Volume
1 Issue 2 - April 2001
Personal Values
"Ask yourself how often political solutions have solved the problems that are facing your neighborhood, your school, and ultimately your child's future."
Richard Finley:
DOESN'T THE WINNER GET THE SPOILS?
At first blush, some might ask, "Why are we writing this letter?" We have studied the vote returns that show Legion Field Box 7 (a Birmingham, Alabama African-American voting location) had a 91% straight Democratic vote. Looking deeper into the numbers, another 6%, though not straight Democratic votes, were cast for only Democratic candidates, leaving a 3% rate in that box for Republican candidates.
In spite of the dismal showing among African-Americans here in Alabama, Republican candidates won virtually every statewide office. A more traditional approach to this situation would have dictated that to the winner goes the spoils and that in most cases, winners have neither the obligation nor the inclination to "reach out".
But we are a different generation of political leaders. We share with you a common concern about the plight of Alabama's children as measured in crime rates, poverty rates, drug rates, and inadequate schools. For the long-term health of our state and country, we have mutual concerns to address that require new answers and new approaches reached by a new consensus.
In our urban areas, many of our children have been condemned to be little more than wards of a school that fails to properly prepare them for a job or higher education. In many of these areas elected officials are protecting the interest of the education establishment over the needs of the consumer (the kids). Nearly 70% of fourth graders in our poorest schools are unable to read at a basic level. A majority of African-American children live in fatherless homes. … In addition, a significant majority of African-American births are out-of-wedlock. Year after year many Alabamians continue to be captive to the discouraging and destructive effects of failed policies.
So, as the new leadership of the Republican Party, we find it a moral imperative as well as a political imperative to work together with progressive black leaders to bring about change.
We, like Attorney General Bill Pryor, believe we have an answer in local initiatives and mentoring programs. Our hope is to increase funds for church-based programs that provide assistance to the disadvantaged.
A prescription drug plan for seniors is needed and we must work together to implement President Bush's vision that no senior should be forced to choose between food and medicine. At the state level, Lt. Governor Steve Windom has introduced complimentary legislation in our Seniors First Prescription Promise.
Student Opportunity Scholarships remain an important component of our education vision. If a child is in a failing school, the parents should have the right to leave the school for a better, public, private or religious alternative. The neighborhood where a child lives or the thickness of his parent's pocketbook should not be factors that condemn a child to a school that does not meet its obligations. We believe that after a school faces two years of quantifiable failure (defined as having test scores 40% or below the national average), the parents of a child in that school should be free to leave. We built this nation (America's Greatest Generation) on the G.I. Bill and Pell Grant which was little more than a voucher to our colleges. We believe the same can be done in K-12.
Ask yourself how often political solutions have solved the problems that are facing your neighborhood, your school, and ultimately your child's future. Since 1963 trillions of dollars have been spent on a wide variety of social ills but in many cases the problems have only multiplied.
Putting all your political eggs in one basket -- the Democratic basket -- met the needs of some elected officials, but did it meet the needs of your community and your family?
We have a vision of a new Republican Party that is judged on the merits of its moral and economic objectives and accomplishments not on the tired rhetoric of its detractors -- a Republican Party that reaches out and is joined by those who want to chart a new course to end the residual problems of the Democratic welfare experiment.
This Republican Party has been, is, and will be the party that values the worth and opportunity of the individual. We write today to invite you to explore the values of the Republican Party in relation to your personal values and join us in moving beyond the narrow ideas that bind us to the past.
So why are we writing this? We are writing this for each of you to know….you have been asked. We are here to make a change. Together.
(Marty Connors is Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. Richard Finley is Chairman of the Alabama Republican Council.)
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VOTER NEWS NETWORK ORGANIZERS TO SPEND $1 MILLION FOR ALABAMA'S 2002 GENERAL ELECTION
EDITORIAL: REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAM PARKER FIGHTS TO PROTECT PROPERTY OWNERS' RIGHTS
SHAIA NO LONGER CANDIDATE FOR UA TRUSTEE
WATKINS ADDRESSED ALABAMA HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS
ASHCROFT ADDS LAWYERS TO VOTING RIGHTS SECTION
SIEGELMAN'S SPECIAL SESSION OF LEGISLATURE COMES UP EMPTY
DOESN'T THE WINNER GET THE SPOILS?
By: Marty Connors & Richard Finley
THE ALABAMA LEGISLATURE PROMISES NEW FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH PERFORMANCE-BASED BUDGETING
By: John F. Knight, Jr.
WEALTH CREATION
By: Willie Huff
WHAT DO WE DO NEXT?
By: Richard Dickerson