Joey Kennedy

Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column each week for the Alabama Political Reporter. You can email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.

Those in power really don’t want you to vote. You scare them.

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter So, Republican Alabama Secretary of State John H. Merrill tells us Tuesday in a guest column for The Alabama Political Reporter, no more crossover voting in the State. Republicans who vote in a Republican Primary, and Democrats who vote in a Democratic Primary, have to vote in those same … Continued

August 2, 2017

Scouting for a Sessions replacement

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter I was a Boy Scout for about two seconds. But that’s longer than President Donald Trump, who was never a Boy Scout. Yet, Trump was typically classless on Monday night speaking at the annual Boy Scout Jamboree, turning the event into basically a political rally, even encouraging the Scouts … Continued

July 26, 2017

The best ever by far?

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter This won’t be a long column. Doesn’t have to be. Not much explaining or analysis needed. Disgraced former Gov. Robert Bentley, in an interview with WVTM-TV this week, said he was “the best Governor Alabama’s ever had by far.” Yes, he did. He said it. And: “Had people just … Continued

July 20, 2017

And then, Jesus wept.

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter We know what to expect from US Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Madison). We’ve heard his hateful rhetoric for long enough. But even I never expected the words now coming out of the mouth of US Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Montrose), once one of the few “reasonable” Alabama Republicans out there. I … Continued

July 13, 2017

How did we get here? I’ll tell you.

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Listening to the fireworks go off around me Tuesday, I found myself contemplating what the Fourth of July, or Independence Day, really means. And this Independence Day, I couldn’t help wondering how we’d gotten here. How did we end up with a cold, despicable, bully-hearted President? How did we … Continued

July 5, 2017

The same, or different?

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Are we going to be the same, making the same decisions over and over again, and hoping for a different result? (The definition of insanity.) Or will Alabama voters decide what we’re doing is not working, and make some new choices? We’ll have a good indication with the upcoming … Continued

June 28, 2017

“What can the Internet do for us?”

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Congratulations to Josh Moon, my colleague at The Alabama Political Reporter, for taking a couple of journalism awards from the Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors group. Those aren’t Moon’s first awards, and they likely won’t be his last. Showing nothing but class, Moon put the awards in the correct … Continued

June 22, 2017

Yes, we must have better gun control

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter So, what do we do? Wednesday was another terrible day of gun violence in the nation. The events, which left a US Congressman and four others wounded in Alexandria, Va., and four UPS employees dead and two others wounded in San Francisco, had nothing to do with Donald Trump’s … Continued

June 15, 2017

We all need a Summer of Revival

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Alabama needs a vibrant two-party system. In truth, it has never had one in modern times. Democrats controlled the State for a long time, with Republicans holding only a few offices. Then, in 2010, Republicans swept into control, with a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature and winning … Continued

June 7, 2017

A study in taxation. Again.

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter It’s encouraging to see a State Task Force looking into the State’s tax system. It’s not the first time. And it likely won’t be the last. Actually, we have these “task forces” quite regularly. What will be the “first time” is if the Joint Task Force on Budget Reform … Continued

June 1, 2017