A Mobile-based tea party organization is withholding its endorsement from Gov. Robert Bentley ahead of Tuesday’s election, citing frustration with what members see as his weak opposition to the Common Core education standards. The Common Sense Campaign listed “no comment” for both governor and lieutenant governor on the slate of endorsements it released, a pointed snub of the incumbent Republican governor.
Lou Campomenosi, the group’s president, said Bentley simply has not done enough to back up his stated opposition to Common Core. He said the governor has failed to lobby the Legislature or the state Board of Education on the issue and did not publicly support a slate of anti-Common Core candidates who challenged pro-Common Core members of the state school board earlier in the election cycle. Campomenosi made clear the group’s frustration does not translate into support for Bentley’s Democratic opponent, Parker Griffith, saying members would rather leave the governor’s race blank on the ballot than vote for him.
The group did offer full-throated endorsements elsewhere on the statewide ballot, backing U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Attorney General Luther Strange, Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan, state auditor candidate Jim Ziegler and secretary of state candidate John Merrill, all Republicans.
Locally, the Common Sense Campaign backed state Sens. Trip Pittman of Montrose and Bill Hightower of Mobile, along with Senate hopeful Greg Albritton, plus state House candidates Wayne Biggs and Ralph Carmichael. In the Baldwin County district judge race, the group initially declined to endorse either Republican incumbent Michelle Thomason or independent challenger Ginger Poynter, before reversing course days before the election to back Thomason.
Notably, being unopposed did not guarantee the group’s support. Members recommended voters write in James Hall for House District 64 rather than back unopposed incumbent Harry Shiver, after Hall had lost a GOP primary challenge to Shiver earlier in the year. The group briefly floated a similar write-in push for Craig Stephenson in the Baldwin County Board of Education District 5 race, but withdrew that recommendation after Stephenson said he did not want to run as a write-in candidate against incumbent Angie Swiger. Among four unopposed Baldwin County Commission seats, the group endorsed only one commissioner, Frank Burt.
On statewide ballot measures, the Common Sense Campaign endorsed only one of five proposed constitutional amendments, urging a “yes” vote on a measure barring judges from citing foreign law in their rulings, widely seen as a preemptive move against the use of Shariah law in Alabama courts. Campomenosi said the group opposed most of the other amendments partly over process concerns, since none of the measures went through a public input stage before landing on the ballot, and partly out of skepticism that some proposals, including one aimed at strengthening gun rights, could have unintended consequences given that the Second Amendment already guarantees those rights.