From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

This week marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

The June 6th, 1944 Allied invasion of occupied France that began the push to ultimately defeat Hitler and liberate Europe in World War Two.

Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, including 73,000 American.

A total of 4414 Allied troops would be killed on D-Day alone.

The youngest survivors who remain are now in their late 90s.

Many traveled to Normandy this week to take part in the commemoration ceremonies.

Members of the Alabama congressional delegation also traveled to Normandy to thank and honor World War Two veterans.

Here are some of those photos shared by Senator Katie Britt.

She and Senator Tommy Tuberville and Congresswoman Terri Sewell were all there, representing Alabama, Alabama.

Here's a photo of the American cemetery taken by Senator Tuberville, who took a number of pictures.

B'rit took a moment to send a video back home from the beaches of Normandy, marking the occasion with her colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

We are here in Normandy.

80 years ago today, so many brave men came to protect freedom.

Freedom that we are enjoying now in America and across the globe.

We were part of the ceremony.

It was remarkable just to see these men who had come back, and women who gave so much, gave the ultimate sacrifice to enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

And as it said, our land of the free, because of the brave, we got to see and celebrate the great that.

So we hope that today you will join us and remembering them, remembering their sacrifice and remembering that we must fight for freedom.

Each generation doesn't just get passed down, it's something that we have to be intentional about.

I think that the next generation .

Before the trip, Congresswoman Sewell spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives honoring one special Alabama D-Day veteran.

As we prepare to observe the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I rise to honor the late Captain Malcolm Smith of Birmingham, Alabama, who selflessly gave his life defending our nation during World War Two in Normandy, France.

An Alabama native, Captain Smith graduated from Birmingham's own Ramsey High School before attending West Point and becoming a pilot for the United States Army Air Forces in 1942.

Captain Smith flew many combat missions in one of the most heavily engaged air groups in Normandy leading up to D-Day.

He was awarded five Air Medals for his heroic efforts.

Just two weeks before D-Day, at the age of 27, Captain Smith was killed in his P-47 Thunderbolt while completing a ground mission.

He is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery as I will join the congressional delegation traveling to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Birmingham native Captain Malcolm Smith for his courageous service to our nation.

Back home in Alabama this week was Girls State, the annual gathering of high school leaders is sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary, and it offers important lessons on the importance of civic engagement.

The girls get to compete for campaign for state offices from governor to state legislature and all the rest.

This year's Girls State was held at Troy University.

Governor Kay Ivey, who herself attended Girls State when she was growing up, spoke to the attendees to encourage them as they pursue college and careers.

Young Girls State is not just a week, it's a state of mind, an attitude, and a way of thinking that is stuck with me my entire life.

And now, as I entered the governor's office at the Capitol, every day I take with me the virtues that girls state so ably instilled in me.

I hope and I know that you will leave here with those same virtues and take them with you.

Whatever your future endeavors may be, leave girls state this week with an understanding that the beauty of our democracy is all the people.

Even a girl from Wilcox County can make a difference if we simply try.

And I like to say sometimes the best man for a job is a woman.

We should also mention that Boys State took place last week, also in Troy.

Both groups spent a day in Montgomery seeing the Capitol , the state House, and meeting with the many of the officials that they've spent the week learning about.

Well, this week at the state House, lawmakers met for an update on how Alabama's Arpa funds are being spent.

Arpa stands for the American Rescue Plan Act.

The Covid era law passed by Congress allocating billions to each state for various projects.

This particular oversight meeting focused on funds allocated to the Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

Capitol Journal's Jeff Sanders has that story.

More than $1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds were reviewed by the legislative Arpa oversight Committee at the state House in Montgomery.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs each presented updates to the committee.

I was sitting pretty well, got a lot of money in as we know about.

And we've set up an infrastructure and process that seems to be working actually quite well.

Governor Ivey and lawmakers allocated over $600 million in Arpa funds for water and sewer projects, to be overseen by Adam.

Additionally, more than $500 million was earmarked for broadband expansion under a Decca's jurisdiction.

Lawmakers on the committee commended the progress made by both agencies.

How are you going to get these projects out?

Because everybody is doing it contractors, engineers, the whole nine yards, everybody is looking for those same people.

So the resources, but you all have done an outstanding job.

It's one time money.

We knew that.

As the chairman said, we didn't grow our agencies to manage this money.

And we know it'll be gone by 2026.

So I just applaud the governor's office and the Executive Budget office and, and all of our agencies.

The state's $2 billion in Arpa funding must be allocated by the end of this year and spent by the end of 2026.

Adams funding is supporting 509 water and sewer projects statewide.

Meanwhile, Adecco's funding is being utilized for so-called last mile internet projects connecting approximate 54,000 homes, businesses and entities.

However, lawmakers voiced concerns regarding the nearly $6,000 per connection cost, suggesting that cheaper alternatives like Starlink, a satellite based internet service, could be explored.

