The Most Influential People and Orgs in Alabama
January 26th, 2009Click here to make your nominations of the most influential people and organizations, good and bad…
Editors at the three Alabama newspapers owned by the New York Times company released their list of the 12 most influential people in the state on Sunday, and as one would expect, it’s all the usual suspects.
Interestingly, there’s no newspaper publishers or editors on the list, no scientists or TV personalities either. Maybe there should be. No women. One African-American.
Even though the papers don’t rank them, Dr. Paul Hubbert, the long-time leader of the powerful teachers lobby, the Alabama Education Association, tops the list, according to the report by Dana Beyerle in The Tuscaloosa News, the Florence Times-Daily and the Gadsden Times.
There’s also trial lawyer Jere Beasley; David Bronner, the investment wizard of the Retirement Systems of Alabama; Robert “Bobby” Lowder of Colonial Bank and the Auburn University Board of Trustees; Charles McCrary, president of Alabama Power Company, Jerry Newby, president of the Alabama Farmers Federation (better known as ALPHA); Malcolm Portera, chancellor of the University of Alabama System; Joe Reed, the only African-American on the list, the long-time executive secretary of AEA and leader of the Alabama Democratic Conference; Bob Riley, the governor; Dowd Ritter, chairman and CEO of Regions Financial Corporation, the state’s largest bank; Nick Saban, the football coach at Alabama; and last but not least, Richard Shelby, the state’s senior U.S. senator.
Noticeably absent from the list is Birmingham Congressman Artur Davis, who says he wants to be Alabama’s first black governor.
We’ve got an idea for a different sort of influentials list. On our list, there are not just a bunch of rich, powerful white guys for the most part involved in “economic development” and education, where Alabama usually ranks near the back of the pack nationally anyway, along with banks, electricity generation and freaking insurance. Boring…
Our list, which is now open for further nominations, focuses more on people who have actually made a positive difference in Alabama not just from some comfortable, corporate board room.
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E.O. Wilson gets my vote for Most Influential Scientist from Alabama, as well as the Top Most Influential Person Overall, even though he doesn’t live here anymore. He was born and raised here and Time magazine named him to the list of Top 100 Minds of the 20th Century and for many years has been a biology professor at Harvard and head of the Zoology museum. He’s won two Pulitzer Prizes for Science writing.
If that basketball star from Leads, Charles Barkley, ever decides to run for governor, we’re going to run E.O. Wilson against him : )
But we may as well admit it. For Most Influential Sports Personality, Barkley’s name would have to be on the list. (Although that little DUI incident out in Arizona recently may taint his image a tad, although another one on the list, Kenny “The Snake” Stabler, got the charges dropped against him, so he may very well pop back up on the radio broadcasting Alabama football games again next year.
To get the ball rolling on taking your votes for these nominations, I asked Pam Miles of Madison, Alabama, to make the first nominations to kick off this contest, since I will be the first to place her name under consideration for the Most Influential Email List in Alabama.
Ms. Miles is a tireless member of the Alabama Democratic Party executive committee. She worked for former Governor Don Siegelman in the past and she helps run the Computer Doctor business with her husband Jeff Miles, keeping all those scientists’ computers running in Huntsville, the state’s most technologically sophisticated city.
She nominates former Governor Don Siegelman as the Most Influential Politician and Person from Alabama, saying he, “will forever be the most influential person this state has ever produced.”
Siegelman served in all four of Alabama’s top statewide elected offices over the past couple of decades, including Secretary of State, Attorney General, Lt. Governor and Governor.
“No other person, I dare say, will ever do that again,” she said.
“He built more than 1,000 schools and brought in several car manufactures, including Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and expanded Mercedes Benz,” she said. “He set laws into place to protect workers, women, children, animals and the environment. And that’s only just scratching the surface of what he has done for the people of Alabama.”
