Vaping, gambling, mental health and education were among some of the hot topics at an event hosted this week by a non-profit advocacy group in Mobile where constituents were able to speak directly to their district’s legislators.
About half of the members of Mobile County’s legislative delegation, which is comprised of the area’s state senators and representatives, attended a meet and greet Monday night hosted by Alabama Arise, a nonprofit working to improve the lives of those marginalized by poverty. The event was co-sponsored by the Alabama Poor People’s Campaign, Church Women United, League of Women Voters, NAACP and United Women in Faith.
Legislators in attendance included Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (D-33), Rep. Adline Clarke (D-97), Rep. Napoleon Bracy, Jr. (D-98), Rep. Sam Jones (D-99), Rep. Chris Pringle (R-101) and Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-103).
Alabama Arise also held a similar event for Baldwin County the week prior, but only one state representative attended.
The legislators expressed common interests with one another’s priorities, including Pringle, the lone Republican in attendance.
Bracy, however, said that he has recently been frustrated with how political polarization has upset the delegation’s history of working collaboratively across party lines. Last year, he said, no local bills for Mobile County passed.
“What I would like to see this session is for our colleagues on the other side, to come back to do what they know is right, what has worked for generations, what has made Mobile County the envy of the state and what has made Mobile County the absolute best delegation in the state of Alabama,” Bracy said.
Below are some of the major takeaways from what the elected officials said their priorities for 2024 are when the legislative session begins Feb. 6.
Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (D-33)
What are your priorities and hopes for the 2024 session?
“To separate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday from General Lee’s birthday ... When they made Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday, they moved Lee’s birthday to that day because they didn’t want another paid state holiday.
“My bill says that General Lee’s birthday will be moved to his death day, which is Columbus Day, happens to be in October so it’s still a paid holiday.”
“My other priority this session is going to be about women’s rights ... it’s Senate Bill 13, I have already pre-filed it ... it will protect the individual’s right to make one’s own reproductive decisions including contraception, fertility treatment continuing once on pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.”
Note: Senate Bill 13 “would propose an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, relating to abortion, to establish the individual right to make one’s own reproductive decisions, including contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion,” according to the bill’s text on the Alabama legislature website.
What are you most proud of from the 2023 legislative session?
“The thing that I’m most proud of is how hard we fought against all those bad bills that were in the legislature. Sometimes you can’t keep them from passing, but sometimes you can hold it back longer. Sometimes you can use it to negotiate other things. And I’m just so proud of how we stuck together as Democrats in both the House and the Senate to fight those bad bills.”
Rep. Adeline Clarke (D-97)
What are your priorities and hopes for the 2024 session?
“My top priority is to give you something that you’ve been asking for the entire time I’ve been in the Alabama Legislature, and that’s the opportunity to vote on whether you want gaming in Alabama.”
“Another priority is to help you get SB 1 defeated, and I will be working very hard to try to get voting bills passed that will help to increase voter turnout, not decrease.”
Note: Senate Bill 1 “would prohibit any person from ordering, requesting, collecting, prefilling, obtaining, or delivering an absentee ballot application or absentee ballot of a voter in certain circumstances and would provide for exceptions,” according to the bill’s text on the Alabama legislature website.
What are you most proud of from the 2023 legislative session?
“I wish it had been a total accomplishment. I am most proud of my work with grassroots organizations that have fought against a bill that would have made criminals of good Samaritans for helping people to vote absentee.
“I’m so proud of the people so proud of how many people traveled from Mobile to, not one, but two public hearings in Montgomery a public hearing that was held in Constitution, Campaigns and Elections, which is a committee that I serve on in the house (...) I’m just dumbfounded that about a dozen people came to speak at a public hearing in the House Committee.”
Rep. Napoleon Bracy, Jr. (D-98)
What are your priorities and hopes for the 2024 session?
“For the last 25 or 40 years, the Mobile County delegation has worked together, has respected each other — Democrat, Republican, Black, white. We have done that together as a community to do what’s right for Mobile County. All of a sudden last year, the Republicans decided that they were trying to take away this shared co-chairmanship of the delegation.”
“When the Democrats were in charge, we had co-chairmanship. When the Republicans were in charge, we had co-chairmanship. Now, we can’t have co-chairmanships anymore, which I feel like has taken away our opportunity to have a seat at the table and our voices to be heard.”
“It will be my hope that things can go back to the way they were when things worked. And we can go back to being the absolute best delegation in the state.”
What are you most proud of from the 2023 legislative session?