What we're putting our money into is viable and long lasting, and if we're putting into technology that's going to be outdated in 3 to 5 years, well, that's a waste.

Adeka officials said they would look into those alternative options on internet connectivity for rural Alabama.

By the time of the committee's next meeting in a few months.

For Capitol Journal, I'm Jeff Sanders.

Big news for Birmingham this week, the Magic City announced the final plans for the new downtown amphitheater that will be located near protective Stadium.

The more than 9000 seat venue will be owned by the Bjcc and operated by Live Nation.

Officials gathered to celebrate the deal.

More than nine years in the making.

Wow.

It was just a few years ago.

We were standing on a mound of dirt about six blocks from here, turning the ground to build protective stadium.

What a huge day in the history of Birmingham that was.

And this is , I think for years I've spoken with many residents in the city, community members in the city, and they talk about they have to drive to Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, for entertainment options, and I think with the completion of this amphitheater from the start of the football stadium, to the redoing of the legacy arena, and now this entertainment option, I feel that Birmingham, Alabama is now complete as it relates to entertainment options.

Pretty cool.

Well, it's that time of the year again when we have to reason with hurricane season.

Preparations are underway along Alabama's Gulf Coast for what could be an eventful tropical season.

Capitol journals Randy Scott reports from mobile.

It's a nice sunny day for the start of June.

In mobile, everyone is looking for the beginning of summer, but they're not excited about dealing with hurricanes.

It's going to be a long season.

It's going to be a potentially busy season and so making sure that you get that information from trusted sources that are there to help and protect and educate versus other sources that might have a lot of information that might not be the necessary information.

Jessica Chase is the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Being that liaison between our office and our partners in the public.

So making sure that our community preparedness, outreach, education as it relates to all things weather, making sure that those programs are in place and adequate for our partners in the public.

Chase adds part of that protection is getting prepared and knowing your evacuation zone, knowing just simply what the terms mean.

What's the difference between a watch and a warning?

What does it mean if you're in a tropical storm watch versus a hurricane watch understanding that terminology and then making sure that you're following those trusted sources.

Being one of the largest cities in Alabama and on the Gulf Coast, mobile officials are watching the weather.

A little closer.

Nowadays, since it's officially hurricane season, there's even a National Weather Service post here in the port city and they say now's the time to get ready, because with names like Erin, Opal and Ivan, storms may come ashore here, but they will travel through.

Hurricane Zeta made landfall as a category three hurricane in southeast Louisiana, but we still had wind gusts measuring 100mph as far north inland in Alabama as the US 80 corridor.

The National Weather Service Birmingham office had to get a new roof because of the wind damage to their roof from Hurricane Zeta, because, ready or not, it's summer and Hurricane season.

We have an 85% chance of above normal season, which is basically means that all of those necessary ingredients are all there for tropical cyclones to develop, and for tropical cyclones to maintain themselves and their relative strength.

It doesn't necessarily indicate how many landfalls we have in mobile .

Randi Scott, Capital Journal covering rural Alabama this week, a more than century old dam in Coffee County will soon be demolished.

The Elba hydroelectric dam was built in 1913 and provided some of the first electricity to parts of Southeast Alabama, but following a flood in 2015, the dam was breached by the pea River and has been shut down ever since.

Now, thanks to a $3.7 million in federal grant money, the dam will be removed.

It's the only dam in the Choctawhatchee and Yellow River's watershed is, which we manage, so if we take that out, then we'll have all free flowing waters, which is better for the environment, better for species, and it's breached and so it's really a safety hazard.

The environment is just better for the environment, free flowing water is better.

It's healthier and it doesn't have as many contaminants.

And it also helps will help prevent flooding, it's allows the nature take its course and the water when it rains.

And we have the big course in our area, we have either way too much water or not enough.

So when we have those very, very heavy rains, it allows nature just to spread it out and not be dammed up.

And then, you know, all come at one time.

Coming up in our interview portion of the show, I'll sit down with Secretary of State Wes Allen to talk about this year's upcoming elections and that ballot harvesting law now in effect after that state representative Andy Whitt will join me to discuss the effort to replace the iconic NASA rocket at the rest area near the state line.

Plus, his thoughts on the gambling package that fell apart in the legislature and later in the show, Alabama Democratic Party vice Chair Tabitha Eisner will join me to offer her party's perspective on the recent Trump verdict and their outlook for the competitive second district congressional race on the ballot this year.

We'll be right back.

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When you're driving or on the go with Capital Journal podcast.

Keep up with what's happening with Capital Journal.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen.

Mr. Allen, thanks for coming on the show.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Wes, please.

Well, we keep it formal here, I appreciate it.

Thank you, lots to talk about, I wanted to start with, really the biggest, one of the biggest bills of this last session that you championed.

It was SB one.

We've talked about it before.

Ballot harvesting kind of got changed throughout the process, but it was a really high priority for the legislature.

Now it's the subject of a federal lawsuit, which I suppose was predictable.

Right, where do we stand with that?

I mean, looking toward this November's election, is that law going to be in place?

