Alabama Supreme Court race has lawyers buzzing

Mobile County Circuit Presiding Judge Charlie Graddick


Sometimes politics is like a duck on a pond — calm and quiet above the water, paddling like crazy beneath.
That’s the case in Alabama in a torpid year for elections. There are no statewide races on the ballot in 2011, a welcome respite after a combative 2010 election cycle. But serenity does not last when it comes to Southern politics. The undercurrents are always churning, and this month they are stirring strongest in Alabama legal circles.

Last week, rumors began sweeping through courthouse hallways that Mobile Presiding Circuit Judge Charlie Graddick was eyeing a run for chief justice of the state Supreme Court in 2012.

Graddick has done nothing to throw cold water on the speculation, and in fact has quietly been reaching out to key supporters to lay the groundwork for a campaign.
Graddick, a Republican, would be a formidable candidate. At 66, he is a leader within the Alabama court system and, as a former attorney general, can claim supporters in every corner of the state.
The seat is currently occupied by Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, a Greenville native who serves as the court’s only Democrat. Cobb is a natural politician, and she’s used her position on the court to advocate for a series of badly needed reforms to the state’s judicial system.
Her latest initiative is a package of laws that would dramatically change the sentencing guidelines for nonviolent and drug offenders, a plan that she says will save the state millions of dollars in prison costs and improve public safety.
Those bills could come up for a vote as early as today. Cobb told me last week that she wanted to get through the current legislative session before making a decision about her next political move.
"I’ll make an announcement about that in June," she said.
Insiders, however, say they expect Cobb will choose not to seek re-election, sitting out a 2012 election cycle that could shape up to be a tough one for Democrats. That would position her as a top contender for the party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2014.
Cobb is the sort of dynamic campaigner that Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Mark Kennedy — himself a former Supreme Court justice — could build his entire 2014 strategy around.
The possibility of an open race for chief justice has lawyers buzzing across the state. Graddick is the earliest and strongest name to surface so far, but he’s just one of three potential candidates from the Mobile area who could jump into the race.
Supreme Court Justice Lyn Stuart of Bay Minette is said to be planning to run, and would have the financial backing of the Business Council of Alabama’s influential Civil Justice Reform Committee.
Another hot name: Bradley Byrne, a former state senator and two-year college chancellor who is looking to bounce back from a tough loss in last year’s GOP primary for governor.
Byrne, a Mobile lawyer who lives in Montrose, said he’s interested in the position, particularly its responsibility for administering the state’s court system.
"I’ve been encouraged to look at it, and I’m doing that," he said Monday. "But I’ve made no decision, and frankly I’m no where near a decision at this point."