Democratic Hopes For Ala. Seat Brighten

Bobby Bright, the mayor of Montgomery, Ala., is running as a Democrat for the southern Alabama seat of retiring Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.), giving Democrats a top recruit poised to compete in solidly Republican territory.

Bright plans to formally announce his candidacy Tuesday at the Dale County Courthouse, near his hometown. The rural county is located in the southeastern “wiregrass” part of the state, a heavily Republican area that will be critical to Bright’s hopes of winning the seat.

He has a unique profile that could aid his prospects in a solidly Republican district that has been in Republican hands for the last 44 years. The district gave President Bush an overwhelming 67 percent of the vote in 2004.

Bright, who has been elected to three terms as a non-partisan mayor, has a reputation for revitalizing the city’s downtown since taking over in 1999. And he’s been touting his socially conservative pedigree. He’s “pro-gun and pro-life” a Bright spokesman told Politico.

Republicans had also been recruiting him to run, according to published reports.

“When a sharecropper’s son can become a congressman and help improve the everyday lives of the people who need a voice in Washington you know that America is still the greatest, most blessed country in the world,” Bright said in a statement.
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