Some issues in Alabama seem like perennials, and many continued to take root in 2021. The state prisons remained in crisis. Politicians continue to argue over district boundaries. Lottery and gambling bills face major obstacles.
The COVID virus could join that list. The was the unmoved mover of Alabama in 2021, turning policy and politics like a wheel that would speed up or slow down, but never stopped moving.
The virus continued to kill residents of the state and send people into emergency rooms. Alabama’s vaccination rate stayed stubbornly low relative to the rest of the country, thanks in part to political resistance. The outbreak influenced attempts to limit or abolishsome of the tactics used against the virus in the spring of 2020. And it cut a path to some pieces of legislation that had not existed before.
Below, Alabama’s top political stories of 2021.
10. New faces in the Montgomery legislative delegation
Montgomery County’s legislative delegation went through a reshuffle in 2021, due to deaths and the lingering effect of a resignation. In March, Democratic Rep. Kirk Hatcher of Montgomery won a special election to succeed former Sen. David Burkette, D-Montgomery, who resigned in September 2020 and later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance charge. Following Hatcher’s election, Kenyatte Hassell, a former campaign aide of Hatcher’s, won a special election in September to succeed him in his old House seat.
Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery, died in August, after representing his south Montgomery district for 27 years. Penni McClammy, an attorney and McClammy’s daughter, won his seat without drawing opposition.
No current member of Montgomery’s legislative delegation has served longer than eight years.
From August:Thad McClammy, state representative and former Trenholm president, dies
9. Alcohol delivery bills pass
Gov. Kay Ivey signed bills authorizing restaurants and retailers to deliver beer and wine, and legislation allowing direct shipment of wine to homes. Neither bill drew a great deal of opposition in the Legislature.
The attitudes reflect a significant turnaround for lawmakers who once found alcohol legislation bitter and hard to swallow. Supporters said it was due to the experience of COVID, liberalizing attitudes toward liquor and the success of urban entertainment districts. One anti-alcohol advocate said the limitations on lobbyists this spring also played a role.
From April:Bottoms up: How the Alabama Legislature learned to love alcohol legislation
8. Critical race theory
Republican officials got swept up in a nationwide GOP offensive against critical race theory, an academic approach that studies why racial disparities still exist. Ivey made it a part of her campaign, and the Alabama State Board of Education passed a resolution banning the teaching of “concepts that impute fault, blame, a tendency to oppress others, or the need to feel guilty or anguish to persons solely because of their race or sex.”
State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey said in the lead-up to the passage of the resolution that critical race theory is not taught in Alabama’s K-12 schools. Teachers who spoke against the resolution said it would place restrictions on the teaching of U.S. history.
From August:Critical race theory: Alabama education leaders continue debate on how racism is taught in schools
7. Gambling bill dies again
Every gambling bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature dies, but the 2021 version of the legislation danced The Hustle before falling into the grave.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, was one of the more ambitious approaches to the issue in recent memory. It aimed to incorporate the recommendations of a gambling commission set up by Ivey in 2020 and reflected months of negotiations among Marsh and gambling operators in the state. The measure would have authorized a lottery and casino-style gaming at four dog tracks in the state, along with a future site owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. The bill would also have encouraged Ivey to negotiate a compact with the tribe.
That approach addressed some of the bitter infighting that had doomed previous gambling bills. But numbers proved the legislation’s undoing. Marsh’s plan as filed kept out several operators. When senators tried to add more in, it lost support from legislators uneasy with the idea of gambling. Legislators revived the bill late in the session, but a lack of communication between House Democrats and Republicans led to another defeat. A last-minute attempt by House Republicans to patch together a lottery-only bill failed to advance.
From May:Alabama House erupts in anger, chaos, confusion during late-night battle over gambling bill
6. Medical marijuana
Alabama unlocked a rare achievement in 2021, becoming one of the few states to authorize a medical marijuana program before a lottery.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, would allow the use of medical marijuana for about 16 different conditions, including cancer, chronic pain and PTSD. Patients will have to get approval from a physician participating in the program and register with the state. The bill prohibits smoking cannabis or baking it into products. Patients could consume it as gelatins or capsules.
The Senate swiftly approved the bill in February, but the main battle was in the House, which had defeated the legislation before. In an unusual move, House leaders sent the medical marijuana bill through two committees before bringing it to a floor vote. The legislation ran into opposition from Attorney General Steve Marshall and some district attorneys, who pushed amendments to the legislation aimed at weakening it, none of which passed. The legislation cleared the House after two days of often emotional debate on the floor, as representatives discussed family members’ struggles with drug addiction and chronic disease.
