his wife to lead Alabama into the future. It is hard working couples like you that are willing to take a chance start up a business and employee people with all of the problems they bring to the table and make it successful. You have made my decision to support Paul Sanford for State Senate District 7 complete with your comments. You and your family are in our prayers. Allan and Lisa Rhodes
In the words of John Denver “Only 2 things that money can’t buy, that’s true love and home-grown tomatos.”
To the wife of “Home Grown”. OH MY GOSH! I had no idea that you guys were in Nashville at one point. Was Paul the manager of Houston’s there? That was one of my favorite restaurants.. J ALEXANDER’S was fantastic as well. OK – it wouldn’t hurt my feelings at if somehow the recipie for the Hawaiian Steak ended up in my email box… :) I can be bribed for my vote. LOL!!! (*joking*)
Hey Pamela,
I was actually a manager at Houston’s in Nashville. Paul worked for them in Napa Valley. Send Paul your e-mail and we’ll chat. The recipe is not hard.
Where is the republican run-off being held on April 21st, 2009.
Thank you.
Anup