“We have state holidays for (state employees) to take off, but we know that we don’t pay them what they deserve, and they do a lot of hard work. I sponsored the pay raise deal that passed this year to give all of our state employees pay raises.”
“One of the issues that Rep. Clark talked about is that we had a real deal fight about this absentee ballot bill ... we had the opportunity to filibuster this bill. And I was laying in heavy on it, and the speaker turned my mic off and he gaveled me down because he was upset, because he felt like I was being too aggressive in bringing out points about this illegal bill that they were trying to pass, and I think that brought a lot of attention to the situation ... SB 1 is a top priority bill.”
Rep. Sam Jones (D-99)
What are your priorities and hopes for the 2024 session?
“I chaired the gaming committee for the Democratic caucus, and I can tell you that we’ve been working, both (committees have been) working together and talking. We’ve not gotten to the point where this actual bill has been produced for us, but we do know some of the framework.”
“We need our rural communities to be able to maintain hospitals and physicians. And one person asked me, ‘Well, what happens if they don’t get Medicaid? If they don’t get it done? When you know what happens? A lot of them just don’t make it’s just as simple as that.”
“We’ve also got to address this mental health crisis. You only need to drive the streets in Mobile and you’ll see people walking who you know need some mental health assistance. They are not being taken care of because we don’t have all the resources to do that in Mobile, in my opinion, or Baldwin County. That’s something that needs to be addressed.”
What are you most proud of from the 2023 legislative session?
“I am happy that we had COVID money last year, which enhanced education. There were a lot of things that we would not been able to do had it not been for that, and I think that really made an impact. But I want to make it clear that we don’t have any COVID money this year. That federal money went away, and now we have to find a way to really address those needs.”
Rep. Chris Pringle (R-101)
What are your priorities and hopes for the 2024 session?
“One of the biggest issues we are going to address is gambling... We’ve kicked this can down the road for years and years and we have this hodgepodge mishmash of gambling legislation.”
“The reality is we have hundreds of illegal gambling places throughout the entire state. They’re not paying taxes. They’re not regulated. And not only are they providing illegal gambling, they’re selling drugs. Because they’re misdemeanors, the district attorneys don’t really want to prosecute.”
“I go down to these rural counties, and they’re horrible. We’re losing our hospitals. And without these hospitals in these rural counties, how do we go recruit industries and say, ‘Put a plant in this county, there’s not a hospital within 60 miles but we need you to bring jobs to town.’ It’s kind of self-defeating. It’s a problem we have we have to address along with transportation.
“We need transportation corridors to open up opportunities for these rural counties ... These rural counties are bleeding population because there’s no work. There’s no opportunity because they don’t have the infrastructure.”
What are you most proud of from the 2023 legislative session?
“I’m one of these people that hates tobacco as a reformed smoker. I used to smoke about three packs a day, and I know how horrible that product is, and Barbara has done such a great job with vaping. It’s killing the children.”
“We’ve got to stop this fentanyl. It is killing people left and right. I want you to wrap your head around this because this is what I cannot grasp. The drug dealers market their products. They have a name for it on the street, what is is, I don’t know. If they’re not selling enough of their drugs, they actually reconstitute it and add fentanyl to make sure they kill somebody because their drug sales go up. Because the drug addicts are so addicted to this product. They want the highest high they can get.”
Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-103)
What are your priorities and hopes for the 2024 session?
“I want to share a little story with you. I was driving home, Rep. Clark and I, from the Black Belt, and I got a call from a minister to inform me that a nine-year-old student from Leinkauf Elementary was just shot and killed in her house while she slept.
“...They did little mimickings for Black History Month, and she actually had played me in Black History Month. I’m telling you this story because it hit me really hard, so I am working with the sheriff because I am tired of young people who don’t value life, even those that are innocent. You will see a piece of legislation from me that will up the penalty for those that shoot into unoccupied as well as occupied dwellings. I’m tired of innocent lives being lost.”
“I’m going to get back on the vape (bills) ... What can you all do to help me? For vaping, I want you all not to believe any of the lies ... Both my parents died of respiratory ailments, and I had people calling me saying I was in bed with the tobacco people. Don’t believe that. Call me.”
What are you most proud of from the 2023 legislative session?
“I think the one thing that I am most proud of is education. As a matter of fact, Sen. Figures and Rep. Pringle and I attended the school system today, and they recognized our delegation because we have the largest school system in the state, and I am thankful to say that we got about $6 million for Mobile County Public Schools.”
“I am proud that we were able to get $15 million for our airport. These are tangible things that will help us enhance our community.”