By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Friday, August 8, the Alabama Political Reporter contacted Aimee Love to see what the status of her candidacy to represent Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ms. Love told us in a written statement, “I am still the candidate for the LP. The question of ballot access is ongoing and we are still waiting to hear from out lawyer regarding our case against the sos (Alabama Secretary of State).”
Ms. Love said, “Currently, we are still awaiting confirmation from the sos on the actual reason we’ve been denied ballot access. Mr. Palmer is aware of my candidacy, as he had already been in contact with our party secretary about a debate and stated that he will consider it.”
The Alabama Libertarian Party can’t get their candidate on the ballot and the Alabama Democratic Party doesn’t have a candidate after theirs, Avery Vise, dropped out of the race on Wednesday, August 6. In a letter addressed to Alabama Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley, Vise cited changes at his job that meant spending more time out of state thus preventing him from devoting time to his campaign. The Alabama Democratic Party has until August 20 to find another candidate to run for the open Sixth Congressional District.
Gary Palmer said in a written statement on Thursday, August 7, “When I decided to run for the 6th Congressional seat of Alabama, I felt the need for someone to represent the common every day person, along with small business owners and their employees against the tidal wave of new regulations and taxes that are coming from non-elected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. This is the message we will continue to share with residents of the 6th District from now till November 4.”
Aimee Love said on her web site, “Right now, the Libertarian Party of Alabama is engaged in a battle with the Alabama Secretary of State for ballot access. Although petitions were filed per the guidelines on his own website, James Bennett has chosen to ignore the rules written by his staff and deny seven Libertarian candidates the right to run.”
Love is a home school mom, and a novelist. Some of her novels include, “The Widow,” “Cry Baby Hollow” and “Epic.”
Love said on her website, “It is time for the United States to realize that our policy of intervening in foreign governments only leads to one thing: More war. Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Gaddafi all received military support from the US before they became US enemies. The United States needs more diplomats and fewer soldiers. We need to educate ourselves in how to avoid wars, not win them.”
Aimee Love is currently the Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Alabama and the Treasurer of the Libertarian State Leadership Alliance. She describes herself as a lifelong Republican who left the party when it became apparent that they were more interested in winning elections than in actually making the kinds of changes necessary to fix our economy and secure our civil liberties.
Love said on her web site that, “Fiscal responsibility simply isn’t enough. Our nation’s debt has become so large that it is, for most of us, inconceivable. Our debt now grows by over a trillion dollars a year, in spite of the fact that nearly every politician elected in the last decade has claimed to be fiscally responsible. The federal government must cut its budget by at least 50 percent.”
Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District seat is currently held by Republican Representative Spencer Bachus from Vestavia who is retiring after 11 terms in the Congress.
Palmer is the co-founder of the Alabama Policy Network, where he was President for 24 years. If the Democrats can’t find an opponent for Palmer then they will have conceded three of the six Alabama Congressional Districts held by Republicans without a fight.
The Alabama Democratic Party was unable to even find candidates who would run against Republican incumbents Mo Brooks and Robert Aderholt in the fifth and fourth districts. Jesse “JT” Smith has qualified to challenge Rep. Mike Rogers (R). Erick Wright is running against Congresswoman Martha Roby (R) in the Second Congressional District. In the First Congressional District Burton LeFlore is facing Rep. Bradley Byrne for the second time. Byrne defeated Leflore in a special election in December with 71% of the votes. Democratic incumbent Terri Sewell has no Republican opponent in the Seventh Congressional District race.
As of last report, Gary Palmer is the only candidate in the Sixth District Congressional race qualified by the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office.
