Byrne Likely to Run for Governor-2010

Well, it has been a while since I wrote to everyone. I apologize as I have been occupied with other things. Well, I'm baaaaack!

There is a potentially very big development in the run for Governor going down. Yesterday, Bradley Byrne resigned from his position as Chancellor of the two-year college system in the state.

Byrne had indicated earlier that late May or early June would be a date in which he would make his final decision whether or not to run for Governor. There has been speculation about a Byrne candidacy in the GOP for several months now. His resignation from his current position is a clear signal that he intends to pursue other options, ya know, like Governor.

Byrne hasn't made anything official yet and said the long awaited official announcement would come on the 27th later this month. Being that he has taken leave of a fairly important position within the state would seem to signal he is ready to devote himself to a full-time campaign for Governor late next year.

Legally, no one can begin fund raising until June 1st which is roughly a year ahead of next June's state primary. So it makes sense that more and more candidates are coming out of the woodwork. The next few weeks should be interesting as it is also likely that we will separate the wheat from the chafe so to speak.

The list of potential candidates for Governor has run as long as a list of State Senators. The rumors and fact will soon be publicly separated.

There are two other official candidates in the GOP race right now. Greenville businessmen Tim James and State House member and doctor Robert Bentley are the only ones to have officially announced their candidacy. Other big names in the rumor mill include State Treasurer Kay Ivey and Republican Minority Leader Mike Hubbard. I suspect that Ivey's candidacy is merely a rumor. No real developments have happened in her court for months. She is interesting from a rumor mill standpoint because she is the only name mentioned who has already won and currently holds a state-wide office.

Two reasons I say she isn't too serious about it though. 1) This PACT mess coming down has made her look bad. Whether it is her fault or not, she is ultimately responsible for the Treasury Dept and doesn't look so good when half of the value of the program has gone down the tubes. 2) There is already a crowded list of big time candidates in the mix. James has been working for months to organize a campaign. Byrne has supposedly secured a lot of support within the business community. Given that the last open GOP primary really only had 3 candidates and saw a relatively weak showing from Tim James in the polls, there's no reason to believe that a Ivey candidacy would produce anything more than an 'also ran' result.

What is also interesting is that the race could become more crowded yet regardless of the unlikelihood that there will be only 2 to 3 major candidates. Tony Petelos has batted around the idea of running, but I think his lack of name recognition statewide would make his candidacy a poor choice. Perhaps a run for Lt. Governor would be more suiting of the Hoover mayor.

In addition, the prospect of Mike Hubbard joining the fight still looms. I don't really have any strong inclinations one way or the other on his chances of running, but I don't think he's a strong candidacy if he enters. Again, a strong candidate for Lt. Gov he would be.

Finally, there was some speculation that Luther Strange might take a shot at the top job. He put that to rest a few weeks ago as he more or less indicated he would seek the job of Atty. Gen. despite the fact the position is currently held by a Republican. He made that official with his announcement last week to challenge Troy King.

Speaking of Troy King, there was a lat of talk of him running for Governor this year, but his dirty laundry list would make this article twice as long so I think the likelihood of that happening much less the wisdom of that move is good and small.

Finally, I should give attention to Robert Bentley. Although he is from my native Tuscaloosa and I have a little inclination to support him simply for that reason not to mention his super-conservative stances, I said early on that his candidacy would achieve 'also ran' status. I'm not quite so sure of that anymore. Have you seen the man's bus? Pictures of it are at the previous link. I may be ignorant here, but I've never seen an Alabama gubernatorial candidate roll around in a state-of-the-art ride like that. Point being, he's got some serious backing somewhere. Being a doctor, he's certainly got some money in the bank so I don't doubt he could afford a bus like that, but why do it unless you've got campaign funds rolling in? Not that he's collecting funds illegally, I'm saying he has the promise of money from people he obviously trusts.

My inclination from sources say that Bentley's not interested in running unless he knows he can win. Despite his lack of name recognition statewide, a name can be made in a relatively short period of time if you've got the money to do it. It will be interesting if Bentley ends up being that 3rd major candidate.

Alabama's PACT Plan in Trouble- Officials Yet to Decide on New Plan

Most everyone knows that since September the Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Plan or PACT has been in serious trouble. With the stock market crash that reduced nearly half of the assets on the books, also came the the reduction of PACT assets to about half.

The PACT Plan was created in 1989 in order to save up money for Alabama high school Seniors to go to college at an in-state institution. Well, not so much anymore....

