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2949 Old Farm Road

Montgomery, AL 36111
Phone: (334) 467-1486
Email: thatcher330@gmail.com
STUMPIN FOR A STUMPER
Helping the Reformed Alabama Democratic Party Increase the Number of Voices in the Political Debate



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Strategic plan for the
2014 Democratic Campaign
The concept is to have all of the Constitutional Executive Office candidates
and the Congressional Office Candidates run together as a team, to raise money as
a team, and to advertise and market as a team to run more efficiently than the
Republicans do, and serve altogether in the Governors cabinet as a team, in order
to overcome the deficiencies the Democrats have in raising campaign funds, and to
be more effective as political managers for the state.
THE REPUBLICAN STRATEGY
Bill Armstead, The Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, has avowed
to wipe all Democrats out of the courthouses in Alabama. The Republicans already
control both Houses of the Legislature, all 7 Constitutional Executive Offices
delineated by the 1901 Alabama Constitution, all Public Service Commission
offices, all Supreme Court offices, and all offices of the Court of Civil Appeals and
the Court of Criminal Appeals. Armstead now intends to uproot all Democratic
Sheriffs and Probate Judges, and in the process, displace all Democrats that have
been appointed to Boards of Registration and Boards of Equalization. The Boards
of Registration, of course, pertain to voting rights and qualifications of electors.
The Boards of Equalization relate to the question of property values for assessing
taxes and other matters.
These issues of vote and property, two essential questions of the sovereign
process are under attack by the Republicans. Their intention is to remove any
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semblance of a multiplicity of voices from the democratic process, and to replace it
with one unified voice on the far radical right fringe of the Republican Party.
THE REPUBLICANS BIG ECONOMIC BLUNDER
However, the Republicans have committed a monumental economic mistake
that the Democrats can capitalize on in the 2014 election. They have taken apart
the economic machinery that has served both Democratic and Republican
administrations from 1967 to 2002. When the last 2 Republican Governors
changed their economic philosophies that have damaged the economic machinery
in the state that led to a general financial malaise statewide and to a prolonged
depression in many large areas in Alabama, the Democrats gained a grand
opportunity to exploit the Republicans critical economic blunder.
The Republicans have dismantled the Alabama Development Office in the
Governors Office and disabled certain mechanisms in the Alabama Department of
Economic and Community Affairs, as well as the Alabama Appalachian Regional
Commission and the Regional Planning Commissions.
As a result, Alabama is growing more slowly than any of its surrounding
states. Mississippi is growing twice as fast as Alabama, Mississippi being the
second slowest growing state of our contiguous states.
THE DEMOCRATS HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THE ALABAMA ECONOMY
The New Blue DemoTeam will run together as a team, raise money together
as a team, advertise together as a team as an efficiency measure, and will be
running primarily on a 3-point platform:

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1. They will run as Christian Democrats, not as liberals or conservatives, but
as Traditionalists with practical solutions to practical problems in an effort to
reform and revitalize the Alabama Democratic Party.

2. They will repair the damage to the states economic machinery, which has
been used by every Governor, both Democrat and Republican, since 1967 until
2002, at which time the machinery was systematically dismantled by Bob Riley
and the current administration under Governor Bentley. Since 2002 the
incumbents have continuously occupied the Governors Office in Montgomery,
and during that period the states average income has been steadily falling from
near a peak of $50,000 per household in 2002 when the Republican Governors
came into office until down to about $44,000 today, and it continues to fall.
Alabamas medium income as a percentage of National median household income
has also declined since 2002 as illustrated by the following graph:


89% in 2002
78% in 2013
0.6
0.66
0.72
0.78
0.84
0.9
1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2003 2007 2011
Alabama's Median Household Income as a
% of National Median Household Income
Sources: US Bureau of Economic Analysis and US Bureau of the Census
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3. While the economic machinery is being repaired, the Democrats will
advocate a Small Business Bank that will finance new small businesses. It is
calculated that between 45-85% of all new jobs come from new small businesses.
The New Blue DemoTeam is putting its emphasis on new small business while the
economic engines for the state are being repaired.

2014 IS ARMAGEDDON FOR DEMOCRATS IN ALABAMA
From the foregoing, it is easy to see that Alabama Democrat full-scale attack
from Republicans who are very well financed. For example, in the 2010 campaign,
the winning candidate spent over $11,000,000.00 (eleven million). If the
Democrats are rooted out of the courthouses, the Republicans could well be in
power for the next 134 years as the Democrats were for the 134 years preceding
the Republican sweep in 2010.
ROOT HOG OR DIE
It is therefore incumbent upon the Alabama State Democrats to utilize every
tool at its command to prevent the Republicans from sweeping the state. The best
way to do that is to protect and defend the top of the ticket. If we as Democrats can
get a sizeable number of voters to pull the Democratic lever, we have a very good
chance to protect our Sheriffs and Probate Judges at the county level.
THE POWER OF THE ALABAMA GOVERNOR IN POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS
The most powerful Political Executive in the United States is the President
of the U.S., who makes over 10,000 political appointments from what is called the
Cherry Book; this is over and above the appointments that he makes with the
advice and consent of the Senate.
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The next most powerful Political Executive is the Governor of Louisiana,
who makes approximately 6700 political appointments; this is a political power
carryover from the days of Governor Huey Long when he stacked appointments
for railroad, oil, and barge commissions.
The third most powerful Political Chief Executive is the Governor of
Alabama, who makes in excess of over 6000 political appointments during his 4
year term in office, plus any number of vacancies that may occur in elected offices
during the Governors term. These appointments are made to over 1000 cabinet
posts, bureaus, commissions, boards, and agencies, in a state that is top-heavy and
honeycombed with bureaucracy. Along with those are appointments at the
courthouse level that the Governor makes in conjunction with the Secretary of
State and State Auditor. It is, therefore, imperative that the Alabama Democratic
Party do everything in its power to elect the top of the ticket.
THE NEED TO ELECT A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
This year, in 2014, we are fortunate enough to have Democratic candidates
running for Congress in the 1
st
, 2
nd
, 3
rd
, and 7
th
, Congressional Districts. This is
important in that we now are in play for the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committees (DCCC), the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Legislative Campaign
Committee. We should now be able to raise money in Washington to help reform
and revitalize the Alabama Democratic Party that has been moribund.



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HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED FOR YOUR CAMPAIGNS?
We need to know how much money you need for your campaigns so that we
can budget and ask contributors for campaign funds accordingly. Please help us by
getting us ballpark figures of how much you think you will need to spend
individually, over, and apart from the joint statewide campaign that will cover all
Constitutional Executive Offices and the Congressional District Campaigns.

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