Scratch and win?

Confident that public opinion has shifted these days, former Gov. Don Siegelman is riding the education lottery train again six years after Alabama voters rejected his lottery plan. His Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, remained noncommittal on the concept, saying she wouldn't stand in the way of a lottery but wouldn't tout one either. But that didn't stop her from calling Siegelman's original lottery a bad idea.

Here's the part where I'd ordinarily offer original analysis, but fortunately, a University of Alabama political science professor has done the legwork already. He says the lottery proposal will help Siegelman among black voters, while Baxley's position leaves her in the uncomfortable spot of trying to seem decisive while not hurting her standing among blacks and conservative Democrats.