State Representative Mike Hubbard seemed to have everything going his way. He had been elected to the Alabama State House of Representatives in 1998 and re-elected in 2002 and 2006. After being elected as the Speaker of the House on December 8, 2010, he was able to successfully lead an effort to transform the Alabama State Legislature from Democrat to Republican control. On October 20, 2014 however, scandal struck.
Hubbard was indicted with 23 occurrences related to misusing his position for personal gain. The mountain of evidence against Hubbard included $848,687 funneled through a Florida company called Majority Strategies that was used to print fliers, posters, etc. for GOP candidates. Majority Strategies then subtracted most of this printing to a company called Craftmaster Printers Inc. Craftmaster Printers is partially owned by Hubbard himself.
Hubbard expertly shot down these accusations with a classic line that included such gems as, “Friends, if there was any doubt that this was a political witch hunt, I think it is pretty clear right now that is exactly what it is,” and “The fact is that we’ve done some great things in this state and some powerful people don’t like it.” First off, if this were a political witch hunt Hubbard would have green skin, wear a funny hat and commute to work on a broomstick. This would highly upset his friends at the Southeast Alabama Gas District (I assume his broom would not run on diesel) who Hubbard apparently received at least $204,000 from for “economic development services.” Second off, what “great things” was Hubbard referring to? If by “great things” he means “great sums of money that magically find their way to my bank account” he would be spot on, but it seems that the only times Hubbard should use the words “great” and “things” together would be if the words “for” and “me” directly follow.
Any crimes committed by politicians, especially ones that could indicate corruption, usually destroy any hopes of re-election. Hubbard’s case is especially ironic considering he championed some of the anti-corruption laws he is being brought up upon, or at least it would be ironic were he not re-elected.
Hubbard was able to defeat Shirley Scott-Harris for Alabama’s District 79 winning by a margin of 2,947 votes to 1,948 despite the charges being brought against him. I’m not sure if this says more about Hubbard’s exquisite jaw line or about how educated voters are when it comes to state legislature, but if I had to bet on one, I would go with the latter.
When people see something that they do not like in the government, they tend to go straight to the top. For example, when someone complains about how sales taxes are so high in Madison, the President of the United States is usually blamed. As a very wise man (Shrek) once taught me, the government is like an onion, it has layers. It starts out with the outside of the onion, the part that everyone sees. This is the President. After you peel that layer there is another layer that lies just beneath the onion’s surface. This is Congress. Eventually you peel enough layers and you get to the very core of the government which is local and state governments. The problem of the matter is that most citizens do not take the time to peel these outer layers to educate themselves on what is at the core of the government. I will concede that my onion metaphor does not cover all the intricacies of the US government, but I stand by it because raw onions, much like the government, have an awful stench about them and make many people cry.
It seems that because less people see the inner workings of local government, they do not take it upon themselves to be informed about candidates in local elections. The fundamental problem of this dilemma, though, is that local and state governments do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to passing legislation. While the conservative Congress and the liberal President quarrel with each other over every piece of legislation, many state and local governments are left with representatives that heavily swing towards the political leanings of the state. For example, Alabama, a state that bleeds red during presidential election years, has 66 Republicans compared to only 37 Democrats in its house of representatives. California on the other hand has 55 Democrats and 25 Republicans in its state assembly. This gives state lawmakers freedom to pass many bills and laws without much opposition.
Despite the important of these establishments, citizens do not care about state legislatures because they never get coverage from national media outlets unless it involves a representative promptly going insane in the middle of a bill being read or something equally hilarious. Essentially the media treats state legislatures much like SportsCenter treats adult recreational basketball leagues. Once a year or so there is some wacky highlight like an emotional breakdown during a bill’s presentation or somebody missing a layup six times on their own basket, but for the most part they are ignored.
Ignoring these lawmaking bodies is not a wise option though. When people do not bother to get informed about candidates, lawmakers are elected based on party and not actual lawmaking skills. When people do not bother to get informed about candidates, Mike Hubbard gets elected because he has the word republican next to his name on the voter’s ballot.
This country desperately needs to find a way to get voters to care about every election, not just ones involving presidents or congressmen. If it does not, we may be subject to corrupt and inept politicians being elected into positions of power while the rest of the country collectively ignores them. A paradise for Hubbard, but a nightmare for the rest of us.