As Alabama prepared to vote earlier in a presidential nominating contest than it ever had before, one veteran conservative in the state proposed an unusual answer to a field that many on the right found underwhelming: a slate of delegates pledged to nobody at all.
Jim Zeigler, a former member of the Alabama Public Service Commission and a familiar figure in the state’s conservative politics, said he was considering organizing a slate of uncommitted delegates to run in the Feb. 5 primary. The idea, he explained, was to give voters a lawful mechanism to register dissatisfaction without settling for a candidate none of them wanted.
‘A legal means to vote for none of the above’
“Conservative activists have been disappointed with the candidates and campaigns thus far,” Zeigler said. “There is no Ronald Reagan in the field.” Feb. 5, he argued, was “much too early for voters to be asked to commit themselves.”
“If we organize a slate of uncommitted delegates, we will promote it as a legal means to vote for ‘none of the above,'” he said.
The mechanics, as Zeigler laid them out, were straightforward. If “Uncommitted” drew 15 percent or more of the vote statewide or in any single congressional district, the slate would win delegate seats. If it drew a plurality, it could win enough delegates to control the state’s delegation outright. Because Alabama traditionally falls near the front of the roll call of states at a national convention, he said, an uncommitted delegation would arrive in a position to bargain.
“We could start a movement toward any candidate we later decided to support,” Zeigler said. “We could also fight any attempt to water down the pro-life plank and the plank to stop illegal immigration.” A strong uncommitted showing, he added, would send an unmistakable message that conservative voters wanted “strong specific plans to cut wasteful spending, stop the exportation of industries and jobs to other countries, and stop illegal immigration.”
A field that had not settled
Zeigler’s frustration was not his alone. Across Mobile and the surrounding counties, political figures approached for their views on the presidential race described a contest that had not yet found its shape.
Braxton Kittrell, the former presiding judge of Mobile County Circuit Court, said he had no candidate, though “if I had to pull the trigger right now it would be” U.S. Sen. John McCain. Huntsville attorney G. Sage Lyons Jr. said he was part of a group working to draft former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee. “He is a long time friend and a brilliant man,” Lyons said. “If he does not run I am stumped.”
Former U.S. Attorney Billy Kimbrough was still choosing among Democrats: “It’s between Clinton, Obama and Richardson.” Former state legislator Mary Zoghby begged off entirely, saying she was consumed with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama and would evaluate the candidates later in the year.
Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Gary Cooper, one of Mobile’s most prominent civic figures, said simply, “I have not made a decision yet.” Local teachers’ union leader Wade Perry was among the few who committed: “I’m with Edwards, at this point.”
One Mobile executive, weighing the Republican field, said, “Of the three front runners, I like Romney. My first choice would be Fred Thompson. I think Newt would be a great president, but conventional wisdom says he can’t be elected.”
What was at stake in February
The urgency behind all of this was the calendar. Alabama had joined more than 20 states in moving its presidential primary to Feb. 5, 2008, a coast-to-coast voting day that came to be known as Super Tuesday. For a state long accustomed to voting after the nominations were effectively settled, the change promised genuine influence — but it also demanded that voters make up their minds while the fields in both parties were still unwieldy.
Zeigler’s uncommitted slate never materialized as a serious force, and Alabama’s February primary went ahead with the candidates on the ballot. Republicans here gave their contest to McCain; Democrats chose Barack Obama. Zeigler himself remained a fixture in Alabama politics for years afterward, winning election as state auditor in 2014.
But the impulse he described in the summer of 2007 — a conservative electorate uneasy with the choices in front of it and searching for a way to say so at the ballot box — proved to be a durable feature of the cycle, and of several that followed.