Licenses for medical marijuana production will not be issued until the fall of 2022, and medical marijuana may not be available in Alabama until 2023.
From May:Alabama has just authorized medical marijuana. Here’s what to know.
5. Transgender health
Republicans in the Legislature joined colleagues in states around the nation introducing bills that targeted transgender teenagers. In April, Ivey signed legislation sponsored by Rep. Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle, that banned transgender teenagers in public schools from playing sports of the gender with which they identify. A second measure sponsored by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, would have prevented doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to youth under the age of 19. Shelnutt’s bill passed the Senate and was on the House agenda on the final night of the session, but the clock ran out before it came to a vote.
The legislation brought protests to the State House from transgender teenagers and physicians who work with them. They said the bills showed a profound misunderstanding of gender dysphoria and treatments. Shelnutt’s bill banned genital surgery on minors besides circumcision; health care professionals said that surgery is never performed on minors. Supporters of his bill suggested that it would stave off potential competition for girls from transgender teenagers who might want to play sports of the sex with which they identify. An Associated Press survey found few if any examples of that happening.
From April:Transgender youth, advocates urge rejection of bill banning medical treatments
4. 2022 Republican field takes shape
After U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby announced his retirement in early 2021, several candidates jumped in. The two leading Republican contenders are U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Huntsville and Katie Boyd Britt, a former President and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama.
Ivey announced her plans for re-election in June but has drawn challengers including Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler; businessman Tim James and former Slovenian ambassador Lindy Blanchard (who ran for the U.S. Senate as Lynda Blanchard). Zeigler has attacked Ivey’s handling of the pandemic, while James and Blanchard have criticized current Republican leadership in the state. Ivey says she is proud of her record and plans to emphasize the current state of the economy.
From May:Mo Brooks says he’ll take his own approach in Senate race
From July:Katie Boyd Britt wants to solve the state’s problems, but is that what Alabama wants?
3. Redistricting
Demographers projected that Alabama would lose a congressional seat after the 2020 Census, but the results showed the state population grew 5% between 2010 and 2020, just enough to allow the state to hold onto all seven House representatives. But the point of contention during a redistricting special session became the make-up of at least two of those districts.
Democrats pushed for the creation of a second congressional district with a significant majority-minority population, arguing that two such districts would better reflect the Black Alabama population. Republicans, who control six of the seven districts, said that there was no way to draw two such districts. The Legislature approved congressional districts that keep the current configuration. Democrats brought their cases to court. A federal judge will hear arguments in the case in January.
The Legislature also approved new House, Senate and State Board of Education maps. The maps will likely keep the Republican supermajority in place without significantly expanding it. It does create a handful of competitive districts, most notably in the Huntsville area.
From November:Alabama’s 2022 congressional maps are in. And so are the lawsuits
2. Prison construction
Alabama prisons have faced a decades-long crisis of violence and overcrowding, and Ivey and Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn have pushed for years for new facilities to house prisoners. The Legislature in September approved a $1.3 billion plan to build two new men’s prisons in Elmore and Escambia counties. Each would hold 4,000 inmates, and supporters say they would be safer than current facilities and save the state money.
The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the state over conditions in the state’s prisons, and critics said new buildings will not address the prisoner-on-prisoner violence, excessive use of force by corrections officers and rampant drug use that have plagued the state’s correctional facilities. The state’s decision to use $400 million in COVID relief money to speed construction along also drew criticism, most notably from U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who asked the Treasury Department to deny the use of the funds for prisons.
Dunn will leave the Department of Corrections at the end of the year. John Hamm, currently the deputy director of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, will take his place.
From October:Analysis: New prisons are coming. Prison lawsuits are pending. The prison crisis persists.
1. COVID
The pandemic continued to kill and hospitalize Alabamians in 2021. Despite a long campaign from Ivey and others to encourage vaccinations, Alabama had one of the lowest shot rates in the nation. By the end of November, less than half of the state had gotten two shots. That left the state vulnerable to a surge fueled by the delta variant of the virus that swamped emergency rooms and wore out hospital staff; the federal government deployed teams to south Alabama to address the crisis. More people died of COVID in Alabama in 2021 than in 2020.
Despite that, Republican leaders began stepping away from the regular briefings that marked the beginning of the outbreak and focused instead on preventing vaccine mandates. Ivey turned away efforts to limit her power to respond to future pandemics, but the Legislature in the spring approved a measure that prevented businesses from denying service to customers based on their vaccination status (though the law has no enforcement mechanism). Ivey and other Republican leaders also sued to prevent President Joe Biden’s vaccine plan, aimed at controlling future outbreaks, from taking shape.
From September::Alabama verifies more than 1,000 new COVID-19 deaths in past week
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.
