June 15, 2021
Article by: Brandon Moseley
The Jefferson County Republican Party had a fundraising gala on Friday night. The gala honored Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mike Bolin and State Rep. Jim Carns, R-Vestavia, for their decades of service. Former Trump Administration National Security Advisor retired General Michael Flynn was the Jeffco GOP’s special guest.
“It was really marvelous to get to honor Jim Carns and Mike Bolin last night,” Sallie Bryant with the Jefferson County Republican Party said. “I would like to thank the Democrats. They even had a plane flying around. It made us have a sellout.”
“That is the most money we have ever raised,” Bryant said. “I also attribute that to our speaker General Flynn.”
“We hope to use that money to elect more Republicans,” Bryant said.
Calhoun County Circuit Court Judge Debra Jones is also running for the Supreme Court seat. Incumbent Mike Bolin is retiring at the end of this term.
Shelby County Republican Party Chair Joan Reynolds said that the Shelby County GOP is continuing their campaign to send welcome to Shelby County to 2020 first time Shelby County voters.
Reynolds said that the Shelby County Republican Party is also raising money for Restore America.
“We are raising money to help congressional candidates around the country that might possible win a seat in 2022 and continue on to 2024,” Reynolds explained. “We want to make sure that we take over the Congress.”
Jefferson County Commission President Jimmy Stephens (R) said, “That was the biggest event we have ever had.”
“We are thankful for Tony Petelos for ten years of service as County Manager,” Stephens said. “It is a nationwide search to find his replacement.”
“We will work hard to make sure that we have our values reflected in our county manager,” Stephens said.
“We are out of the consent decree and will be free to do more recruitment,” Stephens said. “We will begin to put our conservative thoughts and ideas into our government.”
“We need to have a county manager who is in lock step with our thoughts,” Stephens added.
“We have our sewer mortgage coming up, it is over $2 billion,” Stephens said. “We are ten years out of bankruptcy. We are “keeping our fingers crossed that Democratic policies don’t hurt” efforts to refinance the sewer debt.
“As we go to Church lets have a voter registration packet,” Stephens said. “Lets get our people who have our conservative values registered to vote. There is no better place than in our Churches.”
State Rep. David Wheeler, R-Vestavia, said, “That was a tremendous event last night. There were over 500 people there.”
State Rep. Jim Carns said that he was on the Jefferson County Commission when the consent decree was placed on the county.
“Those are terrible,” Carns said. “It is not fun. The feds tell you how much to spend and you have to do it.”
“We will have a special session the second or the third week of October for redistricting,” Carns said.
“I feel very good about the Republican Party in Jefferson County after that even t last night,” Carns said. “You can’t go anywhere without people coming up to you talking about the next election.”
State Rep. Arnold Mooney, R-Indian Springs, said, “We are very thankful that we got to celebrate last night.”
“We are thrilled to take Alabama values to Montgomery, which I don’t think strongly reflects Alabama values,” Mooney said.
“We must all do our individual part,” Mooney said. “Because we stand for those things that are right, correct, and good. It is a great privilege to be at MARC.”
State Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, said, “Last night was tremendous. Sally, Paul, and so many others worked so hard. Thank you.”
“We have to pass this baton off to the next generation and that can come,” Sen. Roberts said. “We have got to start inviting those young people here. They share our values, we just have to ask them.
Roberts said that “One of the biggest challenges” facing the state is addressing the prison situation.
“If we don’t get this right we will fall under federal receivership,” Sen. Roberts said. “California had that happen. A federal judge orders it and you have to spend it. It cost California $12 billion.”
“We will have $4 billion,” in American Rescue Act dollars, Roberts said. “$2.2 billion that the legislature will be able to allocate. There are some things that we can do to help our prison situation out of the $2.2 billion.”
Roberts said that the Governor’s private lease build option, “Dried up because of the climate in this country of not wanting to invest in something that is prison related.”
