Journalists may be called as witnesses

It might be a new era in judicial campaigning this year that, so far, has included charges of personal attacks and critical evaluations of opponents. Republican Supreme Court Justice Tom Woodall, a candidate for re-election, reportedly called an opponent a flunky. The Decatur Daily last week said Woodall said of opponent Hank Fowler, "It irritates me that nobody respectable will run against me in the primaries. Instead, I get one of Tom Parker's flunkies running against me.'' Parker is running for chief justice. Fowler said, "It's disappointing that Justice Woodall has chosen to run his campaign on personal attacks, but that will not allow him to avoid the issues or keep him from having to explain to the Alabama public why he voted to let a rapist and murderer off of death row due to foreign law, why he regards eminent domain abuse as a non-issue in Alabama, and why he admitted that he refers to himself as a 'conservative' only for campaign purposes.''

The Alabama Democratic Party is asking the national party to hold an early 2008 presidential primary in Alabama. The DNC said Alabama is one of four Southern states that could get an early 2008 primary. The Legislature has voted to move the presidential primary from June to February, hoping early voting will make Alabama a player in national presidential politics. Usually it's all over but the shouting by June. "Alabama is well positioned to be a player in the 2008 presidential primary process,'' state Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said. "We look forward to injecting mainstream Alabama values and priorities into the national political dialogue and primary process.''

Speaking of presidential politics, Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore said his opponent, Gov. Bob Riley, blindly stands by President Bush and his policies that Moore said have been detrimental to the state. They include the NAFTA trade deal, the flood of illegal aliens in Alabama and the Dubai ports deal, which would have endangered security, Moore said. Moore, speaking before Bush visited Alabama last week as Riley's guest, said Riley voted to "fast track'' NAFTA, which devastated the textile industry in this state, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. Moore said Bush's visit shows Riley's concern about the June 6 primary, which the Mobile Press-Register said in a recent poll Riley was leading by 40 percentage points. "Both the state Republican leadership and now the president himself have wrongfully attempted to interfere in this Republican primary and it won't work,'' Moore said.

Republican lieutenant governor candidate George Wallace Jr. is about to tour the "Heart of Alabama'' for seven weeks. At a Capitol news conference last week, Wallace unveiled his platform in his race for the presiding officer of the Senate. It includes a new, elected Ethics Commission with investigative powers, a zero-tolerance on gifts to politicians and a legislative meeting log listing all contacts relating to state business. Wallace's tour includes stops in Cullman, Guntersville, Boaz and Albertville on Monday and Gadsden and Hokes Bluff on Tuesday. No times and places were given.

Dana Beyerle is Montgomery Bureau chief for the New York Times Regional Newspapers.