Ms. Miles also nominates former governor and Lt. Governor Jim Folsom Jr. to the list as well, for bringing in the first automobile manufacturing plant to Alabama, Mercedes Benz as it was called then, which turned Alabama into a home for many of the import manufacturers. While he was governor, he also ordered the removal of the Confederate Battle flag from the State Capitol.
Then there’s Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks, for his Cuban trade efforts and “trying to keep Alabama farmers financially solvent in times of unprecedented drought and through many hurricanes.”
For the Most Influential Independent News Organizations and Top Journalists, she also nominates Glynn Wilson and The Locust Fork News-Journal, which she says “by far tops my list of independent news sites. The work on the Siegelman Case alone would put this alternative independent number one!”
She adds: “Have you guys caught the Darwin series? Also the photographs and articles on the environment in Alabama are second to none.”
She nominates Roger Shuler and his Legal Schnauzer site for Top Blog. “In constant search of justice for ALL, this blog captured my attention and kept it,” she says.
For the infamous category of Worst Most Influential Person or Organization in Alabama, she calls it a tie between U.S. Attorneys Alice Martin and Leura Canary: “For reasons we all know.”
Since I think there should be a category for the Most Negatively Influential Person or Organization over time and maybe also Worst Newspaper, I hereby nominate Victor Hanson III, the publisher of the Birmingham News, whose radical and strange religious views and his right-wing, conservative-Republican news outfit has done more damage to this state than perhaps any other institution next to Alabama Power for all it’s air and water pollution.
The botched investigation of former Lt. Governor Bill Baxley in 1986 that led to the election of Republican Governor Guy Hunt, that chicken farmer, Amway salesman and Primitive Baptist preacher, did more harm to the state’s image almost than Fob James, whose monkey imitations, making fun of Charles Darwin and science in general, and his unconstitutional push for prayer in the schools, did more to make people laugh at Alabama than George W. Bush did to embarass Texas around the world, thanks to the Dixie Chicks, who went on to win the top Grammy award. I nominate the Dixie Chicks for Top Band of the Bush Years. I suppose we should add other musical categories.
But we have to mention as a contender the Mobile Press Register and Eddie Curran, along with the Birmingham News’s Pulitzer Prize winner Brett Blackledge, as Worst Newspaper and Worst Journalists in the World, for going right along with the most blatantly corrupt political prosecution in the country by the Bush-Rove-Ashcroft-Gonzales Justice Department.
In the category for Top Industrial Polluter, the name Monsanto should also be on the list for turning Anniston, Alabama, into one of the Worst 10 Places in the Country to Live, along with Alabama Power, for giving Alabama its Number One ranking in mercury pollution.
For the Most Influential Non-Profit Group and/or Top Environmental Group, I nominate the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, for getting out there and patrolling the river and suing polluters and fighting for citizen’s rights under the law — and winning.
For Most Influential Environmentalist, I suppose you would have to nominate Pat Byington. He got kicked off the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s advisory committee by Gov. Bob Riley awhile back, but he still works for the Wilderness Society and still publishes the Bama Environmental News blog.
Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper himself, should also be nominated, along with David Whiteside, a founding board member.
If you have suggestions for categories or nominees, click here to post them in the comments section. We may formalize this by narrowing down the list at some point and posting a poll where you can vote. You can say whether you want to vote in the mini-poll.
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January 26th, 2009 at 2:35 am
From samesther via e-mail:
Hey, look who’s on Alabama’s “Most influential people” list. Bob Riley. I tried to find something he has actually accomplished, but alas, I couldn’t find anything.
Oh, sure. There are loads of things he can do like appoint people to all kinds of positions, but as for actual accomplishments, I couldn’t find any. On the other hand, his predessor, Don Siegelman, governor from 1999 to 2003 brought in five automobile plants, started 1000 new school construction projects, built roads and bridges in every county – without raising taxes.
In the Riley column, would stealing elections and having ties to criminals like imprisoned Jack Abromoff count?
