By Mike Cason
All 140 seats in the Alabama Legislature are on ballots across the state on Nov. 8, but in many districts, voters have limited choices.
Republicans hold 70 percent of the seats at the State House and that is unlikely to change much.
Of the 52 Republican incumbents seeking another four-year term in the House of Representatives, only eight have Democratic challengers. There are 23 Republican senators seeking another term. Only four have Democratic opponents.
One reason for the scarcity of competition is the strength of the Republican Party in Alabama, where the GOP holds every statewide office. Another reason is that district lines are generally drawn to favor incumbents regardless of party. Of the 30 Democratic incumbents running in the House and Senate, only six have Republican challengers.
Voters in some districts do have a new option this year. The Alabama Libertarian Party gained statewide ballot access through a petition drive and has candidates in 27 House races and 11 Senate races.
In Mobile and Baldwin counties, Senate District 33 is shaping up as a competitive battle between Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican challenger Pete Riehm.
Another exception to the lack of competitive races is House District 74 in Montgomery, where the incumbent, Rep. Charlotte Meadows, a Republican, faces Democrat Phillip Ensler.
The redistricting plan passed by the Legislature last year changed District 74 from majority white to majority Black and made reelection harder for Meadows in a state where Black voters lean Democrat. The district, with about 47,000 people, was 67 percent white under the previous plan. Under the new map approved last year, District 74 is 55 percent Black.
Meadows, 60, said she was initially upset by the change but has moved past that.
“At this point it is what it is,” Meadows said. “I’m working hard to win it. There’s a lot of great neighborhoods that I’m going to be very proud to represent if I win on November 8th.”
Ensler, 32, said the change in the district’s racial breakdown was a factor in his decision to run because he believes his views match many of the residents.
“The issues transcend political party,” Ensler said. “But I certainly felt that with the new makeup of the district that there was alignment there.”
Meadows attended public schools in Montgomery and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Auburn University. She spent much of her professional career as the business manager for her husband, Dr. Allen Meadows, an allergy and asthma specialist who has practiced in Montgomery since 1991.
Meadows said she became alarmed about the quality of education in Montgomery while trying to hire employees for the medical practice.
“I realized the young people that are graduating from our schools, I couldn’t consider them because their resumes are horrible,” Meadows said. “That was really frustrating, eye-opening.”
Meadows was elected to the Montgomery Public Schools board in 2006 and served a six-year term, including a time as board president. In 2013, Meadows finished second in the race for the House District 74 seat. Meadows won the seat in 2019 in a special election after the death of Rep. Dimitri Polizos.
Meadows said she has the track record to make a strong pitch to Black voters.
“My message to them is I’m not your establishment Republican,” Meadows said. “When the property tax came up for Montgomery Public Schools, I supported that because I felt like it was the best thing for the school system.
“In Montgomery I’ve got a record of accomplishment, not just in the Legislature, but also some other things I’ve done in the community that I think a lot of people appreciate.”
Meadows said that includes the establishment of LEAD Academy, a public charter school in Montgomery that she co-founded. The school is in its fourth year and has more than 700 students in pre-K through eighth grade.
“We are making a significant difference to those families,” Meadows said. She said the school has waiting lists for pre-K and other grades and plans to add a grade every year for the next few years.
“There is demand in the community for something different, and we’ve been able to provide it,” Meadows said. “And our student achievement data shows that we’re teaching kids at higher levels.”
Ensler is a New York City native who worked as an intern and associate in President Obama’s administration. After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from George Washington University in 2012, Ensler taught history for two years at Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery under the Teach for America program.
“I wanted to get out of the suit and tie and actually do something more hands-on and serve,” Ensler said.
Ensler earned a degree from Cardozo School of Law, passed the Alabama bar, and from 2017 to 2019 worked as policy counsel for the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Ensler was senior policy advisor for Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed from 2020 to 2021 before taking his current job as executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Alabama.
Ensler lost in a race for the Montgomery Public Schools board in 2018 but said he stayed involved and saw an opportunity with the changes in District 74.
“Having been involved in public service and having taught and worked at the city, I had in general that passion for public service,” Ensler said. “But the real driving forces were just constantly hearing from residents, especially when I was working at the city, that they don’t necessarily care if it’s a city issue, county issue, state issue. They just want to know that there are people in there that are responsive and listening and trying to help solve problems.”
Different views on education
Ensler said his two years teaching at Lee High School helped him understand struggles facing students in Alabama public schools.
“One of the things I found is that for young people, too often there is a one-size-fits-all approach,” Ensler said.
Ensler said that while there are certain fundamentals every student needs, he would like to see a more differentiated curriculum that allows students to learn about specific careers.
“Just rethinking what we teach and how we teach it is so important,” Ensler said.
Ensler started a program in 2012 called Marching On to take students to Washington, D.C., where they tour the campuses of George Washington University and Howard University and meet leaders there. Students from all five of Montgomery’s traditional public high schools participate. For many, it’s the first time to fly. Ensler said the trips help students envision themselves on a college campus.
