As far as I know at present, there are three medical doctors running for public office in the State of Alabama in 2014.
The present governor of Alabama, up for re-election, Robert J. Bentley, is an MD who specialized in dermatology.
Bentley served in the United States Air Force as general medical officer at Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina from 1969 to 1975, leaving with the rank of a captain. He earned his M.D. from the University of Alabama School of Medicine before entering private practice and opening a series of dermatology clinics throughout the southern United States.
You might say that Bentley's medical care runs skin deep and he appears to have a head for medical business, if not for overall medicine.
The Democratic candidate for governor, 2014, is Rolf 'Parker' Parker Griffith, Jr.:
.... received his medical degree from the Louisiana State University Medical School in 1970 and served in residency at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. After serving at the LSU Service Charity Hospital in New Orleans and a year of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, Griffith began preparing to become a radiation oncologist, one who specializes in using radiation to cure cancer, training in radiation oncology through a combined program between UTMB and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He served as a Medical Corps captain in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1970 to 1973, while continuing his medical training at the LSU Service Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
Griffith was recruited on a "cold call" to Alabama and established the Huntsville Cancer Treatment Center. As a physician, he provided discounted care to patients who lacked insurance. Griffith also conducted several clinical trials in conjunction with the University of Alabama School of Medicine, and partnered with St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He retired from medicine in December 1992, though he still holds a license to practice in both Alabama and Texas.
Griffith's medical practice ran quite a bit deeper than that of Dr. Governor Bentley, and his practice also seems to have been more along the lines of the dictums laid down by St. Luke the physician in chapter 10, verses 8-9:
When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there ...
Note: dialog below in comments which question Griffith's Democratic credentials.
Below the fold the other doc running for office ... and a packet of stuff about how things are run in the Alabama State Legislature and other stuff like grand juries:
Dr. Jennifer Marsden, running for the Alabama state house in HD 93, is too obscure to merit a Wikipedia entry, but in Ballotopedia:
Dr. Marsden earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her professional experience includes working as the Campus Medical Director at Pensacola Christian College and operating a locums medical practice in England. She served in the United States Army for seven years, reaching the rank of Major and earning the Army Parachutist Badge and Meritorious Service Medal.
Marsden is running against the present incumbent, Steve Clouse, who has been obliged to embrace ObamaCare and the expansion of Medicaid in Alabama, apparently because of Marsden's candidacy and her platform:
Representative Clouse, who was elected to the House in 1994, is facing Democrat Dr. Jennifer Marsden in the November election. Dr. Marsden, who has consistently supported expanding Medicaid, is a retired Army Major, was educated at Harvard University, earned a medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh, and is a family physician. She is the first woman ever to run for the seat representing Alabama House District 93.
Marsden practiced medicine as a primary caregiver, general practitioner, family doc, etc. Her campaign motto is:
Good Medicine for Alabama.
Clouse:
Clouse is vice president of the Clouse Marketing Company.
Um, that appears to be:
Products or Services
Companies like Clouse Oil CO of Ozark Inc usually offer: Best Waste Oil, Waste Vegetable Oil, Ground Waste Oil, Auto Waste Oil, Industrial Waste Oil.
Waste oil management appears to be Alabama's criteria for assuming the office of Chairman of the Alabama House of Representatives Ways and Means General Fund Committee:
Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, says Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, will serve as the chairman of the Ways And Means General Fund Committee after the resignation of Rep. Jim Barton, R-Mobile, was announced on Wednesday.
Rep. Barton is prematurely leaving his seat to:
... take a lobbying job with a Montgomery-based governmental affairs firm.
.... Barton said he will be joining the Kinney Capitol Group, a lobbying and consulting firm that represents the Alabama Retail Association, among other business interests.
.... Barton, who serves as chairman of the influential House Ways and Means General Fund Committee, has held the House District 104 seat in south Mobile County since 2000. He ran unsuccessfully earlier this year in a special election for the state Senate District 35 seat, losing to Republican Bill Hightower of Mobile.
Slipping back and forth between holding office and holding a lobbying position seems to be part of the job description of Alabama state legislators:
Barton's departure is the latest in a string of high-profile resignations among state elected officials in recent weeks.
Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman resigned in July to take a job as political director for Montgomery-based Alfa. State Rep. Jay Love, R-Montgomery, also resigned in July to take an unspecified lobbying job in Montgomery.
U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, resigned Friday to take a position as vice chancellor of government relations and economic development for the University of Alabama System in Tuscaloosa.
.... Alabama’s “revolving door” statute prohibits a public official from taking a paid job lobbying the entity in which they served for two years.
However, a 2003 opinion from the Alabama Ethics Commission said because the House and Senate are considered separate entities under the ethics law, a lawmaker could lobby the opposite chamber from which he served.
Then, there are the grand jury investigations, one of which has been plaguing Alabama State House Speaker Mike Hubbard since 2012:
... the presence in the courtroom of no less than five criminal defense attorneys, all who represent Speaker of the House, Mike Hubbard....
And the strange and curious case of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange:
AG Strange Seeks to Quash Indictments Against Agents Acting on His Behalf
.... MONTGOMERY—The District Attorney for the 17th Judicial Circuit, Greg Griggers, obtained an indictment for “perjury and lying” against three individuals who were instrumental in the 2011 raid on gaming facilities in Greene County. The problem for Griggers is that those individuals worked for the State’s Attorney General Luther Strange.
According to a report by the Greene County Democrat, “Griggers…. confirmed that three people had been indicted in connection with the 2011 raid, Desmond C. Ladner, the ‘gaming expert’ and two law enforcement officers connected with Strange’s staff.”
Griggers has confirmed that the Attorney General’s Office has moved to quash the indictments against these individuals.
One wonders if these grand jury and indictments and such might not lead back to the rather strange case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman being railroaded into prison.