A ‘Special’ Election in Alabama

The special 2017 Alabama U.S. Senate election—pitting Republican Roy Moore, left,
and Democrat Doug Jones—is scheduled for [Tuesday,] December 12, 2017.

Next month is the special U.S. Senate election in Alabama for the seat previously held by current U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions. (Replacing Sessions would be handled by election. The interim U.S. senator holding the seat is the state’s 47th attorney general, Luther Strange.)


The Republican nominee is state judge Roy Moore. The Democratic nominee is former U.S. attorney Doug Jones.

Moore is, of course, accused of sexual misconduct toward female minors from his past. And with the election looming—with the Democratic Party in position to flip with the 2018 midterm elections majority control of the U.S. House—the Republicans are not going to want to lose in Alabama because it would mean the U.S. Sense would likely also flip Democratic.


Here is a report, following the above pic, that majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) wants no more Roy Moore. The latter reportedly shot back at the former.

From “Roy Moore, Mitch McConnell each insist the other should quit,” by Alan Fram and Bruce Schreiner, http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/11/13/roy-moore-should-step-aside-mitch-mcconnell-says/cnmqGTO0sQTrUkRQFRaMsM/story.html : “The Senate’s top Republican said Monday [November 13, 2017] that GOP candidate Roy Moore should quit his Alabama [U.S. Senate] race amid allegations he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl decades ago. Moore fired back that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the one who should leave, saying ‘[McConnell] has failed conservatives and must be replaced.’”


The party infighting may be interesting. There is no doubt that Roy Moore may be a deal breaker for the Alabama citizenry. Repeating what I mentioned earlier: If this seat flips Democratic, for Doug Jones, and because Moore was too damaging, it sets up the path for Democrats to win a majority-control pickup of the U.S. Senate to go along with the U.S. House. In theory, the Democrats—who need to flip three Republican-held seats—would retain all its party-held seats, currently 48, and would win pickups from the low-hanging fruit which are Nevada and Arizona. If the special election in Alabama flips, it would likely mean the U.S. Senate will become a majority-control pickup for the Democratic Party.

What Moore has in his favor is voting pattern. Alabama has not elected a Democrat to a U.S. Senate seat since Richard Shelby was re-elected to his second term in 1992. After the Republican wave election of 1994, Shelby changed his party affiliation to Republican and—with re-elections as a Republican beginning in 1998—he remains, now in his sixth term, the state’s senior U.S. senator. So, the GOP can look to this past pattern with Alabama. But, the party leadership appears to want Alabama’s next junior U.S. senator to not be Roy Moore.



Side Notes: 

This blog entry did not publish until about 09:00 a.m. ET because, as a mistake on my part, I did not send it to “Publish”; it was still in the mode of “Draft.” I want to acknowledge that this may happen again. But, typically I intend to present a new given day’s blog entry at 06:00 a.m. ET.

The “Recommendations” list—available in a regular full-screen format (not mobile)—now has two more entries: Niko House and RT’s Redacted Tonight. The links are to their direct YouTube pages.