Technically, the state now owes twice as much in fund liabilities as they actually possess now in the fund. I'm not a parent, but if I was and I had been paying in money to the state for the last 15 years for my child to have enough later to go to college, I'd be a bit peeved right now.

My candidate, Tim James, had a relevant comment on the issue. He said it was "the most irresponsi­ble thing" for the board to put the largest portion of the investments in the stock market. I agree with that as well. The majority of the funds should have been in mutual funds. As Dave Ramsey says, "you should never have more than 10% of money in the stock market." And the reason is because of precisely what happened this past fall with the huge losses in the stock market. I'm not sure who was making the investment decisions for the PACT plan, but they probably need to be fired.

What is next is that a few officials, several of which are gubernatorial candidates in 2010, have gotten together to figure out where they will go from here.

Analysis: Tuition plan now big issue in Governor's race

As you can see, this group was to meet about 2 weeks ago on the 24th. Now, this committee isn't exactly a committee. It seems to be made up of a hodge-podge of officials and won't actually have any power to make a decision in this area. I planned on reserving judgement until later on whether or not they come up with something feasible. What is new today is that 3 members; Jim Folsom, Kay Ivey, and Bradley Byrne, those gubernatorial candidates I was mentioning, met with Gov. Riley today to make a few of their ideas known. I think I can stop waiting....

Read here:

Gov Riley says PACT solution workable

There's not a heck of a lot of material there to judge. The committee thinks they have a proposal to give to the Legislature before the session is over. They all seem to be on board with freezing tuition hikes for PACT students for a few years which I think is a good start, but there isn't much there that will make the 48,000 families happy. I hate to say it, but I think I agree with this Democrat:

Rep. Proposes rescue for Alabama Tuition plan

Now, I don't want to give the impression that I am for the Legislature writing a blank check to these students and I don't want to imply that I know all the ins and outs of Craig Ford's proposal, but the state made a promise to fund the college tuition for these students. Freezing the tuition hikes along with making sure the tuition is completely covered is what the plan should be.

Obama's Latest Big Government Power Grab- Private Sector in Danger

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse. Obama Man, defender of all that is socialist and unwieldy, comes to the rescue.

The latest shock to the system, if Obama gets his way, will be the creation of a new government authority over non-bank financial institutions. The best part is that there probably won't be the creation of a new bureaucracy. After all, Obama isn't interested in creating government programs that don't work. He's going to skip the middle man simply take CEO power itself for the administration over these financial giants. And the peasants rejoiced.....

Check out this odd description of what exactly the administration wants:

Yahoo- Decrying AIG, top officials ask strong new control

Geithner made it clear he believes the treasury secretary should be granted broad powers — after consultation with Federal Reserve officials — to take control of a major financial institution and run it. The treasury chief is an official of the administration, unlike the FDIC, which is an independent regulatory agency.

Personally, I think it is bad enough that such an entity as the FDIC has the power to take over any private sector institution in certain circumstances. What is even worse is the idea that an inherently partisan member of any Presidential administration, much less the Obama team, could actually have the power to seize a financial company and place it under the control of the President. Unfortunately, this isn't the most disgusting thing I've heard this week. Obama has hit a new record when it comes to the fast-paced presentation of lunatic ideas.

The hits just keep on coming:

Washington Post- Geithner Asks Congress for Broad Powers to Seize Firms

Appearing on television news shows this morning, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the White House wants "resolution authority to go in and be able to change contracts, be able to change the business model, unwind what doesn't work."

The power to change contracts....are you serious? Not only do they want to control multi-billion dollar firms, they want to be able to retroactively change a past contract. What this means in addition to the obvious abuse of power is that individuals out in the private sector are going to think twice or even a third time about doing business with a troubled company simply because they will understand that the government could come in at any time and void the contract.

It makes me wonder, does Obama really enjoy doing such damage to a free market system?

And get a load of this:

"This is common sense. This isn't anything crazy," Gibbs told CNN. " . . . If the Treasury had resolution authority on AIG, you wouldn't have to put it in bankruptcy to change executive compensation, you could do that automatically."

Ok, the very fact that he has to say this concept is not crazy pretty much means it is the nuttiest thing to come down the pike yet. Listen carefully to what Gibbs just stated. Obama wants the power to change how people are paid...rich people that is. The pushing of and the exploitation of the American's envy of the rich just blows my mind.

If Obama could have simply just done away with the payment of CEOs at the top of AIG, he would have. Does anyone have a problem with the idea of the President or anyone else in government simply deciding how much CEOs get paid? Of course, the process for determining how these people would be paid won't be based on any country-first ideals, it will be purely political and be designed the serve whatever purposes the President desires at the time.