Some Thoughts About The Alabama Candidates for U.S. Senate and Governor, 17 Weeks Before the Primary Elections.

 

     The TV is filled with commercials for the Republicans trying to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Richard Shelby, and for Governor. 

     TV stations are delighted with the influx of cash during the Covid-depressed economy, but as the elections approach, they'll be charging less. By FCC regulation, candidates pay the LOWEST rate charged over the recent past*, and that tends to depress the financial benefit.

     It also keeps available commercial slots filled, blocking  advertisers who would pay higher rates. That's especially true in a General Election in November, close to Christmas, though not so much in the current primary season in the Spring.

• One candidate with a POW military background boasts of his support for Trump, even though Trump blasted GOP Senator and years-long POW John McCain. Trump dissed McCain, saying he preferred "candidates who did not get caught" prisoner.
• A GOP primary candidate for Governor is running a commercial that says "Alabama ranks dead last in education. Alabama deserves so much better". Uh, let's see. There have been Republican Governors for how many decades? So is the answer to poor education another republican?
• Another of the primary candidates blasts "the secular left that wants to destroy our country...they think there are fifty genders". (Uh, please name ten for us?) "...and they want to teach this crap to our children..." (Do you want our children to use that language?)

And then there's the candidate who promises "there's no step too high for a high stepper"...and Alabama is working again, and the best is yet to come". (And you have been in public office for how many years? 20, right?)

 

*"...in the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election, legally qualified candidates get the lowest rate for a spot that is then running on the station within any class of advertising time running in any particular daypart. Candidates also get the benefit of all volume discounts without having to buy in volume – i.e., the candidate gets the same rate for buying one spot as your most favored advertiser gets for buying hundreds of spots of the same class."

     The Alabama Primary elections, Republican and Democratic, are on Tuesday, May 24th. There are two Democratic candidates for Governor, and seven Republican candidates, including incumbent Kay Ivey.