January 26th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
This just in from Ivan via e-mail:
There’s at least one good thing about the list of 12 most influential people in Alabama. U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions didn’t make it. Give the selectors credit for that.
Anybody want to start a new list — 12 biggest state-wide Crapheads in Alabama? Here’s 3 candidates. Feel free to add, subtract or excoriate.
No 1 — Senator Jeff Sessions. He once offered an amendment to bail out Loyds of London investors and couldn’t even get a majority of Republicans to support it when he brought it to the senate floor. Couldn’t get confirmed as a federal judge.
No. 2 — State elected official (can’t think of her name) who funneled campaign funds to her family. Isn’t she the same one who wept huge tears about how important her family is few years ago when she held a different office and when she was caught not obeying a residency requirement in state law or constitution?
No. 3 — Mayor of Birmingham Larry Langford, who disgraced the office and city with his showboat “secret” plan under armed police guard to “save” B’ham., and who whored his votes in a previous office away for a new suit and a pair of shiny shoes.
ivan
January 26th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Also from Ivan via e-mail:
Dowd Ritter sold Amsouth bank to Regions financial, then became boss of Regions. Anyone who goes to analyses of at least part of the reason Regions stock has slid from more than $20 a share to less than $5 finds out because it paid way too much for Amsouth. So maybe the editors who selected him chose him because he pulled off the biggest commercial trick ARTIST act involving stock deals in Alabama. And, now, he’s boss of the combined operation.
Too bad no Alabama paper has the desire to go into this that I’ve read about. Key reporter question to board members of Regions — Didn’t you let Dowd Ritter take you for a ride on the Amsouth purchase?
ivan
January 26th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
From Sarah Smith via e-mail:
Thanks to Gov. Wallace and the HOUSE, no other Governor will be able to set the record of GEORGE C. WALLACE…4 terms!
We sure DO NOT need RILEY anymore…
January 26th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Thanks for the BWRk recognition and kind words, Glynn!
Best,
Charlie
PS: I too prefer your list…
Charles Scribner
Director of Development
Black Warrior Riverkeeper
712 37th Street South
Birmingham, AL 35222
http://www.BlackWarriorRiver.org
January 26th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
From Nelson Brooke via e-mail:
Thanks for inserting the environment into the equation Glynn. It is too often overlooked.
I nominate David Ludder for Top Environmental Attorney, who has fought tirelessly to protect Alabama’s environment for decades.
I nominate Troy King and Bob Riley for Worst Most Influential Person.
I nominate ADEM and the Alabama Legislature for Worst Most Influential Organization.
Best,
Nelson Brooke
Riverkeeper/Executive Director
Black Warrior Riverkeeper
http://www.blackwarriorriver.org
January 26th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
From J Zylman via e-mail:
Add:
Troy Boy King
Roy (he’s back and running for Governor) Moore
From Occupied USA
Rev. Jack Zylman
Southside, Birmingham
January 27th, 2009 at 1:37 am
I concur with your nominations of Nelson Brooke and David Whiteside. I have particularly liked a lot of the videography that David Whiteside has been doing as part of MTV’s “Choose or Lose” series. Black Warrior Riverkeeper has also put out several videos dealing with river issues that are very powerful and eye opening….
great work guys!
January 27th, 2009 at 8:08 am
[...] Title: The Locust Fork News-Journal » Blog Archive » The Most Influential … [...]
January 27th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Motion seconded for Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Any other environmental groups that should be included? Other non-profits on other issues?
January 27th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I nominate David Whiteside for most influential environmentalist. David’s continuous work for Black Warrior Riverkeeper, especially community outreach and video production, has made Black Warrior Riverkeeper one of the most popular and successful non-profits in Alabama. I also agree with the nomination of Black Warrior Riverkeeper as most influential non-profit environmental group.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Thanks Lauren. Noted. Now if I could get that Word Press poll widget expanded, we could start the voting : )
You can now vote on whether you think it’s a good idea to vote on the top right hand side of the blog page…
January 27th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
There are some things that will always he important to Alabamians. Music, food, football, and water. With the recent water levels in danger due to drought, Alabama needs to focus more on real problems that affect its population. The work done by the riverkeeper is essential to our clean watersystems and ultimately our drinking water.
