A Little Excitement At The ALGOP Winter Meeting
A Resolution opposing SB67 failed to pass, most of the rest was typically boring, and the food was good. There’s a link if you want to watch the live stream.
There are a couple of things I’ve come to expect from the ALGOP Summer and Winter Meetings.
They’re about as exciting as watching paint dry, and the food is good.
The food is easy to understand. The Renaissance in Montgomery consistently does a great job, and any hotel in Foodie Birmingham that doesn’t have a good kitchen and catering staff risks bankruptcy and/or angry mobs with torches and pitchforks.
The main Executive Committee meeting is also carefully scripted to keep things boring, and that’s pretty much how last Saturday’s Winter Meeting in Birmingham went. Mostly.
Of course, behind the scenes and in the smaller District meetings earlier that morning, there was some Game of Thrones-level backstabbing and deal-making going on. These are Alabama politicians, after all, and those bumbling amateurs the Starks and Lannisters wouldn’t last 15 minutes in Alabama.
John Wahl was re-elected ALGOP Chairman without any opposition, as was Vice Chair Joan Reynolds. Secretary Carol Jahns was challenged by Kerrick Whisenant. Whisenant received endorsements from API’s Stephanie Holden Smith and RNC National Committeeman Bill Harris, but it didn’t help—Carol Jahns won anyway.
Sallie Bryant chose to step down as Treasurer, and long-time ALGOP Executive Director Reed Phillips defeated Vestavia City Councilwoman Kimberly Cook to replace her.
Rep. Robert Aderholt spoke, a bunch of reports were made—Vicki Drummond’s RNC report had some really interesting numbers about just how much was raised by small donors—and Chairman Wahl kept things moving right along.
Best of all, John Wahl did NOT tell that same lame butterfly story we’ve all come to know and loathe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman! I'm convinced ditching that story was one of the main reasons you got another term.
Andrew Sorrell’s Bylaws Committee Report can sometimes be entertaining, but this one was pretty calm and drama-free. I suspect he works hard to keep it that way, especially after some of the excitement we’ve had recently over former Dems wanting to play Republican.
Waylon Huguley’s Resolutions Committee Report is generally good for a couple of sharp discussions. By the time the meeting gets to that point, people are tired, their butts are getting sore from sitting for so long, and the smell of the buffet is wafting into the room, so few people want to stir things up.
I’ve said for years that what ALGOP needs to do is schedule the main meeting in two sessions—one to run 10:00 to 11:30 or so, then break for lunch and restart in 30 or 45 minutes. That would make the meeting more bearable and give more time for Resolutions from the floor and other new business.
Of course, that’s probably why they’ll NEVER give us a lunch break—new Resolutions coming from the floor from the hoi polloi are the LAST thing the ALGOP PTBs want, as Saturday’s Resolution ‘Keeping Alabama Tradition of Veterans Serving Veterans—“If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It”’ was brought from the floor at the very end of the meeting. This Resolution, brought by Maj. Phillip Green USA (Retired), didn’t come up through the usual channels of the Resolutions Committee. In brief, it would have had the Executive Committee inform the Legislature and Governor that the Executive Committee opposes the Governor’s attempts to radically change the powers and structure of the State Board of Veterans Affairs and the Commissioner of Veterans Affairs.
In other words, this Resolution flatly opposed SB67, which some have called a power grab by the Governor.
Needless to say, the debate on this Resolution was some of the most interesting stuff I heard Saturday.
The Resolution ultimately failed by a vote of 61%-39%. Being a floor resolution, it needed a two-thirds vote to pass. SB67 has already passed the Senate and been passed out of committee in the House. It could be voted on as early as Tuesday by the full House, and I’m told there’s a lot of pressure coming from MeeMaw’s office to get it done ASAP.
A rally opposing SB67 was held on the State House steps last Tuesday, February 25 despite a suspicious phone threat made to one of the rally organizers. That phone threat was made by someone claiming to be from the Governor’s office, but neither the Governor's office nor State House Security have responded to my requests for information about it.
So, the Resolution against SB67 was a brief moment of excitement Saturday. I say “brief” mainly because Chairman Wahl was doing a good job of limiting debate to only five minutes per item throughout the meeting. There were plenty of people wanting to keep debating it, and I’m sure we’ll hear more about SB67 over the next few days.
If you want to see it, the meeting was live streamed to the Alabama Straw Poll Facebook page. You can watch all the reports, elections and votes there. The debate over the Resolution starts at about 2:24:30. That link is: https://fb.watch/y4_T5MQoaQ/?
Read more about SB67: https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2025/02/07/news/alabama-senate-committee-advances-governors-plan-to-weaken-influence-of-veterans-groups/5435.html
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