It's never too late for an issues story

In case The Birmingham News' series of interviews with the major gubernatorial candidates last month didn't slake your thirst for knowledge about where they stand on the issues, The Associated Press checks in today with their stances on a quaternion of topics. The News already fleshed out their thoughts about taxes, but the AP adds abortion, gambling, and immigration to the mix.

The answers are mostly what you'd expect -- all are personally against abortion, and all except former Gov. Don Siegelman are either opposed or lukewarm to gambling -- but I was a bit surprised to see Gov. Bob Riley endorse an abortion ban modeled off the one recently passed in South Dakota, which would force rape victims to carry any resulting, non-life-threatening pregnancy to term against their will. I can't see how many people would feel comfortable with mandating that outcome legislatively.