AL-Sen: Sparks Continue to Fly in Alabama

On Monday, we profiled the potential Senate candidacy of Alabama Agriculture and Industry Commissioner Ron Sparks against Jeff Sessions in 2008.  As you know, we feel that Sparks may be the one guy who can make the Alabama Senate race an interesting, and perhaps even competitive, race next year.  The response so far has been very encouraging–both from the netroots and from state and national Democratic leaders.

The Swing State Project doesn’t want to let up.  I’ve asked Trent over at the Alabama Democratic Party to see if he could dig up any old Ron Sparks campaign commercials, and he kindly obliged with these two TV spots from his 2006 re-election campaign:

As you can tell, Ron Sparks has built up a record of results for the people of Alabama, something that will be an asset to him should he take on Sessions.  There was one comment in the DailyKos discussion of a potential Sparks bid that caught my eye, from countrycat:

Another aspect of his grassroots support that many people aren’t familiar with is this little newspaper that goes out from the Alabama Ag Department every month.

It’s called the “Alabama Farmers & Consumers Bulletin.”  You can get free subscriptions if you live in a rural area (which we do)- and it’s a hoot.  People can place free ads for mules, farm equipment, swap heirloom seeds, etc.

The front page of each paper contains a personal letter from Sparks about what the department has been doing to help farmers and consumers. They’re great and focus on food safety, new markets, the dangers of uncontrolled growth, etc.

This is just the kind of “under the radar” stuff that helps a candidate build a statewide organization.  People know his name, know him, and like him.

The bulletin, which can be viewed online here, reaches 50,000 readers a month.

In a lot of states, Democrats running in statewide races have to overcome severe deficits in rural areas.  While Sparks would still have his work cut out for him in a Senate campaign, he already has built up a relationship with the rural and agrarian constituencies in Alabama through his populist approach.  That name recognition and positive association gives Sparks a leg up over virtually any other potential Democratic challenger to Sessions.

Will Sparks take the plunge and throw his hat in the ring against Sessions?  I can’t give you an answer there, but I can tell you that Monday’s netroots buzz was warmly received by the Alabama Democratic Party, the DSCC, and even Sparks himself.  Stay tuned.

4 thoughts on “AL-Sen: Sparks Continue to Fly in Alabama”

  1. I think that races and candidates like this are tremendously important, because if you look at the South, the numbers are really ugly for us.  I’m not telling anyone here anything they don’t know, but:

    In the 13 Southern states (basically going east of OK and TX, and south of KY and VA), the breakdown in United States Senators is 21-5 Republican.  That includes the somewhat unexpected victory of Jim Webb last year, and Bill Nelson getting lucky enough to run against Cruella da Harris and not anyone much stronger.  Mary Landrieu, as has been discusssed at length here, is far of assured re-election.  Thank God for Arkansas.  Having such weakness here leaves us almsot no margin of error in other places if we want to hold and build on our Senate majority.  The sad thing is many/most (with important exceptions) of those 21 Republican seats are largely uncontested.

    Here’s some even uglier numbers, from the 2004 election:

      -Mississippi  14%
      -Alabama  19%
      -South Carolina  22%
      -Georgia  23%
      -Louisiana  24%
      -Tennessee  34%

      Those are the percentages of the white vote won by Senator Kerry.  Except at a very local level (and occasionally a Governor), the Democratic “brand name” among white southerners has been wholly rejected.  This, at a time that black southerners continue to support Democrats at levels as high or higher than blacks in other parts of the country.

      To me, it seems like Ron Sparks has the type of populist message that:  1) will continue to win the support of black voters, 2)  can attract white voters, and 3) fits completely consistently with the national party.  Improving our “brand name” in the region is going to be long and hard (I’ve largely given up on that happening at a national level here in Indiana!!) — but it begins by running and supporting good candidates, even if they have a very difficult challenge ahead of them.

  2. I opine on my blog:

    Given that I have never seen a campaign commercial for Agriculture Commissioner before, I must say they were phenomenal – especially when Sparks notes in the first ad that he “wrote the nation’s first anti-terrorist plan to protect our food supply.” If he did that as Agriculture Commissioner, imagine what he could do as Senator! The second ad deftly connects the agricultural sector with energy independence and how it can benefit Alabama’s farmers. I must say, I’m getting pretty enthused about a possible Sparks bid. (And I think the commercials were effective in Alabama, too – Sparks went from a 51% election victory in 2002 to a 59% re-election victory in 2006.)

    59% Sparks got in 2006.  In 2002, a terrific year for Republicans electorally, Sessions only got 59% against seemingly token opposition.  Getting enthused!

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