During the month of September, both major candidates for governor of Alabama visited the offices of The Alabama Baptist for interviews about topics ranging from their personal religious faith to public education to “electronic bingo” gambling. Both candidates were asked similar questions. The responses reflect the candidates’ answers in their own words although some editing was done because of space limitations. The result is a straightforward comparison of views, which we hope will help readers as they pray about which candidate to support in the Nov. 2 election.
Q: In your acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for governor, you mentioned your grandmother’s faith as an influence on your life. Tell us about your faith.
A: I had my grandmother 100 years and nine months. I never saw her smoke a cigarette, raise her voice or speak an ugly word. She had the Ten Commandments on the wall. She would sit with me during segregation when we would watch the speeches on TV. She taught me love and compassion. If someone’s cold, you try to help them. If someone’s hungry, you try to feed them. If someone’s sick, you try to help them.
For a number of years, I would wake up early on Sunday morning and hear that sacred harp singing. … She would take me by the hand and walk me to Mount Carmel Baptist Church (in Fort Payne). She bought me my first Bible. She took me to church. She taught me about caring, about not judging people and about God.
If I had not had the upbringing of my grandmother, I probably wouldn’t have made it through the military. She made me who I am, what I am and what I hope to be. It is how I make decisions. She had such a strong faith.
My grandmother taught me things that really molded me into the person I am today. Hopefully what I am, if I tell you something it is my word. I’m not going to lie to you. If I believe in it, I’m going to tell you why.
I am a member of Mount Carmel Baptist Church. I was baptized by T.D. Burgess. … Absolutely I have a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I’ve had a lot of adversities in life. If you don’t have a faith in God, you can’t get through them. I do have a faith and someone who taught me how to be strong, my grandmother.
Q: What is your position on abortion, and what changes need to be made to Alabama laws to advance the position you hold?
A: My position has been all along that if people think that I’m going to start punishing women for making a personal decision with their doctor and their God, I’m not. But we need to do everything we can to educate women.
You hear about parents killing children. We’ve got to find a way to prevent and stop this as well as teenage pregnancies and abuse of children that we have in Alabama. I want to do everything that I can to try to stop that and educate on that and put laws in place. It’s awful. … I have respect for the woman and her decision between her and her doctor and her God.
I’m not open to making the laws more lenient. I have a lot more issues that are pushing and dictating what a governor needs to be doing, and that is educating our children, taking care of our senior citizens and creating jobs.
Those are things that will change what we are talking about here, and that’s where my energy is going to be.
Q: How important is public education to the future of Alabama? What will you do differently to support public education?
A: Public education is probably the most important. One million kids in Georgia have voluntary pre-K, but in Alabama, that number is 3,800.
How are we ever going to change Alabama if we do not give our children the same chances other states are?
I’m not prepared to pretend people don’t buy lottery tickets. So let’s tax it — use it for pre-K and scholarships. I want to do everything I can to give every child in Alabama a chance to have an A life and not a D life. Eighty percent of prisoners are high school dropouts. Alabama spends $4,000 to educate children and $14,000 to keep a man in prison. I’m telling you what I believe in my heart to be the truth.
I’ve taken the position (on legalizing and taxing gambling) I have because of education. Let’s use bingo that has been legal for years for the Education Trust Fund and Medicaid. Get the low-hanging fruit; regulate and control it like it has never been before.
State government did not send $1 to school districts to buy paper (and) books this year. Teachers are having to dig out of their own pockets. Principals are going to the banks. Kids and parents are begging on the streets for donations.
We are not doing in Alabama what needs to be done. We have innovative schools in Alabama, those that are excellent. … We don’t compete against other states. We compete against India and China. We need to change the way we educate our children. We need to teach our children to compete — critical thinking, problem solving, technology.
If we don’t do that, Alabama will go backward.
Q: What are your thoughts on charter schools and the PACT program?
A: I’m not interested in charter schools. They are not proven. We can’t fund the public schools we have today.
Every community deserves a quality education. In my gut what I’ve seen and what I know and by looking at the budget, I’m prepared to go do everything I can to educate our children and put the funding in the proper places.
My grandmother wouldn’t be proud of me. But … the people have got to trust us. We’ve got to show the people that we are serious about Alabama. They don’t want us to pass a lottery in Alabama for pork projects. It needs to be for education.
I hope we can do away with the PACT program. We won’t need it with a lottery. But that’s what we set up and told them they could send their children to school on, and we ought to do that. Average families can’t send children to college anymore. It’s not happening; it can’t happen. I want to give some assistance to these families.
I believe it is the government’s place to help children go to school. The government helped me get my education, and without it, I don’t know where I would be today. We need to get (at-risk) kids out of that environment, give them an education and hopefully not send them to prison.
For every 25,000 that we don’t get across the graduation stage, we spend $6.5 billion in government services for the rest of their lives.
Q: The recent history of Alabama’s community college system has been checkered with abuses and convictions. What reforms do you support to increase the contribution of the community college system to the state and its people?
A: I think Gov. Wallace was certainly a smart man when he started putting together community colleges. That’s where I got my education. Too bad we had to tolerate some of the things that have happened. I will do everything that I can to ensure that the proper people are in the right places and that if there is any idea of anyone that is becoming greedy, then they need to be gone.
As far as the accusations of double dipping, I think there is a lot simpler way to deal with it than from a political angle. I don’t think we should ever get to a position to where we say who can and who can’t be legislators. That is not democracy. People are not going to be served well. But we should also never give two salaries for serving in the Legislature.
