By Mike Sherman
November 5, 2002
A
bipartisan group of Alabama leaders Monday urged approval of a proposed
constitutional amendment on today's ballot as a crucial pre-requisite
for constitutional reform.
Members of the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform
rallied on the steps of the Capitol on Monday in support of Amendment
1.
The amendment would require that voters approve any new
constitution before it becomes the state's basic law.
"There is no law currently that says the people
have to ratify a new constitution," said Secretary of State Jim
Bennett, the state's chief elections official.
Artur Davis, Democratic nominee for U.S. House District
7, was among speakers who urged replacement of the state Constitution
of 1901. The Montgomery native and Jefferson Davis High School graduate
said that a constitution approved during an era that did not respect
the rights of blacks or women cannot speak to conditions 101 years
later.
"A document born in the worst recesses of our past
cannot speak to the best angels of our nature as we move into this
new century," he said.
Republican State Rep. Mac Gipson of Prattville said legislators
are hamstrung by a constitution and statutes that earmark 87 percent
of state revenue. "If I ran my business by a 1901 business plan,
can you imagine
how long I would be in business?" Gipson said.
Bradley Byrne, a member of the Alabama Board of
Education and Republican nominee for the state Senate in District
32 in Mobile and Baldwin counties, said constitutional reform will
be a front-burner issue next year because it has become a grassroots
effort.
A Montgomery Academy senior and president of the American Legion's
Girls Nation, Kasdin Miller said she supported constitutional reform
because only basic legal change will encourage the state's best and
brightest to return after college.
Supporters of reform and Amendment 1 were urged to sign
a school bus in front of the Capitol as evidence of their desire for
change.
Reform opponent Suzelle Josey,
of the Alabama Association for Judeo-Christian Values, said the Amendment
1 ballot language is deceptive because the full proposed amendment
would allow the Legislature to rewrite the constitution and submit
it for a vote without a constitutional convention.
Bennett said lawmakers can rewrite the document now and
the proposed amendment would not grant them more power.
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