Strange defeats Wallace Lobbyist faces Folsom in fall election

BYLINE: TOM GORDON News staff writer

Luther Strange defeated the son of a famous governor Tuesday to win the


Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, and he will face the son of another famous governor in the November general election.


A Birmingham lawyerlobbyist, campaign fundraiser and campaign operative, Strange easily defeated Public Service Commissioner George Wallace Jr., son of Alabama's only four-term governor and of its only female governor. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Strange had 108,224 votes, 55 percent, to Wallace's 89,636, or 45 percent.


''I want to be the first Republican lieutenant governor to serve with a conservative Republican governor in the modern history of Alabama,'' Strange told supporters at a celebration in Birmingham.



Strange, 53, will face Democrat Jim Folsom Jr., a former governor and lieutenant governor, in the Nov. 7 general election.



Strange's bid for lieutenant gubernatorial was his first campaign for public office, and he nearly won the GOP nomination in the June 6 primary with 48 percent of the vote. Wallace was a distant second with 33 percent.



The Strange-Wallace showdown was the top statewide race settled in Tuesday's runoffs, and it drew fewer voters than the 433,363 who cast ballots for Strange, Wallace and two other candidates in the June 6 GOP primary. Alabama has 2.4 million registered voters, and Tuesday's GOP runoff seemed likely to draw less than 10 percent of them. There was no Democratic runoff for a statewide office.



A relative unknown at the start of the 2006 campaign, Strange raised and spent substantial amounts on advertising to move to the front of the fourcandidate GOP field. The $2.8 million he has reported spending so far is more than double Wallace's reported total.



''I think that was one of the deciding factors in the campaign,'' Wallace said after conceding defeat.



During his campaign, Strange said his Washington lobbying for big corporations brought economic benefits to the state. Folsom can make a similar economic development claim with his successful efforts to bring the massive Mercedes auto plant to Tuscaloosa County in 1993. Other auto plants and suppliers came to the state in Mercedes' wake.



Party history



Strange also contrasted Wallace's past as a Democratic elected official with his own longtime Republican credentials. The former Tulane basketball player poked fun at his 6-foot-9 height, saying he wanted to be the state's tallest elected official. Alabama's tallest public officeholder to date may be Folsom's father, the late Gov. James E. ''Big Jim'' Folsom, who was a hulking 6 feet 8.



The 57-year-old Folsom's father served two terms as governor and was known for his flamboyance, concern for the little man and racial moderation.

The younger Folsom, who has worked in investment banking with Raymond James & Associates since leaving the governor's office, served two terms as public service commissioner, from 1979 to 1987. With substantial business support, he was elected lieutenant governor in 1986, supporting a limit on damages from civil liability lawsuits, and was re-elected in 1990.

In 1993, Folsom became governor when Republican Guy Hunt was convicted of an ethics law violation, but his own 1994 campaign for a full gubernatorial term was dogged by allegations of ethical misdeeds. Though he was cleared of any wrongdoing, the ethics issue contributed to his narrow defeat by Republican Fob James.

Peck Fox, the Folsom campaign's treasurer and a longtime Folsom friend and adviser, said he could see the Strange camp trying to bring negatives against his candidate.

''But I think they need to realize that when you point a finger at somebody, four fingers end up pointing back at you,'' Fox said.


Then and now

But Strange's strategists weren't talking too much hardball on Tuesday night.

''I think there's a storyline of the future versus the past,'' said media consultant Russ Schriefer. ''Jim Folsom is clearly associated with another Alabama, an Alabama of 20 years ago . . . It's a different state today in some ways, and I think Luther represents where Alabama is going.''

Schriefer also said a ticket of Strange and Gov. Bob Riley would be more appealing to voters than a ticket of Folsom and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Lucy Baxley.

''I think that Luther would be the first to say that as lieutenant governor, he wants to do what he can to help Governor Riley in the next four years and complete his agenda,'' Schriefer said. ''When you look at the two of them philosophically, it's really hard to get a piece of paper between the two of them.''

In a statement issued before he knew the identity of his general election opponent, Folsom associated himself with the future.

''This fall's election is not really about me or my opponent,'' Folsom said. ''It is about the future, about what is best for average Alabamians, not special interests. It is about new ideas, not the status quo.''

While Folsom is seeking to renew his political career, Wallace indicated that his Tuesday night loss, the third he has suffered in a major state campaign, could end his political career.

''I think for me as a political candidate, that chapter is probably closed,'' Wallace said.

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News staff writers David White and Jordan Weissmann contributed to this story. tgordon@bhamnews.com