If you work for a college, etc., then while serving in the Legislature, you don’t get your salary pay. No one should ever get two checks for one job. There is a reasonable way to deal with these problems, a common-sense approach. That’s what I would have done all along.
I think you can always have conflicts of interest. Lawyers, schoolteachers, electricians, do we prevent them from serving? With 600 registered lobbyists, I doubt there’s not one in the Legislature today who isn’t connected to one of them.
Hopefully you are elected by the people of your district and they believe you are going to vote in their best interest. If not, vote them out.
Q: According to the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, more than 50 percent of Alabamians believe the state Ethics Commission should have subpoena power. What is your appraisal of the work of the Ethics Commission and its need for subpoena power?
A: We need to do everything we can to build credibility with the voting public. The voting public doesn’t trust us, and we’ve got to do everything we can to get that confidence back. It’s not our government. It’s the people’s government. We should do everything we can to be transparent.
I would support subpoena power, stop PAC-to-PAC transfers and limit meal amounts to $50 per day from the current $250 per day.
Nobody on my staff can take a ticket or a dime or cup of coffee. We are going to rebuild transparency. No one in my family is going to become multimillionaires. I guarantee that.
Q: For years, efforts have been made to get more transparency in Alabama elections by banning PAC-to-PAC transfers. What is your position on that issue?
A: I am for real reform. … I will exert my power to try to get something passed to rebuild the credibility. … I’m going to push for ethics reform.
(As far as the accusations that the agriculture commission is a place to park private pork money,) not one dime has come through my department. They call it pork if it’s my money, but it is discretionary if it’s their money.
We’ve built farmers markets, agriculture centers … and are promoting locally grown … (doing) things that have never been done before.
Q: Describe your reasons for wanting to legalize gambling in Alabama.
A: We’ve got some tough, tough days ahead of us bar some miracle. This economy is difficult. We’ve got to have some monies flowing into the coffers right away. We’ve got some tough decisions to make.
People want to accuse me of bringing gambling to Alabama. I want to have the courage to do what others haven’t had to do. … I don’t promote it but people are going to do it, and I’m going to tax it.
I’m not advocating it. The only way we will ever change it is by a vote of the people.
Q: What role should the state Supreme Court’s definition of bingo gambling play in the present and future status of bingo in Alabama?
A: The Supreme Court has never ruled it is illegal. The definition is that we have 18 constitutional amendments that people of Alabama have voted on. You can’t take 18 constitutional amendments and throw them in a trash can. It sounds good, an up or down vote, but it’s not realistic. It’s not going to happen. I want to get in this thing (gambling) and find out where we need to go. In the process, I’m going to tax them.
It is interesting that people are against taxing gambling when we are in the liquor business. I don’t encourage it. I don’t drink but we are in the liquor business.
Hopefully we can do a better job that encourages people to do better (and not gamble) … but the reality is that people are going to do it.
Q: If the gambling issue is defeated, then do you leave it alone?
A: Yes, I do during my administration.
Q: To a Montgomery outsider, the impression is that at least two special interest groups — AEA and Alfa — are on opposite sides, which leaves a constant stalemate. How do you get them to work together?
A: I got Alfa’s endorsement and AEA’s endorsement, as well as other groups. … There are some powerful folks in Montgomery. … Rather than encouraging different views, try to find a common ground. That’s what democracy is all about. Bring together different views and negotiate.
Q: Do you support efforts for a new constitution for the state of Alabama? Why or why not?
A: I would never support a constitutional convention, but the constitution will be in better shape when I leave than when I get there. We will change it article by article. … There are a lot of places (that need attention). I would like to bring people who have a strong conviction about a constitutional convention together to see what needs to be done and how to achieve those goals.
Q: Three out of four Alabamians do not believe government officials in Montgomery care about what they or people like them think about issues facing our state. Is that an accurate assessment? If not, then what will you do to change that assessment?
A: I don’t know if it is accurate, but if it is, it is sad because it is their government. Government touches about every facet of our lives. It is extremely unfortunate if people feel that way. … I think we have to bring the people closer to government. …
If you are not a direct recipient of government … if you are not paying taxes, I don’t know what we could ever do to make you feel good.
I want to provide a continuous service, give children an opportunity to go to college and have a quality of service for senior citizens they deserve. I’ve made a sacrifice: given up my retirement to be in service, have less time with my granddaughter, took a pay cut to be in public service.
Either you want to be a public servant for the right reasons or the wrong reasons. I’m in it for the right reasons — to move this state forward, to help this state become a better state.
Q: Only 17 percent of Alabamians believe they are financially better off today than a year ago, and only one-third expect to be better off a year from now. What will you do to change the sentiment on the economic condition of the state?
A: I’m not going to give the people of Alabama an unreal prediction. We’ve got some real problems. One way to help would be to build roads. … That would put 38,000 people back to work. Another is to look for loopholes for businesses who pay taxes in other states and to look at folks who send their businesses offshore. … We’ve got an opportunity to look at all kinds of technologies and resources such as alternative fuel. … Agriculture is our No. 1 industry. I will continue to promote and fight for farmers in Alabama.
I understand the importance of the way of life in Alabama. We are an agriculture state, but no one wants to talk about it.
CLICK HERE to read the interview with Robert Bentley — Republican candidate for governor.
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