Russell County's East Alabama Republican Club met at T-Bones Steakhouse & Grill in Phenix City on Thursday, November 2nd of 2023. Attendees enjoyed delectable barbeque plates along with stimulating political discussion courtesy of event organizers Peggy Blackshear and Michael Cox. Several candidates for office were on hand to address the crowd and answer questions related to citizen concerns.
Starting off the meeting was Jere Colley of Opelika who is a candidate for Lee County Probate Court Judge in the upcoming March 2024 GOP primary. Mike Bass, also of Opelika, asked Jere for his thoughts on the possible separating of the office of probate court judge in Lee County from the position of Chairman of the Lee County Commission since they are currently intertwined. Bass asked his question as follows;
"If you get to be probate judge, will you separate the chairmanship from the judgeship? Right now, English is chairman over the county commission. Will you separate that out?"
Colley responded as follows;
"Absolutely. I wish they would separate it out before I took office. Mr. Bass, if I took you and these other four gentleman and somebody else in this room and I said 'Hey, let's be on a committee. And you all make decisions, and I want to be blamed for everything you make decisions on'. That ain't real smart."
"I would love for them to separate it. I think that the county would be better served. I think that if they could separate it, that it would give the probate judge time for if a business was opening up in Smiths Station. What keeps the probate judge from going there for a ribbon cutting? What keeps the probate judge from being involved with those things? Well, it may be that time spent is all with the county commission and not doing county stuff. I think it would help our county to have them split up."
Next up was Russell County Commissioner and Chairman Rod Costello who was questioned by John Brice from the East Alabama Examiner regarding his thoughts on the Russell County commissioners voting to elect their chairman as compared to how a handful of other county commissions in Alabama such as Lee County combine the office of probate court judge with the chairmanship. Costello responded as follows;
"For those counties, it might work for them. I don't like it. I wouldn't be opposed to someone running. There has been people propose that we can narrow it down from seven to five and have a permanent chair and all of this other stuff. But for us it works pretty good and we vote on it on a yearly basis. The other six commissioners voted for me to be the chair this year. We will vote again, I guess, pretty soon. The next meeting, or the next two meetings, is the time to do that and we also vote on the voting order. Which means, we don't vote by one, two, three, four."
Later on in the evening, candidate for Lee County Commissioner in District 3 Brian Davis of Smiths Station was given the opportunity to address the audience, here are some excerpts from his speech;
"A little bit about myself, I am retired Air Force, did twenty-five years active duty moving around. What I like to tell people is, I am not from Smiths Station originally. Moved there in 2018, when I retired. Not from there originally, but got there as soon as I could."
"When they took away my dumpster, my public dumpster, I will be happy to talk to you about that at length. My first item is bring back the public dumpsters and end this government would-be monopoly that Lee County is trying to push on the citizens. It is obvious that they don't listen to the citizens and constituents any more. I served the people of this country for twenty-five years, I am ready to serve again. I would like to serve the people in District 3 and Lee County in a broader sense."
"I think that there has been some people who have hardened their hearts. They don't care about their constituents any more, sadly, on the Lee County Commission. There needs to be some change. Transparency, accountability and empathy. You have got to care about the people you are supposed to serve, if you don't, then you are just serving yourself."
Brian Davis has received the official endorsement of the Lee County chapter of Bama Carry, the premier Second Amendment advocacy group in Alabama dedicated to protecting and preserving the constitutional right to bear arms for citizens of our state. This stands in stark contrast to his political opponent Gary Long who is running against Brian for Lee County Commission in District 3. Gary has gone on the record as a self-proclaimed gun grabber, recently citing the exercising of Second Amendment rights as the reason why he is opposed to citizen comments being allowed at Lee County Commission meetings. Earlier evidence of Long's gun control proclivities became evident on November 8th, 2021 when he seconded the motion for the Lee County Commission to pass a resolution stating their strident opposition to Constitutional Carry being enacted in the State of Alabama. Brian Davis is a good friend to the gun owners of Lee County, possessing a Federal Firearms License and having clearly stated his unconditional support of Constitutional Carry in Alabama.
Pictured below are Alex Balkcum of Phenix city, Brian Davis of Smiths Station and Mike Bass of Opelika enjoying themselves at the East Alabama Republican Club meeting at T-Bones Steakhouse and Grill in Phenix City.
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