It's in place now.

Okay.

It's in effect now.

And, you know, if your viewers recall for a couple of years ago when I was still in the legislature, representative Karnes brought a bill that was a CCA that had to be voted on by the people that required any change to election law has to be implemented six months in advance of an election.

Okay.

So if you remember, back during Covid, there were a bunch of other states that kind of changed the rules right there close to the election.

And so we wanted to make sure that never happened in Alabama.

And so it is in effect now.

And the legislature with the signature of Governor Ivey, got that in effect, way in advance of six months of the election.

What's going to be different?

Describe this law in terms of how it's going to be different now to where what it used to be.

Yeah.

So let me just say first, absentee voting is important.

And we've got to protect absentee voting.

A lot of people depend on it.

And this bill allows any voter to still receive assistance from any person they so choose.

But the person providing the assistance cannot be paid in any way or compensated to help in that process.

Because what we've seen and what we know is there are groups out there.

Third party groups that go around and they target the application portion of the absentee process and either by paying individuals or these third party groups bringing in money to manipulate that process, and that we just don't need that.

And we want to protect the absentee process.

We protect those that are disabled.

We put the federal law language that is in the Voting Rights Act.

If you're disabled, it's in SB one.

It protects those that are disabled.

They can choose anybody they want from start to finish.

Even our military voters, as well.

We want to protect those who vote absentee.

They can choose anybody they want from start to finish.

But the bill just prohibits that.

Anybody can, not the person providing assistance cannot be paid.

And that strengthens absentee voting.

And to make sure that the application is not pre-filled, because there are some groups that want to pre-fill these applications and mail them in.

Yeah, it was the application process that was a part of this.

So it's all about the app?

Yes, all about the application where the situation starts from the beginning.

It's not about the ballot.

It's already illegal to fill someone else's absentee ballot for them or return their ballot for them.

That's already illegal.

But we wanted to address the application portion of the absentee process, and that's what we did with SB one.

We feel it's strong, so no pre-filled applications at all.

But still, the voter can choose anybody they want to help them with the assistance, but the person providing the assistance cannot be compensated, well, like I said, it's in federal court, and I guess that's the attorney general's job to litigate that.

But but are there examples from other states that maybe have done something similar and how have they fared?

Yeah, Tennessee had a very similar, ballot harvesting bill that prohibited the ballot harvesting, and theirs was held up in the sixth circuit.

Okay.

Similar, similar, similar, very similar to what we were trying to do.

Florida.

Same way.

And so we feel like we're on solid, solid ground by what we've done, in, in SB one, well, yeah.

Speaking of Florida, I mean, they, they have like kind of revolutionized the whole absentee mail and, you know, ballot thing, big time.

Yeah.

Well like you said, November elections are right around the corner.

It's going to be a big one, especially we got this congressional race, Alabama, second district.

I mean, it's going to be a national, you know, highlighted race, what goes into your office preparing for a big election like this?

I mean, it's a midterm in terms of Alabama, right?

Like it's a presidential year.

But, you know, governor, secretary of state, all that's not on the ballot.

Legislature.

Right.

But it's the president.

It's all of the members of Congress.

And we've got a big one in Alabama.

So how do you all go and prepare for this election?

Well, we work very closely with the probate judges.

You know, who are the chief elections official in the county?

I used to be one, you know, so I know what that's all about.

Know what those days are like?

We work very closely with the circuit clerks who administer all the absentee voting.

So we work very closely with them, providing them guidance.

We work very closely with sheriffs as well, who are taking care of the chain of custody, custody of the ballots, delivering of the ballots prior, you know, on Election Day and then taking the ballots back to the courthouse after the polls close.

We work very closely to right now, especially with our boards of registrars.

When we're working right now with on voter file maintenance, you know, making sure that somebody, you know, all those things that go into voter file maintenance, because that is the foundation of election integrity.

It really is voter file maintenance, we will, you know, have training.

We offer guidance on to all of these individuals that are the local elected officials.

And without them, let me just say, without them, there would be no elections, you know, we provide guidance, we help in the ways we can, but those probate judges, circuit clerks, shares, boards of registrars and those poll workers on Election day get it done.

And I'm so appreciative to work side by side with them because they work hard and I've seen how hard they work, but yeah, five months away going to be a big one.

A lot of eyeballs are on these offices around the country.

We understand that.

We understand that we want our people in Alabama to have confidence in our elections, to know they're safe, secure, transparent, accountable.

And at the end of the night, you're going to know who wins and loses in Alabama.

We're very proud of paper ballots, very proud that our tabulators are not connected to the internet, and very proud that we, have to have a photo identification when you show up on Election Day.

So we do it right in Alabama.

We're very proud of our system.

I agree with you about the poll workers such special people.

And last time I voted, I voted Huntingdon.

Yeah.

Their capital general viewers.

So that was pretty cool.

Yeah To get pointed out.

Sure.

