We are just two weeks away from our Alabama 07 runoff in which the winner of the contest between Shelia Smoot and Terri Sewell will become the first African-American Female member of Congress from Alabama.
This race has become a classic case of main street versus Wall Street. Shelia is a grassroots candidate who is working hard pressing the flesh and meeting with voters throughout the state. Sewell is relying on fancy mailers put out by Emily's List and television ads talking about how she wants to help our President.
Shelia has a history of working for the people and has gained numerous labor endorsements over the past few weeks. Sewell has a spotty voting record that parallels that of California Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina and California Gubernatorial Candidate Meg Whitman.
Sewell is being backed by Wall Street and independent expenditures from Emily's List Shelia Smoot says this seat is not for sale.
Sewell, who moved back to Alabama in 2004 after working as Wall Street securities attorney, just started voting in Alabama in 2008 according to records provided by The Alabama Secretary of State. In 2008, Sewell ran as an Obama Delegate in the 6th Congressional District of Alabama, one of the most Republican districts in the country.
Sewell talks at length about how she is proud of being from Selma, Alabama. Yes - Selma, Alabama where many were beaten and bloodied marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965. Those who were injured on what is forever etched in history as Bloody Sunday include Congressman John Lewis of whom Terri Sewell aspires to be a colleague.
Terri Sewell talks at length about "Black Belt" values, of which she titled one of her television commercials. Emily’s List,who endorsed Sewell, talks about her connection to the civil rights era on their website
Sewell grew up at the tail end of the civil rights movement in a family that prized public service. Her family provided shelter for travelers during the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery
With all of the community and civic service that Sewell talks about, she never mentions her voting history. I have found nothing in an exhaustive search that mentions Sewell’s voting history. I think that Black Belt values certainly including voting in elections.
Will she address these holes in her voting record? Will she also apologize like Whitman and Fiorina?
This afternoon Shelia talked to a crowd of about 100 at what was suppose to be a forum/debate with her opponent. Sewell failed to show and address the questions about her spotty voting record and Wall Street ties although she new about the event for two week. Ironically, this forum was sponsored by the New South Coalition which endorsed Sewell last week.
Shelia talked to the voters about environmental safety, corporate responsibility, health care, job creation, economic development, immigration reform, green technology and green jobs. She talked about improving critical care in urban and rural parts of this district. Terri Sewell missed an opportunity to discuss what has been described as extensive ties to Wall Street
Sewell's website platform pages are ominously silent on her positions on legislation to stop the abuses and corruption of Wall Street, Big Oil, and tax-dodging billionaires. She has made some generic calls for "transparency" in financial services, but that is securities-lawyer-speak for "set up a public derivatives trading exchange, and the all-knowing 'free market' will take care of everything." What is needed is comprehensive reform, including, at a minimum, some reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, and restrictions against deposit institutions holding securitized debt obligations, in which they have no clue about the creditworthiness of their end-use counterparties. I'm glad she was and is for health care reform, but it's done with for a few years. These "Big Mule" issues, as Big Jim Folsom would have called them, are the fights of the next Congress. What will Sewell do? Given that she has made a very lucrative career out of helping engineer Wall Street deals (Sewell was a partner at Davis, Polk & Wardwell. In 2009, per partner profits there were $1,655,000 - in a down market), I find it hard to think she'd endanger a post-Congressional spot on K Street or Wall Street with any real pushback.
We need members of Congress who are not afraid to discuss their campaigns directly with the voters. Shelia Smoot will put people over profits. Shelia Smoot will show up and listen to the voters. You won't have to worry about her ties to Wall Street when the debate over financial reform continues.
Let's not make the wrong decision here. Thanks for your support and despite what a few misguided others have said, I'm glad that my friends at Daily Kos have gotten behind a candidate that I believe in and so many others in her district have believed in that can be the one who will fight for them and improve their quality of life.
We would appreciate any contributions to Shelia who has been a guest here on several occasions and is committed to coming back as a Member of Congress. We don't have the backing of Wall Street or big law firms. We have mostly gotten small donations (see our Act Blue Page )
Any amount will help show that the people will own this seat.