Republican Parker Duncan Moore won a decisive victory in the special election for the vacant House District 4 seat.
As of Wednesday morning, Moore had 1,709 votes (67 percent). Democrat Juanita Allen Healey had 524 votes (20.6 percent) and independent Polan “Pete” Willis Jr. had 316 votes (12.4 percent). 25 of the 27 boxes had been counted.
Moore is a 29-year-old marketing representative with Encore Rehabilitation.
Moore will only be the state representative for the next six months and will only actually sit in the Legislature to vote on something if Governor Kay Ivey were to call a special session between now and the end of November.
Parker Duncan Moore will also be on the Republican primary ballot on June 5. Rep. Moore will face Tom Fredericks in the GOP primary. The eventual GOP primary winner will face Juanita Allen Healey again on November 6 in the general election.
House District four includes parts of Limestone and Morgan Counties.
Some have called for ending the practice of holding special elections for vacant legislative seats and instead allow the governor to appoint someone to fill vacancies. In House District Four there has been a special Republican primary, a special Republican primary runoff election, and now a special general election, all of which cost money, for the vacant seat. The 2018 regular session was over weeks ago and House District Four’s seat was vacant the whole session and now Moore will likely never cast a vote in this term.
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House District Four became vacant after former House Majority Leader Mickey Hammon, R-Decatur, pled guilty to bank fraud as part of a wider federal corruption investigation last year. Hammon is now cooperating with federal authorities. Former Republican Party Chairman Marty Connors, state Representative Jack Williams (R-Vestavia), and a California healthcare billionaire have all been indicted based, at least in part, on Hammon’s testimony. After the election of 2010 Republican lawmakers chose Hammon and Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn) as the leaders of the Alabama House of Representatives. Hubbard was convicted on multiple felony ethics violations in 2016.
Original reporting by the Times Dailey’s Mary Sells contributed to this report.
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