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Do you vote for a label?  Are you a Democrat or Republican?  Stop! Not any longer.  Start thinking about the person.  Look at the individual you are voting for.  Does he/she have integrity?  Are they intelligent?  Will they try to do what is right?  Will they serve our interests without being subject to all of the special interest “Dark” money?

We, American and Alabama citizens, need serious people who want to solve problems and move our country and State forward.  So, look at the individuals running for office.  Do they have intelligence?  Have they shown an ability to solve problems and tackle difficult issues?  Do they have experience?  Are they calm under pressure?  Are they intuitive?  Are they followers or leaders?  Are they strong?  Do they understand the many difficult issues we face?  Are they simply political hacks who want to live off the public, or do they want to serve?  Are they zealots who only want to push their own self-interests without considering that society is made up of many different types of people with varying interests who all deserve representation from elected officials?

Well, if you look at all those questions and answer them honestly, there is one candidate I know of who meets those criteria in the upcoming Alabama United States Senate race.

If you watch the news, you see three candidates discussed most often:  Luther Strange, Roy Moore, and Mo Brooks, but I will suggest to you that Doug Jones would be the best person for the job.

Let’s take a look at these candidates:

Luther Strange – After graduating law school, Strange worked for Sonat, Inc., a natural gas utility (Taken over by El Paso and now Kinder Morgan), and he became the head of their Washington D.C. office.  When he left Sonat, he became a lobbyist for Sonat and Transocean offshore drilling Co. (Involved in the BP tragedy in the Gulf).  After that, Strange worked in his own law firm and then Bradley before running for Lieutenant Governor and then Attorney General of Alabama.  He lost the race for Lieutenant Governor and won the race for Attorney General.  Then, while prosecuting Governor Bentley, Governor Bentley appointed Luther to fill Jeff Sessions’ Senate Seat.

Roy Moore – In 1992, Roy Moore was appointed by Governor Guy Hunt to Alabama Circuit Court Judge in Etowah County.  Moore won election and was sworn in to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama in 2001.  In 2003, Moore was removed from office for failing to abide by a Federal Court Order that he remove a ten commandments monument from the Court.  He ran for Governor in 2006.  He lost to eventual Governor Bob Riley.  In 2012, Moore once again ran for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, and once again, he won and was installed in 2013.  But, as in his previous stent in office, Moore failed to abide by a Federal Court Order over same sex marriage, and he was suspended from office and eventually resigned.

Mo Brooks – Brooks has practiced law since 1978.  He worked in the Tuscaloosa District Attorney’s Office, and then he worked for Judge Snodgrass as a clerk.  In 1993, he joined the business firm of Leo and Associates which became Leo & Brooks, LLC, where he specialized in commercial litigation representing corporations.  In 2011, Mo was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.  He has been in politics since 1982 when he was first elected to the Alabama House of Representatives.  He also ran for Lieutenant Governor of Alabama in 2006 and lost to Luther Strange.

Doug Jones – Jones has practiced law since 1979.  He first worked with Senator Howell Heflin on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  He then became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Birmingham.  until 1984, when he went into private practice until 1997.  In 1997, he was appointed as the U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, and he led several high profile cases:  the Eric Rudolph bombing of a women’s center in Birmingham and the prosecution of Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry for the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.  After 4 years, Jones left the office of the U.S. Attorney and returned to private practice.  He was a court appointed General Special Master in an environmental clean-up case involving the Monsanto pollution in Anniston, Alabama.  In 2007, Jones was given the 15th Anniversary Civil Rights Distinguished Service Award from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

So, there you have it.  Four (4) of the candidates running for Jeff Sessions’ vacated seat in the U.S. Senate (there are others running for the seat as well, but these appear to be the most prominent candidates).  Who makes the most sense?  Objectively, when you analyze it, who makes the most sense for individuals of our State?  Let’s look at it.  Luther has done very little other than serve the system.  He worked for a large natural gas utility as an attorney and then as a lobbyist.  Other than that, he has pretty much been in politics.  Roy Moore has done nothing but violate Court Orders.  The fact that a man in Alabama can be removed from office for violating Federal Court Orders and continue to run for office is astounding.  Twice no less.  Further, his main interest is in protecting HIS religion.  He could care less that other religions exist or that non-religious individuals are also citizens of this State.  Mo Brooks has at least been in the private practice of law, but if you look at his history, he has also spent most of his career in politics.

And then there is Doug Jones.  A family man whose dad worked at U.S. Steel.  A man who served justice by prosecuting an individual who bombed a women’s clinic and two klansmen who helped kill four little girls in the 60’s.  A man who helped enforce the environmental clean-up of a multi-million dollar case against Monsanto corporation.  A man who was in politics for a short term.  A man who does not wear his personal beliefs on his sleeve but takes the law seriously and stands up for what’s right, not what some lobbyist wants or necessarily how he feels.

In politics, we need more sensible leaders, and Doug Jones fits that mold.

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