Thursday, January 05, 2006

Lucy breaks out the cement

Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley made her gubernatorial candidacy official Wednesday. More significantly, she also threw her weight behind a few concrete policy proposals, something many of her supporters and detractors alike have been waiting to see for months.

Notable among Baxley's early campaign pledges was her suggestion of an overhaul of the Alabama ethics law, perhaps a thinly veiled shot across the bow at her Democratic primary opponent, former Gov. Don Siegelman, who is under federal indictment. Her other promises included a call for the state to expand its health insurance program for poor children and to "create a cabinet-level position for small business."

None of the platforms Baxley revealed Wednesday threaten to rock Alabama's political world to the core, but they contain just the right combination of meatiness and inoffensiveness to deprive her foes of the talking point that she doesn't stand for anything and to avoid alienating voters. Whatever its shortcomings in 2005, the Baxley campaign is off to a good start this year.