I urge all to educate themselves on the BWRk and back the nomination.
Cheers to music and clean water for Alabama.
January 27th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I second the nomination of David Whiteside for most influential environmentalist. His outreach makes it seem like Black Warrior Riverkeeper is everywhere, helping introduce its cause to new people every day.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:00 am
We’ll keep the nominations open for awhile yet. I think there’s work to do on this list, then there’s figuring out a detailed poll…
In any event, this one’s making the rounds of the powerful, on both sides, so it’s having an impact.
Keep reading, and shaking it up…
January 28th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Hey Glynn,
For your viewing pleasure, our latest PSA. Features Jack Johnson and should get FREE airtime on TV and Radio. 30 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFkygBjszRw
Water-man and Multi-Platinum recording artist, Jack Johnson recently filmed a 30 second video for Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER at Bonnaroo 2008. Produced by David Whiteside. Cinematography by Robert F. Kennedy III and Arthur Crenshaw. Edited by Arthur Crenshaw and David Whiteside.
Special thanks to Kim and Jack Johnson, everyone at Brushfire Records, Emmett Malloy, Kizzy O’Neal and Scott “Cad” Cadwallader, Bonnaroo, AC Entertainment, Jonathan Mayers, Superfly Productions, Ari Emanuel, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:53 am
I nominate David Whiteside as one of the most positive and influential people in Alabama. His dedication and passion for the environment is reassuring and inspiring.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
My nomination is definitely for a very loved friend David Whiteside. It’s been an amazing journey getting to know David and his team with the Black Warrior River Keepers and amongst his other organizations that he supports. They have changed the views of many people on how and what issues we have in dealing with our water supplies and keeping it clean for not only our health value but ultimately for our mission to protect and restore the waters of the Black Warrior River. David Whiteside’s dedication has earned my nomination for most influential person in Alabama!
January 29th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I second the nomination!!!
Enviromental issues are critical to all of us.
David is a doer in the environmental issues that are important to us-all especially in ALABAMA
marquerite
January 29th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
David sees what is right and makes it happen. He has taken such leadership in bringing popular culture and its power to bear for good for the Black Warrior River and has successfully made it “MY river” for thousands of young Alabamans. David has connected our youth to our precious waters and our environment as a whole and is clearly one of the most influential people in Alabama.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I definitely second, third, fourth, and fifth that nomination for the Locust Fork as best news publication in Alabama on or offline.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Melissa. Just wait ’till we fully get the budget together for this. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet : )
January 30th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
From samesther via Pam’s List:
We should add Lilly Ledbetter’s name to the list of 10 most influential people in Alabama – right under that of Don Siegelman, who is in first place.
This looks good:
Don Siegelman
Lilly Ledbetter
Jim Folsom
January 31st, 2009 at 11:24 am
David Whiteside….Definitely gets my vote!!!!!!!!
January 31st, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Too bad this poll will be weighted by whoever can spam for the most vote requests.
I personally would vote for you, blog man. Keep up the good work.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Thanks.
It’s certainly not designed or intended to be a scientific poll, just a test to see who is online in Al-a-bama. Notice NO votes for ANYONE on the original newspaper list : )
That should tell you something…
February 1st, 2009 at 9:03 am
I too would like to nominate David Whiteside and his incredible organization Black Warrior Riverkeeper for their tireless struggle to protect Alabama’s rivers and waterways.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:37 am
I agree with the nomintation of David Whiteside as most influential person in Alabama and Black Warrior Riverkeeper as most influential non-profit. Their efforts fighting for cleaner water are known nationwide.
February 7th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Agree with Black Warrior Riverkeeper and its board members.