24 Jan 2012
3

BCA Holds Off on Endorsing Chief Justice Candidate

by Cliff Sims

The Business Council of Alabama met Monday to decide who they would endorse in the Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice race. Their decision? No one…at least for now. The campaigns were also told that while an endorsement is not forthcoming, the BCA is not closing the door on endorsing a candidate at a later date.

As we mentioned last week in our in-depth look at the chief justice race, the BCA endorsement is by far the most coveted in this election cycle. Their decision came after an extremely thorough candidate interview process that took place in late November.

Here’s my speculation on the BCA’s thought process:

1. The BCA would be fine with either Graddick or Malone
2. The BCA put a poll in the field and saw Graddick and Moore way up over Malone
3. Putting money into the Malone campaign likely won’t save a sinking ship
4. A Graddick endorsement could potentially not sit well with Governor Bentley
5. We’re likely headed for a runoff between Graddick & Moore.

Bottom line:

The BCA doesn’t want to throw their money away on a losing Malone campaign but also doesn’t want to pointlessly upset the Governor with a Graddick endorsement when they could just wait until the (likely) runoff and give Graddick a boost then.

John Killian says:
January 24, 2012 at 11:44 pm

One other thought—-I believe the polling which favors Moore and Graddick are basically name recognition polling. Hence, the support found in those polls is weak support which could move to Malone with a persuasive campaign

Cliff Sims says:
January 24, 2012 at 11:50 pm

I’m a big fan of Chief Justice Malone. I had a chance to spend some time with him in Tuscaloosa late last year and I think he’s a really great guy.

And you’re right on the polling numbers being largely based on name recognition…which is why I don’t understand the campaign’s decision to not be on TV and radio for the past several months in an effort to close that gap.

I won’t count him out yet. But even an all-out blitz may be too little, too late at this point.

Thanks for reading and commenting, John.

John Killian says:
January 24, 2012 at 11:42 pm

Interesting conclusions. However, I believe that a media blitz and a good campaign organization could well put Chief Justice Malone into the runoff with either Justice Moore or Judge Graddick.
Expect to see powerful ads for Justice Malone. Also, the Malone campaign has built connections in every county.
One would be wise not to count out Justice Malone