Another Democrat joins anti-Barron forces in Senate

From the AP today:

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — State Sen. Jim Preuitt picked up another vote for president pro tem Tuesday, virtually guaranteeing that he will replace Sen. Lowell Barron as the Senate's top member if Preuitt can hold his coalition together.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, a Birmingham Democrat who had been part of Barron's leadership group for eight years, announced he will support Preuitt, D-Talladega, for president pro tem when the new Senate meets for its organizational session on Jan. 9.

Smitherman has been one of the Senate's most influential members during the last eight years, serving as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He is the second black senator to announce his support for Preuitt. The first was Sen. E.B. McClain, D-Midfield.

This is an interesting development. I think it's fair to say that Smitherman has consistently been one of the Senate's most liberal members. He voted against bills to restrict the government's eminent domain authority; he supports a constitutional convention to rewrite the Alabama constitution; he has received a large percentage of his campaign cash from the Alabama Education Association and the Alabama Trial Lawyer's Association; as Judiciary Committee Chairman, he single-handedly held up committee action on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act last session; he supports an Alabama Bar Association plan that would make appellate court judges be appointed by a committee largely composed of ABA-approved lawyers; and he has repeatedly threatened to hold up Senate proceedings unless his colleagues agreed to provide state tax dollars to construct a domed stadium in Birmingham.

It's odd that he would now decide to cast his lot with an overwhelmingly conservative group of legislators. But, this is Alabama politics. You try to figure it out.