In Baldwin County, when the subject of the district attorney’s office comes up, the conversation eventually arrives at John David Whetstone.
The Republican veteran — known in political circles as the “ol’ he-coon,” a term of respect for an operator who has outlasted his rivals — held the post for years before stepping into private practice four years ago, ceding the office to his assistant, Judy Newcomb.
Now, with the 2010 elections approaching, talk among some criminal defense lawyers has him mulling a comeback.
The Vulnerability of an Appointee
The speculation is grounded less in Whetstone’s intentions than in Newcomb’s position.
Appointed to fill the remainder of Whetstone’s term, Newcomb has not entrenched herself in a way that discourages challengers. That is not necessarily a criticism. Appointees rarely do. The conventional wisdom in Alabama politics holds that an officeholder has not truly proven herself until voters have been offered a choice and declined to take it — that an official is untested until she has been through the crucible of a contested campaign.
An open-looking seat in a fast-growing, heavily Republican county is the kind of opportunity that draws attention. Baldwin County’s population boom along the Eastern Shore and the beaches has made its offices considerably more attractive than they were a generation ago.
What Whetstone Actually Says
Whetstone is too savvy a politician to paint himself into a corner, and he did not.
But a recent conversation with him suggests he will indeed become more politically active — without going so far as to seek office again.
His stated reason has less to do with Baldwin County than with his party. The Republican Party, Whetstone said, has in recent years lost its way. Both the party and the country would benefit if the GOP would actually practice what it has long preached. He intends to be involved in any movement toward that goal.
It is a striking assessment from a man who spent a career as one of the more prominent Republican officeholders on the Eastern Shore, and it places him among a set of conservative figures in 2009 who were arguing that their party had drifted from the fiscal discipline and limited-government principles it campaigned on.
Two Sides of the Bay
The contrast with the west side of Mobile Bay is instructive. Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr., a Democrat, appears to be considering his exit from elective office as his statewide ambitions narrow. Whetstone, a Republican, appears to be considering his return to the arena — but as an activist rather than a candidate.
Whether the he-coon walks again in the literal sense remains, for now, an open question that Whetstone seems content to leave open. What is not in doubt is that his name still moves conversations in Baldwin County, four years after he stopped holding the office.