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| Judge Robert Vance, Jr. |
A
Jefferson County Circuit judge has signed up to run as a Democrat for chief
justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, which could give Republican nominee Roy
Moore a better-known opponent than he had just a couple weeks ago.
The
Alabama Democratic Party disqualified its nominee, Pelham attorney Harry Lyon,
over critical statements that the perennial candidate made about Moore, gays
and supporters of gay marriage. The party started seeking a replacement
candidate on last Monday, when Judge Robert Vance Jr.
Vance
said he did not enter the race before the Democratic primary in March because
he respected the job that Republican incumbent Chuck Malone was doing to manage
the state court system, but that changed when Malone lost in the Republican
primary to Moore in March.
"I
was getting increasingly concerned that the candidates for chief justice both
seemed interested in dividing us rather than bringing us together," he
said.
Moore
was chief justice from 2001 to 2003, when a state judicial court kicked him out
of office for refusing to abide by a federal court order to remove his Ten
Commandments monument from the lobby of the state judicial building in
Montgomery. He is attempting a political comeback after losing races for
governor in 2006 and 2010.
Lyon
became the Democratic nominee because he was the only one to sign up for the
race in January. State law allows a political party to disqualify a candidate
and name a replacement.
Moore
said last Monday that the Democratic Party's decision to change candidates near
the end of the race will backfire.
Vance
described Moore as "a polarizing figure" and described himself as
someone who would work with Democrats and Republicans to address budget cuts
that have left the state court system struggling to maintain services.
He
is the son of the late U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Vance, who was killed in 1989
by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, who was convicted of murder. The
candidate is the husband of Joyce Vance, who was appointed U.S. attorney in
Birmingham by President Barack Obama.
Vance,
51, was appointed in 2002 by then-Gov. Don Siegelman to fill a judicial vacancy
in Birmingham. He was elected to six-year terms in 2004 and 2010.
The
chief justice's race is one of four Supreme Court races up for election this
year, but it's the only one where a Democrat signed up to run. Republican
incumbents in the other three seats have no opposition in the general election
Nov. 6.
Alabama
Democrats have a chance to elect a qualified candidate to begin to take back
our government and protect our people and not the special interest.
Democrats
will have to turn out in huge numbers and support Judge Vance for Alabama
Supreme Court Chief Justice.
