Primary Runoffs Preview: Attorney General
Alabama's party primary runoff elections are this coming Tuesday. This is part 3 of the preview of Tuesday's runoff elections.
Today's Preview: Attorney General
The Alabama Attorney General is a constitutional officer because their duties are set out in constitutional law. The AG is the state's chief law officer and is responsible for representing the state in civil and criminal litigation, enforcing state laws, providing legal advisory opinions to public officials, and leading divisions like Consumer Protection, Public Corruption, and Medicaid Fraud.
The Attorney General’s staff includes more than 150 employees with diversified skills and training in law, public administration, investigation, consumer affairs, utility regulation, paralegal studies, and other disciplines.
The position can be a springboard to other offices such as governor and the U.S. Senate. Bill Baxley became Lt. Gov., Jeff Sessions was elected to the U.S. Senate, Luther Strange was appointed to the U.S. Senate and both Don Siegelman and John Patterson moved up to governor.
There was no incumbent in the race because sitting AG Steve Marshall chose to run for Lt. Gov.
The Republican Runoff
Katherine Robertson and Jay Mitchell are squaring off in the runoff for attorney general. Robertson got there by receiving 183,340 votes, about 41 percent of the votes cast in the May 19th primary. Mitchell’s got 154,657 or 34 percent of the ballots.
The third candidate, Pamela Casey, accounted for 111,690 votes or 25 percent of the total but did not make the runoff. The big question is, where will her votes go? Casey endorsed Mitchell but will that be enough to bring a majority of her votes to him?
Both runoff candidates are heavy hitters in Republican and state politics. Robertson is Deputy Attorney General in Steve Marshall's office while Mitchell is a former Alabama Supreme Court Justice.
Robertson has touted her experience working in the AG's office while Mitchell says the office should be held by someone with courtroom experience like he has had as a litigation attorney and justice on the state supreme court.
The closeness of the primary balloting led to runoff campaigning quickly taking a negative turn. Mitchell has accused Robertson of receiving over $3 million in “dark money,” or outside Alabama contributions PACs like the ultra-conservative Virginia-based SuperPAC Frontline Victory Fund, which has contributed over $1 million of Robertson’s $4.8 million campaign funds. The fund operates nationally, backing candidates in various states during high-profile Attorney General primaries like Alabamas.
“These dark money show groups that get set up, they do not register or disclose with our Secretary of State’s office," Mitchell claimed when making the announcement "They don’t want you to know who they are, and I would just challenge you: ask yourselves, ‘Who are these people?"
Robertson defended the PAC contribution, “You’re going to want an attorney general that has national relationships. You are going to want an attorney general that can walk in on day one and be supported by the other 27 republican AGs. You’re going to want an attorney general that’s plugged in with the conservative legal movement,”
The wife and mother of two is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama School of Law. She began her career as clerk and counsel to Senator Jeff Sessions, then returned to Alabama to serve as Vice President of the conservative Alabama Policy Institute. Most recently, she has spent the better part of a decade serving as Chief Counsel to Attorney General Steve Marshall.
Mitchell was a litigation attorney in private practice. He was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018. Born in Mobile, he grew up in Homewood.and received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, served as president of the student body, and played forward on the school’s 1995 national championship basketball team.
The husband and father of four holds a Master of Arts from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Both Robertson and Mitchell have attempted to play the "Trump" card in the election. Robertson went negative early in an attempt to tie Mitchell to "woke" policies, DEI and foreign countries. President Trump has not endorsed either candidate.
Th latest polling of likely GOP runoff voters shows Robertson leads Mitchell 49.1% to 31.2%, with 19.7% of respondents undecided.
The Democratic Runoff
There is not a runoff for AG on the Democratic Party side of the ballot. Attorney Jeff McLaughlin is the only person who qualified for the Democrat May 19th primary, so he will face the Mitchell and Robertson runoff winner in November.
“I want to focus on hope not fear, I want to focus on making things better, not tearing it down, and I want to represent all of the people, not just the few at the top,” McLaughlin has said during media interviews..
McLaughlin represented the 27th district in the Alabama House of Representatives. He did not accept campaign contributions during his time in office, only using personal money to fund his campaigns.
McLaughlin ran for mayor of Guntersville last year but lost by just 500 votes in a runoff.
Friday: Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries
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