But Republicans Seem More Enthusiastic About Voting

Democrats hold a 48 percent to 44 percent advantage for the week of July 19-25 in the Gallup Poll’s tracking of registered voters’ preferences for the 2010 congressional elections. This marks the second straight week in which Democrats have held an edge of at least four percentage points.

Although Republicans have moved to a four-point or higher advantage on three separate occasions, this is the first time either party has held an advantage of that size for two consecutive weeks. Republicans and Democrats have been tied on average across the 21 weeks of Gallup’s tracking.

Republicans continue to be substantially more enthusiastic about voting, however, as they have been since March. Their current 18-point lead in voting enthusiasm is down slightly from last week’s 23-point lead, but it remains slightly higher than the average 16-point lead they have enjoyed since tracking began in March.

Independents continue to be more likely to say they will vote for the Republican rather than the Democratic candidate, an indicator that does not bode well for Democrats.

Both Republicans and Democrats maintain more than 90 percent allegiance for their party’s candidates.

Exactly what is behind the uptick in support for Democrats is not clear, although last week’s gains coincided with the passage of the financial reform bill.

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The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

The political career of Birmingham Congressman Artur Davis is over.

Davis made a show out of trying to become Alabama’s first black governor in one of the most bizarre and ridiculous political campaigns in the state’s history.

“I have no interest in running for political office again,” Davis told a reporter for a Birmingham newspaper. “The voters spoke in a very decisive way across every sector and in every section of the state. A candidate that fails across-the-board like that obviously needs to find something else productive to do with his life.”

Glynn Wilson

Artur Davis sucking on a cocktail in Homewood

In the interview, Davis blamed himself for his loss. He was trounced by Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks 62 percent to 38 percent in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, in spite of claiming a 30-point lead in the polls when he forced the governor’s race to start early within days of President Barack Obama’s 7-point victory in the presidential race in November, 2008.

Davis started running well before Christmas and began making political enemies right away by bypassing the state Democratic Party’s committee system to choose judicial nomination recommendations to the Obama administration.

He made it clear from the outset that he had a different idea of how to run a campaign than Obama, his Harvard Law School cohort, and he proved to be an ineffective campaigner with no vision for the state’s future.

Obama ran an aggressive progressive campaign utilizing a sophisticated Web site and e-mail alert system to reach out to supporters and raise money over the Internet. Not only did Davis never develop an impressive online presence, he refused to answer questions of real journalists working for the Web and instead tried to kiss up to inexperienced bloggers who sucked up to him instead of asking tough questions.

The Birmingham paper’s analysis claims Davis had been praised as an orator, without sighting a single legitimate source to back up the claim.

In my own dealings with Davis, I found him to be an ineffective communicator who obviously learned his politics during his time in Congress in the Bush era, when Karl Rove could just write a sound bite and Bush would say it and his base would believe it to be true, in spite of no basis in fact for the assertion.

The Birmingham paper claimed to be shocked that Davis lost the black vote, but I had been predicting that outcome for more than a year when it became obvious early on that Davis was going after the white business crowd and shunning issues of concern to blacks and Democrats.

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Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks has easily defeated former Birmingham Congressman Artur Davis in the Democratic Primary race for governor of Alabama, according to voting returns. With 77 percent of the precincts reporting, Sparks leads Davis by an overwhelming 65 percent to 35 percent, according to AP, the Birmingham News and Politico.

Earl Hilliard, Jr. is running for Congress as a Democratic candidate in the 7th district of Alabama.

Learn more about Earl Hilliard, Jr. by visiting his website: HilliardForCongress.com.

A new poll conducted by Montgomery-based Matrix LLC for the Ron Sparks campaign, corroborated by two independent polls, shows Sparks with a one-point lead over Rep. Artur Davis, the first poll during the election to show Sparks with a lead with a week to go before the June 1 vote.

Artur Davis blew a 30-point lead at the beginning of the race to fall behind by one point with one week left in the election, according to a press release from the Sparks campaign.

“We must capitalize on this momentum,” his campaign urged in an e-mail alert.

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State Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr. announced Sunday he’s sponsoring a public health care forum on the provisions of President Obama’s new health care law from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, at the Avondale Public Library.

“The new health care law is a great step forward. However, if our objective is for everyone to have the same, high quality, affordable health care, the bill doesn’t cover everybody, isn’t the same for everybody, and may not be affordable for many people,” Rep. Hilliard said. “Therefore, it’s a glass both half full and half empty. When I am elected, my job will be as an advocate for its improvement.”

J. Walden Retan, M.D., retired Birmingham physician and founder of Health Care for Everyone – Alabama, will be the speaker and will provide a timetable for implementation of each new provision, some of which will begin in early June.

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Calls 
for 
Increased
 Funding 
for
 Training
 Additional 
Nurses


Rep.
 Earl
 Hilliard
 Jr.

 praised
 the
 nation’s
 nurses
 Saturday for
 their
 role
 in
 health
 care
 for
 Americans
 and
 called 
for
 additional 
funding 
for 
the 
training 
of
 nurses 
to 
serve 
the
 demand created by the Obama administration’s new health care la..



The
 Bureau
 of
 Labor
 Statistics report
s that
 Registered
 Nurses
 rank
 high
 in
 the
 Top
 10
 Professions
 with
 the
 largest
 projected 
job
 growth 
in
 the near 
future.




“As
 Americans
 age,
 there
 is
 a
 greater
 need
 for
 trained
 nurses.
 
 Yet
 our
 nursing
 schools
 are
 being
 forced
 to
 turn
 away
 thousands
 of
 qualified
 applicants
 because
 there
 are
 not
 enough
 instructors
 to
 teach
 these
 students,” Hilliard said. “Today
 I
 call
 for
 increased
 funding
 for
 higher
 education
 for 
our 
nurses.”


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Saturday in Greene County

Rep. Earl Hilliard, Jr., announced a Community Health Care Fair to be held Saturday, May 15, at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Mt. Hebron, Ala., from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Community Health Care Fair will offer free blood pressure screening, cholesterol screening, HIV, screening, blood glucose testing, and hearing screening. The Fair will provide food and award door prizes, as well as a Moon Walk for children.

Dr. J. Walden Retan, M.D., will hold informal discussions about the provisions of President Obama’s new health care law and what they mean for the public at large. These new provisions will be implemented on a schedule, and Dr. Retan will provide it to those who attend the Fair. Dr. Retan is the founder of Healthcare for Everyone – Alabama, an organization dedicated to health care reforms that benefit the public interest.

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State Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr.’s two-part legislative package to improve school safety was signed into law April 30 by Gov. Bob Riley, and will become law July 1, according to a press release from the Hilliard for Congress campaign.

Hilliard’s legislation requires that each contract awarded for construction of a new public school include a safe space or hallway where students, teachers, and educational support staff can gather during an emergency. Last year, Gov. Riley also signed Rep. Hilliard’s legislation, also to take effect July 1, that established a structure for school safety plans, which mandates that local boards of education adopt school safety plans and protocols.

“These new laws involve collaboration among community law enforcement, emergency responders, teachers, and non-teaching employees, to create a safety plan that fits each individual school,” Hilliard said.

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