Alabama Pre-Primary Snapshot

The Census Bureau has released a snapshot of Alabama’s voting age citizens in advance of the Presidential Primary Election on Tuesday.  In comparison with the U.S. as a whole, Alabama has a much lower percentage of its population that is Hispanic or Latino (2.5% vs. 14.8%), and a lower percentage of the population hold a bachelor’s degree of higher (21.1% vs. 27.0%).

State of the State address postponed

Tuesday, February 5th is a pretty busy day for Alabama politics - not only is the Presidential primary being held that day, it’s also the first day of the 2008 legislative session.

However, it will NOT be the date of the 2008 State of the State Address.   According to the Birmingham News, Governor Riley will be making his address on February 6th at 6:30 pm so as not to compete with the presidential primary coverage.

To read previous State of the State Addresses, along with other speeches made by the Governor, visit his web site.

LWV ‘Meet the Legislators’ Forum

Thursday night, January 17th (that’s tomorrow!) the League of Women Voters of Greater Tuscaloosa will be holding a “Meet the Legislators” forum at the Central High School auditorium. The forum starts at 6:30, and legislators expected to attend include Representatives Dr. Robert Bentley, Gerald Allen, William E. Thigpen, Sr., and Senator Phil Poole. Senator Charles Bishop may also be in attendance.

The forum will begin with the legislators briefly discussing their priorities for the upcoming session in February. After that, the audience will have a chance to submit written questions.

More information on the League of Women Voters of Greater Tuscaloosa can be found on their web site.

ALA Midwinter

Over the next few days, the American Library Association will be holding its Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, PA.  For overviews and updates on legislative issues that various ALA groups will be addressing, visit the ALA Washington Office’s (ALAWO) blog, District Dispatch.  There you can find all of the handouts for ALAWO sessions, including the briefing paper on Government Information and Federal Libraries.  (If you’re really interested in following along with Gov’t Information issues that the Washington Office is concerned with, check out their Government Information category.)

I will be attending many meetings in Philadelphia, discussing topics such as e-government, Freedom of Information Act legislation, and Government Printing Office funding.  If there’s anything that comes out of these discussions, I’ll be sure to post some info!

Alabama Election Information

As you may know, Alabama has moved up the date of its primary election - this year the Democratic and Republican presidential preference primaries (say that three times fast!) are scheduled for February 5th.

In case you’re not registered to vote, there’s still time! According to the Secretary of State’s voter registration page, voters must be registered no later than 10 days before the election. There’s a form on the SoS web site you can download, fill out, and send; you can also pick up an application in the Government Documents Reading Room here in Gorgas Library.

The Secretary of State’s 2008 election page is a great place to start if you’re getting up to speed on what Alabamians will be asked to vote for. The certified list of Democrats on the ballot for the February primary are: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher J. Dodd, John Edwards, Barak Obama, and Bill Richardson. The certified list of Republicans includes: Dr. Hugh Cort, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo, and Fred Thompson. [Note: Tancredo has dropped out of the race for President.]

Update, 2008-01-04: Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd have announced their departure from the Democratic race for President, following the Iowa Caucus results.

Update, 2008-01-10: After 4th-place finishes in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Bill Richardson has dropped his presidential bid.

Update, 2008-01-23: Fred Thompson is no longer in the race. Neither is Duncan Hunter .

Update, 2008-01-25: Today is the last day to register to vote in order to be eligible for the February 5th primary.

Update, 2008-01-31: John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani have each withdrawn.

Happy 2008!

I hope that this post finds you happy and healthy, and anticipating a wonderful new year.  My resolution is to post more consistently in this space, whether it be about Alabama government, depository libraries in the state, or government information that applies to Alabama.

In the meantime, here is a Happy New Year message from Governor Riley.