Club for Growth is bad for Alabama
https://www.al.com/opinion/202...bad-for-alabama.html
If you want to know what Hell will be like, take a long hard look at the final weeks of a political campaign. Breathe in the stench of desperation and resultant lies. It explodes when the out-of-state PACs start flooding our hometowns with nasty ads to accomplish the agendas of the millionaires who fund them.
The Swamp, usually content to stay in DC, seeps into our districts.
That's what Club for Growth is currently doing to the two southernmost congressional districts in Alabama. They are pouring more than $2 million into the Republican congressional runoffs in AL-01 and AL-02.
Don't miss this: the amount this conservative PAC is spending to defeat two pro-business, pro-life conservatives in South Alabama is more than twice what they're spending against all Democratic candidates nationwide. In the 2018 midterms, they spent more against Republicans than against Democrats.
Who are these people, and why are they suddenly so passionate about what goes on in South Alabama?
Club for Growth is funded by a cadre of zillionaires from places like Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, and beyond. By a country mile, their most prominent donor is a guy named **** Uihlein, who makes shipping and office products you've probably seen under the brand name U-Line. Mr. Office Products has dumped more than $16 million in the Club for Growth kitty in the last year.
Read: Not from Alabama. Not concerned about Alabama's particular needs. Not in any way accountable to the people of Alabama.
Why is a "conservative" group radically committed to defeating two decidedly conservative candidates in favor of others who--based on declared policy positions--are virtually identical to their opponents? Why doesn't CFG trust Alabama Republicans to pick their primary winners, and dedicate their resources to making sure conservative candidates prevail in November over Democrats in swing districts?
It’s because Chicago and Philadelphia business people have an agenda that serves the interest of their businesses. They loathe Trump’s tariff plan. They think the Farm Bill is a government handout that Congress should slash. They think projects like widening the shipping channel in Mobile Bay--maximizing the capacity of the port and securing tens of thousands of Alabama jobs--is a waste. They also want to get rid of federally-backed flood insurance.
You see, hurricanes aren't a problem in Chicago.
And to accomplish their goals, they need a certain number of sitting Congressmen fully on board.
How do out-of-state fat cats line up Alabama Congressmen to do their bidding? They search the world over and find candidates who need the money. They check them out and decide who will play ball, and then they show up with sacks of cash and a low regard for the truth. They firebomb the district with propaganda in the final days of the campaign, hoping to sway undecided voters.
If they are successful, when the smoke clears, the guy they super-funded knows that he owes his political life to them. Hard to say "no" to the folks who put you over the wall. And that's how an out of state group gains tremendous sway over Alabama's congressional representation.
No man can serve two masters.
When these races in the two southernmost districts of Alabama were in the hands of the people who knew the candidates best, they were pretty clear. Jeff Coleman (AL-02) and Jerry Carl (AL-01) have the endorsements of the Alabama Farmers Federation, the Business Council of Alabama, countless mayors, chambers of commerce, and on and on. And to be clear, Alabama business and industry leaders aren’t doing either of these guys a favor with their endorsements. Each organization has a mandate from its members to use its political influence to benefit their own. Alabama’s own.
Both Coleman and Carl are either largely self-funded or funded by donors within the state. Donors who have a vested interest in seeing Alabama prosper. But the Club for Growth guys decided they knew better, and that they would spend any amount of money to defeat them. I promise you this: a Chicago billionaire doesn’t give a whit if Mobile loses jobs because their port can’t handle them, or if Wiregrass peanut farmers get kicked in the teeth by gutting of the Farm Bill. He never has to look these people in the eye.
So CFG hires some folks to photoshop Jerry Carl to look like a cartoonish “Swamp Creature” and spends more than a million dollars drowning his district in that imagery. (A PAC calling a homegrown businessman a “swamp creature” is rich.) They photoshop a picture of Jeff Coleman onto a donkey flanked by Nancy Pelosi and spend a fortune telling you on repeat that they are birds of a feather. (Real life: Jeff Coleman is so conservative, Nancy Pelosi would cross the street to avoid speaking to him.) It’s all so ridiculous that it would be funny...if it didn’t sometimes work.
But it does. And even if you generally agree with Club for Growth’s free-market philosophy, you should never approve of their methods. Like many PACs, they lie and destroy what little civility a race has left in the final days. As a Christian, I will never accept that. I will not reward it. What’s more, they spend far more money running negative ads against the opponents of their chosen candidates than on positive ads extolling the virtues of said candidates. Again, not exactly a study in integrity.
The only thing that can neutralize the landslide of toxic messaging and attempted power grab of a group like Club for Growth is a populace that decides to reject them. To reject deceptive, gutter politics coming from them or any other.
We should be indignant when folks come to Alabama to "explain" our own people to us. We've been here a long time, Club for Growth, and we haven't been asleep. We know these guys. We understand how they live their lives, how they run their businesses, and what they stand for.
It is insulting that you attempt to tell us what ruby red, deeply conservative Alabama needs. It is revolting that you drive the political discourse so far into the ground that it can smell brimstone. You want a project that desperately needs some conservative attention? I've got one for you; it's in your backyard.
It’s called Chicago. You should go get on it. Because we’ve got this.