By John Peck
Times Montgomery Correspondent jpeck@htimes.com
July
22, 2002
Former Mississippi Gov. William Winter offers this
advice for people pushing to rewrite the Alabama Constitution:
Keep lobbying the governor, legislators and candidates
for those offices to make constitutional reform a top priority. Otherwise,
all the grassroots push won't matter because special interests will
use their money and influence to convince politicians otherwise.
Mississippi has yet to overhaul its 1890 constitution,
but it came close during Winter's term from 1980 to 1984, and under
his successor, Bill Alaine.
Mississippi governors were prohibited from running for
a second consecutive term then.
Alabama's 1901 constitution also has yet to be replaced
or drastically overhauled. It's been heavily amended, though: 713
times with 34 more proposed amendments on the November ballot.
A bill calling for a constitutional convention got a
hearing this spring but never made it to the legislative floor for
a vote.
The grassroots Alabama Citizens Commission on Constitutional
Reform held the first of a series of meetings last week in Huntsville
to study constitutional revision.
Alabama organizers want to look to other states to see
what has worked and what hasn't. Georgia overhauled its constitution
in 1982, but that was by the Legislature through an appointed commission
that prepared a draft. Louisiana changed its constitution in 1970
in a citizens convention.
Gil Carmichael of Meridian, Miss., a retired automobile
dealer and an outspoken advocate for constitution reform in that state,
said the Alabama and Mississippi constitutions both grew out of Southern
rebellion to Reconstruction after the Civil War.
"The sad thing about these constitutions is that
they were anti-business, anti-federal government and anti-black,''
he said. But, Carmichael said, many blacks in Mississippi turned against
reform with the attitude that ''the devil they knew was better than
a devil they didn't know.'' Some chamber of commerce groups worried
that right-to-work provisions would be stripped away in a rewrite,
he said.
Carmichael embraced constitution reform as a single issue
in unsuccessful races for governor in 1975 and 1979. A Republican,
he failed to get the party's backing for his candidacy so he ran as
an independent for lieutenant governor in 1983, again embracing constitution
reform.
Winter said he supported an overhaul when he won in 1980
but chose education reform as his chief campaign plank because it
was something he found easier to relate to voters. Constitution reform,
he said, is "a hard sell. And you have to be willing to put a
lot of political capital on the line.''
Winter said a constitutional revision in his state would
be a psychological step if nothing else: "It would be a statement
that Mississippi is now ready to embrace the challenges of the 21st
century with a constitution geared to achieve those results.''
Winter said he wishes he'd taken more of a leadership
role by calling a special session of the Legislature limited to constitutional
revision.
Alabama constitution reform supporters need to expand
their push from grassroots meetings and make sure candidates and elected
officials know they demand business, he said.
"What we're seeing in Alabama is what happened in
Mississippi in the 1980s," he said. "There was a grassroots
organization with a lot of muscle behind it but they didn't get the
support of the top leadership in the Legislature. The grassroots effort
was well planned and well organized. If the governor at that time
had called a special session of the Legislature and made that the
one item of business, I think there was reasonable support for it
to have been successful.''
A bill calling for a constitutional convention in Mississippi
did gain momentum in 1988. It passed the House but died in the Senate
after an amendment sent it to conference committee and the two sides
couldn't agree.
State Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from east central Mississippi,
said proponents have yet to succinctly explain how a new constitution
can make a difference in people's lives. Bryan said lawmakers, and
the public, seem to have moved on to other issues.
Alabama reform advocates say the shorter and more general
a state constitution, the more autonomy local governments have. Alabama's
constitution "spells out everything,'' said Secretary of State
Jim Bennett.
Some states don't allow the legislature to pass local
acts that apply to only one county or city. Alabama's constitution
requires local acts for even the most basic service. One county needed
legislative approval to establish a mosquito control program. Another
needed one to repeal a beaver bounty.
County commissions in Alabama don't even have authority
to regulate junk yards and mobile home parks without getting approval
from the full Legislature. Critics say state policymakers cannot focus
on state issues if they are spending so much time on local acts.
Alabama has several ways to draft a new constitution:
through an elected citizens convention, by the Legislature article
by article, or through an appointed commission with legislative input.
Voters would have the final say in any case.
Bennett, chairman of Alabama Citizens Commission on Constitution
Reform, said the election of a new governor and Legislature this November
can be an opening to replace Alabama's 1901 constitution, which reformers
say is racist, outdated and unwieldy, and funnels too much power to
Montgomery.
Opponents say they fear a rewrite could remove tax and
gambling barriers and be influenced by big-monied special interests.
Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman supports a constitutional
convention. Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob Riley supports revisions
but has not prescribed a method.
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