I remember a couple of years ago, I guess it was the, the 2022 elections because it was right after the legislative redistricting and there were some hiccups in a couple of different areas of like, voters got the wrong ballot or they were voting in the wrong district.

I mean, I guess you can expect some of that after a major redistricting.

How do we avoid that for these congressional races?

Because, again, brand new district, they're in the second a lot of lines have changed.

No no doubt it's a brand new district.

And but here's what we've been working on, through our Help America vote again, federal grant money that comes into our office every couple of years.

We utilize that money to make available to all the counties that wanted it.

GIS software, you know, geographical information software.

So that's a mapping software that sits right down on top of their, county commission maps, their school board maps, and in particular, county, whether or not their county is split in a congressional race.

So it is very detailed about down to I mean, it is very detailed down to the street level.

So we hope, we're working very hard, even now, making sure the counties that want to get in on this can and we've had some counties do that and we're very excited about it because, listen, we don't need someone walking into the precinct and getting the wrong ballot.

That's just something that we do not need, you know, again, talking about confidence in our elections.

And so, we've been doing that since last year when we launched that and we're very proud of that program and very proud of what we're going to see from it.

Most counties remained whole in redistricting, that mobile district that the Mobile County is going to be really interesting.

You talk about street level.

It really is.

Sure.

Pretty granular.

Yeah.

All right.

I saw your press release.

I guess it was yesterday, talking about exposing this, what you said, an attempt to maybe allow non-citizens to vote.

Can you explain what you were talking about here?

Sure So, at the beginning, I'll go back to the beginning.

I got a complaint, a heads up that a deceased individual that had, you know, passed away, received in the mail a voter registration form, a person that had clearly been deceased a couple of years and, from one of our state agencies, Medicaid and so we got to ask them some questions and lo and behold, not only did that happen, but also illegal immigrants, non-citizens are receiving voter registration forms now.

Medicaid and their hands are tied by federal law.

They're just following federal law.

So this is what a federal initiative.

Yeah, this national voter Registration Act of 1993.

Anybody that comes in contact with that agency, whether or not they receive public benefits or public assistance or not, they're going to get a voter registration form.

Okay.

And you couple that with the Biden executive order that he put out in 2021, that basically federalizes mobilizes the entire federal apparatus, all the federal agencies, to become voter registration agencies.

And we just think that's outside the scope of the federal government.

We believe voter registration is a, you know, is a state duty laid out in the Constitution.

But you know, we feel that this is just appalling and really, what needs to be changed is the National Voter Registration Act of 93.

I testified to that when I went to DC.

Yeah.

We aired some of your testimony in front of Senator Britt's committee, the Rules Committee, about election integrity.

And they they that was one of the things we need to reform the nvra for short.

Okay.

And but is it I mean, isn't it illegal for it's illegal for them to register to vote.

Absolutely.

Okay.

But all you're doing is taking their word that they're that they're checking that box that says I am a citizen or is not a citizen because I don't want to give the impression that it's a mass.

No votes for illegal immigrants and everything.

So, I mean, I guess there are penalties for something like that.

Oh, yeah, there's felony provisions.

If somebody attempts to register to vote that's in the country illegally or in the country as a legal non-citizen, you know, they can't vote.

But, the nvra is a problem.

We need to reform it.

What I testified before Congress, you know it.

Just as a side note, it takes four years to remove someone off a voter, off our voter files if they move out of state.

Unless it's a it's a long process.

And, you know, I testified that it needs to go from 4 to 2 years.

We need to bring that down.

There's some other things that we talked about in that testimony in the US Senate, that we believe would help give us the tools to better manage our voter files.

I mean, I asked the United States citizenship and Immigration Services for a list of all legal non-citizens so I could compare that to our voter files.

They turn me down.

They they wouldn't let me have that data that is paid for with your tax dollars to make sure that our voter files are clean and accurate, as much as they can be, to make sure that no non-citizens are on our voter file.

Yeah, well, just like you are just now talking about, it's unfortunate that elections are so controversial.

These days.

We're heading into another presidential election.

I guess we can assume this is going to be, you know, controversy.

I mean, it's not like it's Alabama necessarily.

That's controversial, but those swing states, when they get really close to people, talk about rigged elections and stolen votes and all that kind of stuff, what how can voters how should voters go about, you know, looking at this election with proper perspective, well, just know that Alabama that we have over the past many years, put in place good, strong policy to protect and fortify our elections.

And I want the voters and the viewers that are watching to understand that we've got good people out there and all these counties that care about the elections process.

They want their people in their counties to have confidence in the elections.

And, you know, it is going to be highly contested.

It's going to be a lot of a lot of people watching and going to be a heavy turnout, but in Alabama, again, in Alabama, they can rest assured that we've got good strong systems in place to where, you know, I know people watch television and you see things from other states, and but that's not what's happening in Alabama.

We don't have the mass mail, unsolicited ballots that go out.

And I'll always stand against that.

I'll never be in favor of that.

Mass mail out ballots and unsolicited ballots whatsoever.

