Roy Moore picks up support from unlikely union - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

The traditionally Democratic Alabama AFL-CIO has endorsed Republican Roy Moore for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. State AFL-CIO President Al Henley said Monday it's the first time the union organization has backed Moore, who was the only Republican endorsed for state office when the organization met in Montgomery to pick its favorites.

Henley said the AFL-CIO doesn't share Moore's view on separation of church and state, but he had a record as a circuit judge in Gadsden and as a Supreme Court justice from 2001-2003 of treating the average person fairly in court. "He's not controlled by corporate interests," Henley said.

Moore said Monday he's pleased to have received endorsements across the political spectrum, from the Alabama Farmers Federation to the union. "It's an honor to be endorsed by people who don't normally endorse Republicans for office," he said while campaigning in Hamilton.

Moore said he's never been a union member, but his son had been a member of the ironworkers union in Birmingham. Moore is attempting a political comeback after losing two races for governor following his removal as chief justice in 2003.

A state judicial court kicked him out of office for refusing to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument he placed in the lobby of the state judicial building in Montgomery. He won the Republican primary in March against two better funded candidates: incumbent Chuck Malone and former state Attorney General Charlie Graddick.

In the general election Nov. 6, he faces Democrat Harry Lyon, who also sought the AFL-CIO endorsement. Lyon said he will make an issue of the union endorsement and contributions that Moore received earlier in the campaign from plaintiff lawyers. His goal is to get Republican-leaning business people to give him a look. "The business community ought to be concerned," he said.

Moore's campaign finance reports show he has reported raising more than $330,000 in campaign contributions, with about $55,000 of that coming from plaintiff lawyers. Lyon has not yet reached the $25,000 level where statewide candidates have to start publicly reporting campaign contributions.

Moore is seeking to win his first statewide office after running for chief justice in 2000 and governor in 2006. He is trying to get elected to a court where Republicans hold all nine seats.

In other races, Henley said the Alabama AFL-CIO endorsed incumbent Democrat Lucy Baxley for president of the Public Service Commission even though her Republican opponent, commission member Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, sought the endorsement.

He complimented Cavanaugh on reaching out to the traditionally Democratic group, but he said the union had supported Baxley throughout her political career. "We have a history of not cutting our friends loose," he said.

PSC president and chief justice are the only offices elected statewide that are contested in the general election. If Baxley and Lyon lose, Republicans will hold every office that is elected statewide.

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