“But once back in Montgomery, they don’t necessarily have access to good ACT prep,” Ensler said. “Or they haven’t quite honed their writing skills to write a really good, one-page essay. So having more college prep in our traditional public schools, especially for students who don’t always get that, I think is really needed.”
Ensler said factors that cripple learning in school systems like Montgomery’s are complex and that many start in the home.
“I had students whose parents or primary caregiver worked all-night shifts,” Ensler said. “So when the student got out of school, their parent wasn’t home. They’re having to watch their younger sibling, and maybe prepare dinner for them or help clean the house because their mom is trying to do her best. All these other factors are socioeconomically tied. I had young people that would come into my classroom in a horrible mood or frustrated or angry.”
Ensler said it’s not realistic to pin the blame on families and say “Just do better.” He said schools need more resources to help students in difficult circumstances succeed, including more guidance counselors and mental health counselors.
“We have to teach to the whole child and have kind of those wrap-around services,” Ensler said. “And that takes having more counselors and more professionals that can focus on not just the content and substance of teaching but really supporting the whole child.”
Ensler said he would support establishment of a state lottery to support education and help pay for more counselors and other resources.
“I know sometimes people cringe and will say it’s throwing money at the problem and that won’t solve it,” Ensler said. “I see it as an investment.”
He said he would promote partnerships between schools and nonprofits and foundations that can help fill in gaps in services.
Meadows said her term on the Montgomery Public Schools board taught her that decisions sometimes disregard the best interests of students and families. Meadows is an advocate for school choice — allowing parents to use tax dollars to help send their children to private school or provide home school. After leaving the Montgomery school board, she worked for Students First, an organization that lobbied the Alabama Legislature to authorize charter schools. Alabama was one of the last states in the nation to allow charter schools, passing a bill in 2015.
This year, Meadows sponsored a bill called the Parents Choice Act to allow families to use the per-student funding for public schools from state taxes, about $6,000 a year, to help pay for private school tuition, a school choice plan often called a voucher. It did not pass. Meadows said she will bring back some version of the bill next year if she is reelected.
“A lot of people are opposed to that,” Meadows said. “But if the private school fits the needs of the student the best, it’s my opinion that most parents know better about their individual child than anybody else and certainly better than a school system. So that’s where I think we have to give parents the ability to pick the school that’s going to work for their kids.”
Ensler opposes vouchers. Ensler said the loss of tax revenue to public schools under a voucher system would be effectively more than the cost reduced by lower enrollment, partly because certain fixed costs do not decrease. Ensler said he saw examples of limited resources in public schools at Lee High School, where he said the students had to share history textbooks that were a decade old. He said the “smartboard” in his classroom did not work and there were no shades on the windows.
“I’m much more inclined to say we need to focus on traditional schools,” Ensler said. “Making sure they have what they need before we start transferring dollars elsewhere.”
Meadows said she sees it differently.
“We’ve got to get away from thinking that the money comes from the state department to pay for a school system or a building,” Meadows said. “And if the building and the system is not meeting the needs of the students in that building and system, then we shouldn’t continue to fund it. And if that means we end up having to close some schools, well, when I as on the board in Montgomery we did. We closed five schools.
“And it was hard to do. There was a lot of community angst. But at the end of the day, it was the right thing to do because at the end of the day we didn’t have the students to fill those buildings.”
Meadows said a goal of improving education is the main reason she is running for reelection. She said she believes the state is on the right track in some key areas. In 2019, lawmakers passed the Literacy Act to put more resources into teaching reading in the earliest grades. This year they passed a similar bill for math called the Numeracy Act. Alabama students rank at or near the bottom nationally in national assessments of reading and math.
Reducing crime
Ensler said there’s a dominant theme in his conversations with residents.
“Public safety is the biggest issue in the district,” Ensler said. “Whether we’re in Dalraida. Vaughn Meadows, Chisholm, Woodley Park. Everywhere when I knock on doors, and I knock on doors five days a week. White, Black, Democrat, Republican, that is by far the biggest issue, public safety. People want safe neighborhoods. And that’s as basic as having sidewalks and concern about cars speeding through, to the most dangerous of gun violence.”
Ensler said the Republican majority in the Legislature hurt law enforcement when they passed a bill to end the requirement for a permit to carry handguns concealed or in a vehicle. The Alabama Sheriff’s Association and police chiefs spoke out against the bill, saying the permit requirement was an important tool to help prevent and solve crimes. Sheriffs also count on revenue from permit fees to help fund their operations.
“They turned their backs on law enforcement and they voted because of some special interest to pander to some voters,” Ensler said. “It’s disgusting and it’s scary. I talk to our sheriff regularly. I talk to Montgomery police officers that live in the district, good friends of mine that are officers that live in Chisholm and Bellehurst. They are deeply concerned.”