You know, I'll never be for automatic voter registration, same day voter registration.

You know, doing away with our photo identification, those things that make us strong in our elections.

We've got to keep them and make sure because that's what gives people confidence.

At the end of the day, it's a big year, big election.

I really appreciate you coming on to explain some of this stuff.

And maybe we'll catch up after the election.

Yes, sir.

Let's do it.

Okay.

Thanks Todd.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Andy Whitt from Ardmore.

Representative, thanks for coming on the show.

Hey, glad to have you.

Thank you for having me today and certainly been a while.

And look forward to spending some time with you today.

Yeah, it has been a while and we've got a lot to talk about.

Obviously I want to get to the gambling issue, but one of the reasons I wanted to have you on is I saw that you have this idea and initiative to replace the iconic rocket off the interstate there at the rest area this recently come down.

Tell me about this.

Is this a realistic.

Yes.

So and I'm glad you used the word iconic because it truly is iconic.

I have said many years that is the welcome mat to the state of Alabama.

And not only did the rocket industry there change North Alabama, but it changed the entire state of Alabama.

So as you drive in, coming down Interstate 65 and you see that large Saturn one B rocket, people got excited and we were quite proud of that, but the problem was that that rocket wasn't wasn't meant to stand in the severe weather for over 40 years in Alabama.

That we see the rain, the storms, etc.

So the original rocket was deemed, unsalvageable.

It basically had the infrastructure internally.

The steel structure had had disintegrated.

The cone itself at the top had actually came apart from the main rocket body.

So it was time it became a very dangerous structure out there, and so, you know, it was owned by NASA.

I want to make sure everyone knows that it's not a state owned project.

So NASA made the decision to take it down, of which they did.

That caused a great uproar, as you can imagine, in Limestone and Madison County, because, again, that was our beacon.

You know, there in North Alabama.

And that was our pride.

That is what turned cotton fields in to the rocket manufacturers of today.

So we had great pride in that.

So two years ago we were able to get a couple of million dollars out of the general fund to begin taking down the rocket, but also, working toward what is a new rocket look like.

What does that replacement look like?

We knew we had to go with a replica.

And this year, along with Governor Ivey's help, we were able to secure an additional $5 million for the rocket, replacement.

So once again, the Ardmore Welcome Center will have an exact replica of that Saturn one B rocket.

So I was going to ask if you wanted to replace it with, you know, those old school rockets or maybe a newer what they're building these days, like ULA and some of those.

And I was surprised we had put out an early survey just just a small survey among a sampling of what people wanted back in Limestone County and overwhelmingly, the people wanted to go back to the Saturn one B rocket.

It was historic.

It put Huntsville and Limestone County and North Alabama on the map.

So that's exactly what we wanted to do is, is to replicate that.

And, you know, as a kid, I remember going over with my grandmother to picnics.

I carried my children over to picnics under the rocket, so we want to make sure that we get the rocket back up and others can enjoy it.

And again, that it's important to us, in north Alabama as USS Alabama and south Alabama.

So that's that's the way we look at it in north Alabama, but it's just not a north Alabama project.

Everyone in Alabama takes great pride in that rocket.

I totally agree, and I understand, like go with the historic model, right?

That's that's our route.

That's our roots.

And I get it.

But what goes into acquiring a rocket I mean, it can't just go to the store.

Yeah.

So yeah.

No you're absolutely right.

And it will have to be fabricated.

We're in the early stages of forming a committee that will oversee that, and then we'll put the rocket out, the replica out for bid for manufacturing and then actually bring it on site, at some time in the future.

The welcome Center obviously will be that will take some time to get it manufactured.

So the Welcome Center will be open, but we'll, we'll have a rocket there, very soon, I hope.

Good to know.

Yeah.

And you look at all those, like, tourist maps and things of Alabama.

You've got the battleship, you've got the rocket.

And so that's just wouldn't be the same.

And you know, when, when the rocket was first talked about being taken down, we heard from Ohio.

We heard from office from California out of the country.

But again, it was in such poor condition that we couldn't ship it anywhere.

We couldn't donate it to somewhere else, it couldn't travel down the interstate system because of the bridges.

And I actually was on site the Saturday morning, filming when they the final stage was taken down and it actually collapsed inside itself.

So I knew at that point that was the right decision to go ahead and take it down.

And let's let's start looking forward to what we can do to replace it.

Well, another Alabama built rocket is heading to outer space right now carrying a Boeing, payload.

So the space legacy continues, continues, and it, as children come across the line or our our students, they're all across the state.

The rocket lessons it inspires kids to reach for the stars and also remember our heritage.

Yeah.

We actually plan on having, Capital Journal on location there at the Space and Rocket Center here in the next, here this fall.

So.

Well, we look forward to hosting you.

And please let me know.

I'd love to be a guest and stop by and say hello.

Absolutely.

Moving on to the issue of gambling.

You were heavily involved in this.

One of the, you know, 3 or 4 members of the House that really focused on this.

