Supporters want Alabama House of Representatives to debate
constitutional convention plan
Supporters seek debate in House
The Birmingham News
Monday, April 27, 2009

MONTGOMERY - Supporters of a plan that would let voters decide whether to call a convention of delegates to draft a new state constitution say they will try to get the House of Representatives to vote on the proposal this week.

TThey tried to get the House to vote on the plan Thursday, but the agenda-setting House Rules Committee voted 7-5 to block debate on it by the full House that day.

Three of the 15 committee members were absent, and panel chairman Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said he would ask members to vote again this week to bring the resolution up for debate by the House. "It'll be close," Guin said.

"Hopefully, we can get everybody there and we can get it out of Rules," said plan sponsor Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham. "We have not given up on it."

Long road ahead:

The proposal, House Joint Resolution 91, has a long way to go to take effect. If the House debates it, at least 53 of the 104 House members would have to approve for it to pass and face review by the Senate. If the Senate Rules Committee agreed to let the full Senate debate it, the resolution would need support from at least 18 of the 32 senators.

If both the House and Senate passed the resolution, state voters would decide in the June 2010 primaries whether to call a convention. If most voters said no, nothing else would happen. If most said yes, voters in November 2010 would elect 210 people, two from each of Alabama's 105 House districts, as convention delegates. The two top vote-getters in each district would be elected. The races would be non-partisan.

A candidate for delegate could take no more than a $100 campaign contribution from any one source, but there would be no limit on how much a candidate could spend on his or her own campaign.

Delegates would hold a convention starting in June 2011, and they would decide when to end it. If delegates succeeded in drafting a new constitution, state voters would decide in November 2012 whether to accept it.

If most said yes, the new constitution would take effect Jan. 1, 2013. If most said no, the current constitution would remain in effect.

Newton said replacing the current constitution, which an all-white, all-male assembly proposed in 1901, would be good for Alabama.

He predicted a convention that included women and blacks would produce a better supreme state law and framework for state government.

"Anything would be better than the 1901 constitution we now have," Newton said.

He said a new constitution could transfer more power to counties and let legislators spend more time on statewide problems instead of voting on local issues such as garbage collection, zoning or local taxes.

"Those things ought to be left up to the local government," Newton said.

Guin said he also wants the current constitution replaced.

"It was written in 1901 to basically empower a group of wealthy individuals in the state of Alabama. It was not written in a manner to protect the interest of the general public. I think that has kept Alabama behind throughout the years," Guin said.

Opposition:

But Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, a Rules Committee member who opposed the full House debating the resolution, said he'd rather the Legislature propose changes to the constitution section by section and let the voters accept or reject them.

"A constitutional convention had an opportunity to do a constitution, and they gave us the 1901 constitution," Buskey said. "I don't want that process to happen again."

Rep. Richard Laird, D-Roanoke, who also voted in committee against the full House debating the resolution, said he also would rather see legislators gradually draft changes to the constitution. He said voters could judge one section of the constitution better than an entire document.

"When you redo the entire constitution, it would be such a big volume till they couldn't possibly understand it," Laird said.

Speaker Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, the House leader, said he once preferred a gradual, piece-by-piece approach to rewriting the constitution. But now he favors a convention, since the House over the years has passed several rewrites of sections only to see them die in the Senate.

"We can't get any cooperation from the Senate," Hammett said. "I think it's about time to try something different."

Buskey and Laird said they held out hope for renewed focus in the Legislature on a piece-by-piece rewrite of the constitution. "We just need somebody to start the process ... and then this Legislature give over time for this to be done," Buskey said.

Newton and Guin said they didn't know whether 53 or more House members would vote for the resolution even if the House Rules Committee cleared the way for it to be debated.

But Newton said he wants a test vote, for people to know before the legislative races in 2010 who's for and who's against letting voters decide whether to call a constitutional convention.

"I think that's very important," he said. "Everybody's looking forward to 2010."

E-mail: dwhite@bhamnews.com

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