Meadows voted for the bill to eliminate the requirement for a concealed carry permit, which was supported by most of the former law enforcement officials in the Legislature. Proponents of so-called “constitutional carry” said the requirement to buy a permit to carry a concealed handgun or to carry one in a vehicle for protection violates the 2nd Amendment. Lawmakers created a grant program to help sheriffs recover revenue lost from the fees. And they passed a bill to set up a new database intended to help police more readily identify those who are illegally carrying guns during encounters such as traffic stops.
“I felt pretty comfortable that our constitution says we should be allowed to carry and it doesn’t say anything about after you pay a permit fee,” Meadows said. “And we already had open carry. All we didn’t have was concealed carry. To me it really came down to what the constitution says.”
Ensler said he supports the 2nd Amendment but believes permits were a reasonable requirement.
“I know that is something that people in the district feel strongly about,” Ensler said. “So this isn’t about taking guns away or anything like that. It’s just saying in life, in society, you have some parameters. And for law enforcement now to not be able to rely on that, they are very, very worried about that.”
Meadows said a key to reducing crime is improving education.
“Better education solves a lot of problems,” Meadows said. “It’s the people who don’t get a good education who end up on the street corners and who end up in our state prisons and federal prisons.”
Meadows said she tells neighborhood groups they play an important role by keeping eyes and ears open for their neighbors.
“Know patterns, who comes and goes,” Meadows said. “Pay attention and take care of each other. I think that’s a big one.”
Ensler said programs to help young people learn how to resolve conflicts without violence would be beneficial. He said he would support establishing those in schools, community centers, and churches.
Other issues
Both candidates said they support expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance for more low-income Alabamians. Democrats in the Legislature have called for Medicaid expansion for a decade, since it became available under the Affordable Care Act.
“The quality of care you get shouldn’t depend on how much money you have,” Ensler said. “It doesn’t mean that the government should just pay for everything. But I think there are ways between the federal government, the state, private insurers to do it. It’s not only morally the right thing to do, but economically that would be more dollars into our hospitals, more jobs for doctors, nurses, and administrators, the things that create good jobs in the community while also serving people’s health.”
Alabama’s Republican governors and Republican leaders in the Legislature have opposed Medicaid expansion, citing the cost. But Meadows said she thinks Medicaid expansion, done correctly, would be beneficial.
“In my opinion, we should be negotiating with the Biden administration right now to get the best possible deal on Medicaid expansion,” Meadows said. “There are some states that have gotten really good deals. (Former Gov.) Mike Pence great deal for Indiana.
“If we don’t get a good deal then it’s going to be a problem for our General Fund in just a couple of years and it’s not sustainable. So that would be the concern.”
Meadows said she supports eliminating the state sales tax on groceries. Lawmakers have talked about that idea for years but no bill has come close to passing, partly because there has been no agreement on how to replace the loss of the tax revenue, which goes to public schools.
Ensler said as a legislator he would stress constituent service and establish a team to respond to questions and concerns from people in his district, He acknowledged there is little or no funding to help lawmakers do that, but believes there are retirees and others willing to contribute their time and experience.
“That doesn’t mean I can solve everything, doesn’t mean they’re going to always be happy,” Ensler said. “But at least I think that’s a big part. I’m prepared for late nights and long days of returning calls and messages and hearing people out and trying to resolve things.”
12 years of GOP dominance
In 2010, Republicans ended 136 years of Democrat control of the Alabama Legislature when they gained 19 seats in the House and eight in the Senate. Since then, the GOP has built on its super-majority and holds 27 of 35 Senate seats and 71 of 105 in the House (four are vacant).
David Hughes, associate professor of political science at Auburn University at Montgomery, said it’s not surprising that a competitive race like District 74 is the rare exception in Alabama. Alabama and other states with similar circumstances generally do not have robust competition for legislative seats.
“Alabama invests the responsibility of drawing new district lines with the legislature,” Hughes said. “The legislature is super-majority Republican, and a Republican currently holds the governor’s office. Generally speaking, states where a single party holds a trifecta like this have less competitive districts due to legislative gerrymandering.
“To be sure, gerrymandering isn’t the only factor in play. Incumbents generally tend to win reelection, and it’s hard simply to defeat them absent some scandal or something else like a redistricted seat that would make them vulnerable to defeat.”
Although flipping one seat to the Democratic Party would not change the big picture in the Alabama State House, Ensler said it is important.
“I think a lot of people would be inspired by it,” Ensler said. “But I think bigger than even just flipping the seat, what it would mean for the community is that there is someone who is in touch with their values, with their concerns.”
Meadows said she is prepared for any outcome on Nov. 8. She believes turnout will be the decisive factor.
“I really care about people,” Meadows said. “And I think Democrats should look at each individual race and not vote a straight line. And look at me and see what I’ll do to help them and what I’ve done to help them.”
