Primary Peek: Congressional District 2

In our next series of look at the primary elections scheduled for next week, let's sneak a peek at the race for US House, District 2. I look at this one first for two reasons... 1) it's my district, and 2) it's the most interesting race.

On the Democrat side, only incumbent Bobby Bright is running for the seat, so he obviously will be the candidate in the November general election. The Republicans have four candidates, so let's look at them one by one.


John Bowling McKinney III
McKinney is the long-shot candidate who really has no chance of winning the primary. His platform sounds about right, as he basically wants to undo everything Obama has done. You can find his website online at:
http://www.fightingbeaumckinneyforcongress.com/

I would like to take a moment to comment on his website. In today's campaign climate, the website is your first and best way to make an impression and inform the voters. His fails first because he's on the ballot as "John Bowling McKinney III," but his website is called "FightingBeauMcKinney". Searching on his name as it appears on the ballot doesn't even produce a link to his website. If the voters can't find you, then your site is worthless. Second, it fails because all of the content is on the main page. Sure, he has a contact page and a contributions page, but everything else is on the main page... picture, platform, bio, everything. It's too crowded, and the site visitor is left scrolling and searching instead of clicking on clearly labeled links to find the content he wants.


Rick Barber
Rick Barber is also a long-shot candidate, though he has a considerably better chance at winning than does McKinney. Barber is a small businessman who has used his business to support the local Tea Party movement. He bills himself as the Tea Party candidate, much as Rand Paul did, and enjoys considerable support from those in the movement.

You can find his website here:
http://www.rickbarberforcongress.com/home/

Barber is pro-life, pro-gun, and believes in education vouchers and charter schools. He believes that Congress has only those powers enumerated in the Constitution, and says he will work to make that a reality again. He opposes ObamaCare and supports free market reforms.

His campaign has generated several endorsements, but most from PACs or from individuals/groups outside of Alabama.


Stephanie Bell
Bell has served on the State School Board for five terms, and has done a fairly good job there. She is one of the politicians whom I like and keep an eye on, expecting good things from her. She has a long list of conservative credentials to rely on, and her platform is fairly predictable... as are those of most Republicans running.

You can find her website here:
http://www.stephaniebellforcongress.com/

Bell opposes ObamaCare and supports free market reforms, she opposes "job killing regulations and government bailouts," and supports securing the borders and denying "birthright citizenship" to babies born of illegal aliens.

Bell is currently running second in the polls for the Republican nominee. Barring a last-minute surge, she needs to force a runoff in order to have a shot at the Republican nomination.

Martha Roby
Roby is the front-runner for the Republican nomination, but it remains to be seen if she can avoid a runoff. She is a popular candidate who is serving her second term on the Montgomery city council.

You can find her website here:
http://www.martharoby.com/

As with all Republican candidates in this race, she opposes raising federal taxes, opposes government control of health care and Wall Street, and supports closing the borders. Position-wise, she's not much different from Bell and Barber. There are more similarities than differences in their positions, it seems.


With all candidates running on platforms that are so similar, it comes down to personal impressions of the candidates in question. I'm dismissing McKinney from my consideration for two reasons: 1) he's dead last, and 2) he's not campaigning enough to do much to fix that. If he won't make the effort during the campaign, or if he can't be effective doing so, why should I believe his service in office would be any different?

So it comes down to Roby, Bell, and Barber.

I've never been a big Roby fan, for reasons that are too lengthy to go into here. Suffice it to say that we disagree on a few key issues. I've always admired Stephanie Bell, and found that we agree much more often than not. Rick Barber is a relative unknown to me, but the fact that he is receiving so much support from Tea Party members is an indicator.

So to me the choice is between either Bell, the career politician, or Barber, the outsider candidate. Yes, I know that Roby has raised FAR more money than Bell and Barber combined, and the she is likely to win the primary... but I've never supported or voted for somebody because I thought he or she had the best chance of winning. I vote for who I think will make the best Congressman.

And in this case, I think it comes down to Stephanie Bell. I've watched her for years and I have a large degree of trust in her. Barber comes across as a good guy, but I don't know him well enough to judge his character.