I know you're disappointed.

You expressed disappointment at the end of the day, it did not pass in the Senate.

Really kind of fell one vote short.

That conference committee report that y'all produced fell one vote short.

What happened?

What did you expect it to pass when it came out of conference committee?

And if so, yeah, so surprised.

Yeah.

So I really did.

As you know, the House passed the legislation twice, overwhelmingly.

And it came out strong out of the House, we got to Senate that day as some tweaks were made and we went to conference committee.

It came out six, 6 to 0 on the conference committee report.

And you know, we had the bill sponsor, Senator Allbritton, actually on the conference committee to support that piece of legislation and surprising enough to us, he voted against the legislation on the floor.

So it caught us by surprise, not only was it a disappointment to me, I had put in over 16 months of work, hard work into this bill.

We felt that we had a good bill, the Senate obviously thought different that it needed to be watered down, in the spirit of negotiations, the House went into it with good intentions and was faithful in our negotiations with the Senate, we had a lot of, a lot of belief in the Senate that they would hold uphold their end of the bargain and let's get it out for a floor vote.

And we did that in the House, and it got to the Senate and ultimately then failed by that one vote.

I can't tell you why.

I have my suspicions, obviously there's outside influences, but I will tell you that, it was disappointing, but not just to me, but also to all the other House members that voted for it.

And the senators that did support the legislation.

But our biggest loser, once again, is the citizens of Alabama.

We've let them down again, and not allowing them the right to vote on a piece of legislation, for a lottery.

And it was an education lottery.

We had gotten it back to that point.

The Senate had changed it, but we had gotten it back to an education lottery out of that conference report.

And that's what we wanted people to vote on.

And I'm a firm believer that the people should be allowed to vote on it.

And again, they unfortunately have been let down and we'll have to wait another year to see if it comes back up.

Well, yeah, I wanted to ask you about that because just looking at the Senate vote and kind of the math upstairs and what happened, especially around the Birmingham area, you had several senators voting no.

And what I kept hearing from them is, you know, they had been contacted by their constituents having concerns about just any kind of expansion of gambling, just being opposed to the expansion of gambling, corruptive elements, addiction elements.

So can that math change?

And the reason I'm asking you that is, you know, will it come back up?

Because if those votes in the Senate stay the same, then what's the point?

So you know, that would be a question for the Senate.

As I understood, they had two votes going on to the floor and had committed that there was that they had two votes and the votes to pass it, and that two senators flipped on the on the Senate floor, the last day of session, we were also working on a bill, to get it be brought back up, and, and as we work through that process, the house we met and we talked about, hey, we have an opportunity here to bring the bill back up and the House was all for it.

Let's let's vote on it, and I'm very proud of the House members for that.

When it gets up to the Senate, if you notice some senators started taking an early vacation.

They began leaving, not to vote on that.

So you know, I don't you know, that is in the past, I'm not one to harbor hard feelings, but, you know, as my grandmother always said, the only thing more danger , varus, than ignorance is arrogance.

And that was on full display in the Senate.

And that was very disappointing, sounds like some feelings are still fresh, but do you?

It is.

Do you think it will come back up?

You know, if it does, it'll have to come from the Senate.

Okay.

You know, I, I believe that it needs to be brought up in the Senate, and let us bring it back down to the House.

The House has proven that we could pass it and that we're willing to pass it.

The voters want it.

They deserve it.

And they were quite disappointed.

And I think some of the senators are hearing that now from their constituents.

It's funny you say that, because that's the exact same thing the Senate used to say about the House.

That's exactly 3 or 4 years ago.

But, well, look, we're out of time.

But thank you so much for coming on.

And, we'll look forward to seeing you up in Huntsville.

Todd Look forward to it.

Thank you, my friend.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Tabitha Eisner, vice chair of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Tabitha, thanks for coming on the show.

My pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

Well I wanted to have you on because last week we talked with Steve Marshall, the attorney general, at length, about the Trump case.

And obviously he's supportive of Trump.

He traveled to New York to defend him.

So he really gave the Republicans case why they're really upset about this verdict.

I want to have you on to talk about the Democratic perspective.

So talk about that.

What was your reaction and what did Democrats generally think about what's taking place in this New York case?

Sure.

So Democrats in general, you know, care about the criminal justice system working properly.

That's been an issue that Democrats have talked about for a long time.

Concerns about whether the criminal justice system is always fair, but in general, our whole society, our whole American project is built on the notion that we trust our our system of justice and that juries decide and we have an adversarial system where both sides get to bring their argument to the table.

And so things worked as they were supposed to work.

And Donald Trump was given due process.

And he still has avenues available to appeal.

And I'm sure he'll do so.

But let's let's assume justice will prevail unless we have reason to think otherwise, I definitely think they'll the case will go on.

Right.

The appeals and all that.

Marshall talked about that too.

One of the more, persuasive arguments from the Republican side that I've heard, against the Trump case is that this district attorney really pursued Trump.

