WSFA 12 News Montgomery, AL |Dems hit back over Repubs' ethics campaign

Dems hit back over Repubs' ethics campaign

MONTGOMERY, AL - Democrats are hitting back after a new republican campaign focuses on ethics issues dealing with dems. Republicans hope to use some of their counterparts' recent troubles with the law to gain more control come November 2010.

But democrats say the GOP is misleading voters with selective examples of embattled politicians.

"The ALGOP video cleverly omits the names and faces of three Republican Jefferson County Commissioners who have plead guilty or been indicted in the same Jefferson County scandal...Mary Buckalew, John Katapodis and Gary White," the Alabama Democratic Party reminded voters in a news release.

To further their case that ethics is not a democrat problem, the party rolled out the names of other GOP politicians with bullet points saying:

• Republican Governor Bob Riley himself vetoed an ethics bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Marcel Black that unanimously passed the legislature that would have required lobbyists that lobby the Governor's office to register with the Ethics Commission.
  
• Former Republican Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, Former Riley Chief of Staff Toby Roth, Lobbyist Sherri Fulford, and family member attorneys of Riley's own family are profiting from "pass-through dollars" to law firms, Medicaid, the Jefferson County Sheriff's office.
  
• Republican Secretary of State Beth Chapman was taken before the Ethics Commission for holding an outside job for profit while serving in office.
  
• Republican Attorney General Troy King has been discussed in the vein of ethics violations and grand jury investigations.
  
• Former Republican Governor Guy Hunt was removed from office over ethics issues.
  
• Democrats have introduced and moved multiple bills through the legislature, including the Democratic House by passing for 5 years straight a PAC reform bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jeff McLaughlin.
  
• 70% of Sheriffs, District Attorneys, Circuit Clerks and District and Circuit Court Judges are Democrats. They risk their lives each day to bring justice and peace to our communities. This attack on the Democratic Party is an insult to their service to justice.

"Today, the Republicans threw rocks from a glass house from which they reside," the news release said.

Voters will have the ultimate say in the matter in just under a year.

Information Source: Democratic Party of Alabama