Feb 17, 2010

40 Years later, still a stench.

     During next Monday and Tuesday's WAKA/ CBS-8 News at 10:00, I'll have a report on the 40th anniversary year of what many believe to be the dirtiest election in Alabama history, maybe in U.S. history. It was the 1970 Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, with George Wallace and Albert Brewer the top voter getters. Neither received enough to win outright, so a runoff was required.
   We talked with George Wallace, Jr. (left side photo), who says there are still hard-feelings about that election, with an archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, with CBS-8 Political Analyst Steve Flowers, and with Tom Radney (bottom photo), a Democrat who was a candidate for Lt. Governor on the same ballot.


 "Dirty Politics", a special two-part report on WAKA, CBS-8 in Montgomery.






(The definitive work on the election was written by Alabama native Jeff Frederick, who was kind enough to talk with me about the story. The title of the book is Stand Up For Alabama.)

2 comments:

  1. I am certainly looking forward to your story of the Wallace-Brewer run-off of 1970. I remember how nasty it got. As a young man at the time, I'm sure George, Jr. has a more distinct & definitive opinion of what all went down that year.

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  2. How well I remember that election. I was only 14 years old and I still think of Albert Brewer as the only real governor that Alabama has had during my lifetime - even though he only served 2 years to complete Lurleen's term. It was one of those cases in which Alabama chose to be sidelined rather than progress.

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