The man rather than a crime.

Right.

Show me a man and I'll show you the crime.

Kind of that sort of legal maxim, and a lot of people have problem with that saying you should be investigating crimes, not people.

Do you are you concerned about that at all in terms of the precedent that might set, for like, you know, political prosecutions?

Well, we have we have code, we have law.

If, if what Trump did couldn't be described according to one of those codes, one of those laws, then he couldn't be prosecuted.

So the fact that he was means that there was an applicable law.

And a grand jury decided to indict, and the process moved forward, as it always does.

Of course, crimes are complicated, especially white collar crimes, and but there was a law on the books that applied, and none of us are.

I'm not a lawyer.

Me neither, so, you know, we're doing the best that we can here to understand it.

But there was a crime on the books in New York that Trump violated, any concern , across the party that a conviction like this, because it's been such an uproar, might actually help Trump by having some kind of political backlash.

Any any thought about that?

Well, sure.

In the sense that the Republican Party has become a party of victimhood, Republicans love to cry victim.

And that's a fascinating phenomenon.

On to watch Donald Trump loves to be the center of attention.

You mentioned that it seems like, you know, there's concern.

They went after him, the man, instead of the crime.

He loves to be gone after.

He loves to be the center of attention.

He doesn't want people talking about his policies or his actions.

He wants people talking about him.

Trump's a crybaby, nothing thing that ever happens is his fault.

When things don't go his way.

He he always blames someone else.

So that was true.

He was complaining that the 2016 election was rigged before it even happened.

Only when he won was he willing to say the election wasn't rigged.

He complained about the 2020 election before it happened, complained it was rigged, complained that people came after him for January 6th, complained.

You know, when he was impeached, that wasn't his fault.

Nothing is ever Donald Trump's fault.

And he has said out loud, I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and the Republicans would still back me.

And I think he's right about that.

So I'm concerned about the future of the Republican Party.

Now, let me be clear.

I'm a Democrat.

I would much prefer Democrats to be winning, but I like to live in a two party system where both parties are functional and I'm very concerned that the Republican Party has become the party just of Donald J. Trump and his victimhood.

Well, we were talking off air a little bit about the focus on these trials.

You could throw in the Hunter Biden trial, too, because it's just a nonstop legal news at the highest level.

But it does distract from issues, right?

You were talking about some issues that were distracted from I was listening to this.

I guess it was the podcast the other day.

Talking about it might hurt Trump in terms of, you know, he needs to be talking about the border.

He needs to be talking about inflation and things, things that are could be a good attacks on Biden.

And he's not that's not on the news anymore.

But also there are probably some policy issues that, you know, Biden would like to be talking about rather than Donald Trump.

Yes.

I think all of us have things we'd rather talk about than Donald Trump.

And it's exhausting.

And I, I hope the people of this country and of Alabama in particular, will see that former years of talking only about one man and his foibles and his mistakes and his misogyny, is not a good way to spend four years.

We need to move on, and we need to find, we need to find a way to be a country that talks about policy, Attorney General Steve Marshall went to New York to be there for Donald Trump during the trial, to support him, to stand by him, to get his picture taken with the president.

Meanwhile all back in Alabama, there's child labor being used at auto manufacturing plants, here in the state.

And Attorney General Steve Marshall is too busy traveling to New York to do anything about it.

There There is a coal mine where a man was killed and his grandson nearly killed when their home exploded above a coal mine in Azure, Alabama.

Attorney General Steve Marshall could be looking into that, but he's too busy paying attention to Donald Trump.

And the list goes on and on and on of the things that we could be talking about and getting done.

Let's solve the problem at the border.

Let's solve it.

We wanted to via congressional action, but Donald Trump didn't want to solve the problem because he wanted to be able to keep all the cameras on him while he talked about the problem.

He enjoys talking about problems.

He doesn't enjoy finding solutions.

Well speaking of moving on, we will do that.

Now, I wanted to ask you about this really emerging congressional race.

I mean, I really think it's going to be a national, spotlight tight race, one of the handful of races in the country that could decide the balance of Congress.

Alabama's second district.

It's a brand new district.

Nobody's ever run in this before, and it's truly purple.

I mean, maybe on paper, Democrats might have some kind of advantage if you look at that historical data, but not really.

I mean, so it really could go either way.

Let me ask you what needs to happen.

What is Shamari figures need to do?

What is the Democratic Party, you know, need to do itself to win that race?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think the Shamari figures is an excellent candidate who's well poised to win this race.

He has the sort of credentials he has the character to take this on, and I think he's going to be a great campaigner.

We saw in the primary his ability to raise money was unparalleled and his ability to gain support from outside sources was unparalleled .

And so I think he's going to do a great job as a candidate running as a Democratic Party.

Pulling together is what we need to do.

And as anyone who watches Alabama politics knows, pulling together is not what we're best at, but we're we're working on it.

And if nothing else, Democrats come together when there's an opportunity to get a win.

We came together in an incredible way to get Marilyn Landes elected in House district ten.

