Vote Mo Brooks for U.S. Senator

Blogger Comments:  After all of the corruption and controversy in the State of Alabama involving Governor Bentley and Luther Strange do we really want to send Big Luther to represent Alabama as our U.S. Senator?  That doesn't even include Big Luther's close connection to Sheriff Ana Franklin. Let the GOP spend their money on Strange while we support Mo Brooks or anybody but Big Luther...

State Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle, holds a new conference Thursday in Montgomery in which he questioned U.S. Sen. Luther Strange's record of supporting President Donald Trump. (Mary Sell/Decatur Daily)

Ed Henry: Strange wasn’t Trump supporter until after General Election

• By Mary Sell Montgomery Bureau
 
• Jul 14, 2017
• 
  

• • • MONTGOMERY — Rep. Ed Henry, state campaign co-chair for President Donald Trump during the 2016 election, said Thursday that U.S. Sen. Luther Strange “was never on the team” during the presidential campaign.
      Strange and Congressman Mo Brooks, of Huntsville, have recently made an issue over when the other supported Trump. Both men are leading candidates in a crowded GOP field in the special U.S. Senate election. The primary is Aug. 15.
      Earlier this week, the Senate Leadership Fund, a group tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that’s thrown its financial support behind Strange, released an ad questioning Brooks’ support for Trump during the campaign. Strange’s team has also referenced comments Brooks made leading up to the Nov. 8 election.
      Brooks, who was Ted Cruz's state campaign chairman, called Trump a "serial adulterer." Mailers sent by Strange's campaign used a quote from Brooks about Americans facing "tough votes in November" to suggest he had difficulty choosing between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton after Trump became the GOP nominee, The Associated Press reported this week.
      Brooks’ camp responded this week with a release that included a check Brooks had written to Trump’s campaign in Florida in October. Henry on Thursday said Brooks traveled with Trump’s team, stumping for him prior to the General Election.
      “Strange is frantic and grasping for a life-line,” the Brooks release said. “Our most recent polling showed that after many weeks and millions of dollars of pro-Luther Strange advertising, the race is effectively a dead heat.”
      The polling showed former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore at 27 percent, Strange at 23 percent and Brooks at 21.
      At a GOP event earlier this month, Strange said the Trump presidency is the greatest thing that’s happened to America and a “biblical miracle,” according to media reports.
      “When my good friend Jeff Sessions endorsed Donald Trump, that was good enough for me,” Strange said in a statement Thursday about his support for Trump.
      Sessions became U.S. attorney general, creating the senate vacancy that then-Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Strange to in February, amid state investigations of Bentley’s relationship with a staffer. Bentley resigned in April and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign finance violations.
      Henry, a Hartselle Republican, has been a vocal critic of Strange since his appointment in February. In the spring, Henry said he’d run against Strange for the Senate seat, but later changed his mind and did not file paperwork to run.
      On Thursday, Henry also criticized Strange for a letter he and about 60 other senators signed and sent to McConnell in April in support of legislative filibusters. Henry said the Senate has filibustered “everything Trump is trying to do.”
      Strange’s team has had its own criticism of Henry, including his 2014 support of then-Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn. Last year, Hubbard was convicted of 12 felony ethics violations. In 2015, Henry was part of a group that called for Hubbard to step down from his leadership spot.
      Henry, a two-term state lawmaker, reiterated Thursday that he wasn’t seeking any office in 2018 and said that should Brooks win the Senate seat, which he predicted will happen, Henry won’t run to replace him in the U.S. House.
      The others in the GOP field are Christian Coalition President Randy Brinson, Birmingham businessman Dom Gentile, state Sen. Trip Pittman, Bryan Peeples, Mary Maxwell, Joseph F. Breault, James Paul Beretta and Karen Haiden Jackson.
      Eight Democrats are seeking the seat: former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, Will Boyd, Vann Caldwell, Jason Fisher, Michael Hansen, Robert Kennedy Jr., Brian McGee and Nana Tchienkou.
      Henry had planned two news conferences Thursday but only the Montgomery event happened after the state Republican Party said he couldn’t use its headquarters.
      "The ALGOP welcomes Republicans who request, in a timely manner, the use of our headquarters for positive press conferences, policy announcements, meetings or other events,” Alabama GOP Chair Terry Lathan said in a statement Thursday morning. “We do not allow our property to be used as a backdrop for negative comments against another Republican.”