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John Merrill

Opinion

Opinion

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Republicans playing by different rules when it comes to state ethics laws

The law is simple: Candidates running for public office in Alabama must file a statement of economic interests when they qualify, and then must file an annual SEI by the yearly deadline. That’s not hard, right? File an SEI when you qualify. File again at the next year’s deadline. Simple. But then, following ethics laws … Continued
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August 14, 2018

Republican Party will not remove candidates from the ballot

Candidates are required to file a Statement of Economic Interests form with the Alabama Ethics Commission. It has been recently reported that certain candidates did not file their 2017 statements by the deadline. Under Alabama law failure to file a Statement of Economic Interests means removal from the ballot. The Republican Party told the Alabama … Continued
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August 13, 2018
Opinion

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Inside the Statehouse: Primary political potpourri

Now that the dust has settled on the primaries, allow me to share with you some thoughts on the Alabama political stage. There is an old saying that says the more things change, the more they stay the same. This old adage is true in Alabama politics. First of all, “All politics is local.” In the … Continued
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August 9, 2018
Opinion

Opinion

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In politics, more than ever, conversations are important

Terry Lathan was not happy with me. That tends to happen, I guess, when you say in a column that someone believed a dumb thing. The believer of that dumb thing, it seems, very rarely shares the opinion that what they believe is, in fact, dumb. And that was pretty much Lathan’s position. In a … Continued
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August 8, 2018
Opinion

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Lathan, ALGOP circumvent secretary of state, agree to hand out sensitive voter info

There is often a penalty for believing dumb things. Terry Lathan should receive one. Last week, emails from soon-to-be-impeached-President Trump’s so-called “voter fraud commission” were made public for the first time. The short-lived commission, which was abruptly disbanded last January, less than a year after it was established, was set up to root out the … Continued
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August 6, 2018

Secretary of State’s Office begins voter fraud investigation in Wilcox and Perry Counties

Turnout in Tuesday’s primary runoff was just 12.7 percent across the state. That percentage, however, varied wildly across the state. Many Democrats did not vote as there were not any statewide Democratic runoffs. Understandably then, the counties with the worst voter participation rates were Democratic dominated Black Belt Counties. Choctaw County was the worst in … Continued
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July 20, 2018