And the same thing I think will happen for Shamari figures.

All of that fighting that we do is part of our culture and tradition, but we also now know exactly how to come together when we need to support a candidate who has a remarkable and, uncommon opportunity to flip a district, I would imagine there's going to be some national attention in terms of D triple C, maybe even the DNC coming down to, to help organize because as you mentioned, the Democratic Party here in Alabama not the most organized over the last, you know, 2 or 3 cycles.

Hum.

Yeah.

There'll be a lot of investment from outside sources, and that will be true on the Republican side as well.

This will be seen as a as a big deal election.

So it's not just that the Democrats are getting outside funding.

Everyone will anytime it's a, you know, highly competitive race.

That money comes pouring in.

So expect to see that.

And we know from, other folks who have run in those districts that there are volunteer organizations at the local level that are ready to be mobilized and ready to get started and get this win in the Democratic column.

Whenever I talk about this race to folks, one thing that comes up and that is, voter enthusiasm, the concern among Democrats that, you know, right now, the president doesn't have the best numbers in the world, not a lot of enthusiasm on the ground amongst Democrats at the top of the ticket.

And maybe that being a drag on, you know, down the ticket to include Congress.

How can you how can Democrats overcome that and, and get voters enthusiastic and motivated to actually show up and vote?

I hear you, but, I would say that that is not something I'm terribly concerned about because the sort of Democrats who are pushing back on Biden right now are the super active Democrats who have strong opinions about policy nuances, and those are people who are going to vote.

And when they show up to vote, they're going to vote for Democrat.

Whenever possible.

So they come home.

Yeah, those those votes are still going to yeah, those folks are still going to go to the polls.

They're still going to vote even if they don't vote for President Biden.

But I hope they do, and I think they I think ultimately they will, you know, Alabama is a little more complicated, you can do a protest vote in Alabama because it's not likely to affect where the Electoral College.

Yeah the Electoral College.

But I think Democrats understand that controlling Congress is extraordinarily important, particularly for women's rights, particularly for what happens at the border.

We need to be retaining control of Congress.

Well that's a really interesting point.

I'm going to be fascinated to watch this race play out.

We'll have both the candidates on again.

Really enjoyed that during the primary.

So look forward to that.

Speaking of the Democratic Party, you know, we just have this recently concluded legislative session.

Obviously, Democrats are a super minority, you know, compared to the super majority of Republicans.

So it's not as if they run the place.

However, you know, it's significant.

I think that they do get it.

They do notch wins.

You had Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, you know, last year passed that overtime tax cut.

The wage tax cut.

That was a that was a big deal.

It's his bill.

You know a long time ago it used to be, whatever party was in control, the other party didn't pass bills and everything .

So thinking about that, some of these other bills that Democrats have passed, they play in the budget process.

Can those kind of small victories sort of add up over, over time to, you know, maybe rebuilding the Democratic Party?

And you mentioned representative lands and notching victories like that?

Sure.

I do think part of it is perspective.

Give, you know, if you're a Democrat and you work following all of the bills that Democrats put forward, it feels like none of them got passed.

There were a few, especially those led by Representative Daniels that got through.

But there were many good bills that didn't get through or were subsumed by a Republican version of the same bill, meaning that we didn't get credit for example, Senator Merika Coleman had a wonderful bill about extending the period in which former Boy Scouts could sue and that bill was overtaken by a Republican version of the same bill, so that she wasn't able to get that to claim that win.

So I think some of it is about the games that are played among the legislature.

I think that, Representative Daniels is good at finding bipartisan issues and or bipartisan approaches.

So something like reducing overtime pay, appeals to the Republican instinct to reduce taxes, but also appeals to the Democratic instinct to say, working class folks work extremely hard and often bear the brunt of taxation.

So let's make our tax code a little more progressive.

Now, you never heard Representative Daniels describe it as let's make the tax code in Alabama more progressive.

But by framing it as a tax break, the Republicans were able to get it passed.

And I, I suspect that they let it remain representative Daniels bill rather than taking it, because there were some benefits to them doing so, whether that was deals being cut for Democrats to support Republican bills or whether that provided some political cover for them to not be responsible for a tax cut that would only help some Alabamians, well, I will say, both sides, Republicans and Democrats in the legislature really do enjoy talking about the bipartisan nature of a lot of the especially the budgets and things like that.

So maybe there's something to it.

Tabitha, we're out of time.

Thanks so much for coming on and giving this perspective on these issues, and we'll be following them going forward.

My pleasure.

Thanks so much, Todd.

We'll be right back.

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The Longleaf pine is native to the southeastern United States.

Longleaf pine forests once dominated the coastal plain region of Alabama, which covers much of the lower portion of the state.

Extensive logging, clear cutting for agriculture, and urban development have drastically reduced the longleaf ecosystem.

Long leaf pine can take 150 years to become full size, and may live to be 500 years old.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week at the same time right here on Alabama Public Television for our capital Journal team, I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.