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April 24th, 2024 Len’s Political Note #638 Shomari Figures Alabama 02
2024 General Election
In October, 2023, a panel of the federal circuit court which included Judge Stanley Marcus, initially nominated to the federal court by Ronald Reagan, then nominated to the higher court by Bill Clinton made a political decision. The three-judge panel also included two judges named by Donald Trump – Terry Moorer and Anna Manasco. They selected a new Congressional map for Alabama from three options offered by a court-appointed special master.
The new map created one district which was majority Black and another district (Alabama’s Second) which had a sufficiently large Black population so that Black voters were not deprived of a choice. BlueLabs reported that 51% of the prospective voters were Black, 47% white. They also found that 52% of those voters lean Democratic.
There is a reasonable chance that this district, which in its new form cuts a swath from Mobile (population 186,000) in the southwest corner northeast to Montgomery (population 197,999) could elect a Democrat. Nineteen candidates reported spending to the FEC, twelve of them Democrats. The other seven candidates were Republicans. Even though the incumbent Republican fled to another district where he would win the primary, there are Republicans, among them the Republican nominee, who believe they can win election in the new district.
Former US Senator and former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Doug Jones reminds us not to take Alabama’s new second district for granted. He suggests that a third of the prospective Democratic voters in the district have never voted in their lives – having long ago given up on the chance to be part of the political process. Registering and turning out voters will be a big deal. The Democratic candidate will need resources for that.
Shomari Figures has won the Democratic nomination. He comes from a political family, a family that counts in Mobile. Consider his parents – Michael Figures and Vivian Davis Figures.
Michael Figures’s father worked as a groundskeeper for International Paper and a sexton for his church. Michael Figures went to an Historically Black College, Stillman College, after graduating from the all-Black Hillsdale High School. After college, he got a law degree from the University of Alabama. He was one of three Black students who, in 1972, were the first Blacks to get their law degrees from that university. He practiced law briefly with JL Chestnut in Selma, then opened his own firm in Mobile. In 1978, he ran for and was elected to the State Senate, one of three Black members of that body. By 1995, he had become President Pro Tem of the Alabama Senate. Along the way, he had filibustered against the death penalty, raised money for schools, supported Jesse Jackson for President, and, with Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, sued the Ku Klux Klan after a lynching, bankrupting the racist organization. He died in 1996 at the age of 48.
Vivian Davis Figures was also from Mobile. Currently she is the President and CEO of the Figures Legacy Education Foundation and is on the Board of the Mobile Area Education Foundation. After she graduated from a small, community high school in Mobile, she went north to New Haven and worked her way through New Haven University. She worked at a small family grocery store and at Yale. She was in law school in Alabama when her husband died. She had already entered electoral politics had been on the Mobile City Council in 1993. When Michael Figures died, she left school and, in 1996, was elected to replace her husband in the Alabama State Senate.
Her career was colorful and powerful. She persisted in proposing bills to end smoking in public places in Alabama. She worked hard to ensure that a new, foreign steel plant was located near Mobile. And as part of opposition to Alabama’s draconian anti-abortion bill, she proposed an amendment to outlaw vasectomies. While she gained recognition and served as floor leader for Alabama Senate Democrats, she also earned enemies. In 2021, an unknown person shot 23 holes in her house that was, by happenstance, empty.
Shomari Figures is one of Michael and Vivian’s sons. He went to the University of Alabama where he got both his undergraduate and law degree. After he completed a clerkship in the US District Court, he went to work for the Obama presidential re-election campaign. He became the Domestic Director of the White House Personnel Office, then the White House liaison with the Department of Justice.
After Barack Obama left the White House, Shomari Figures joined Sherrod Brown’s staff. He worked for three years in Washington helping on legislation. With the Democrats back in the White House, Shomari Figures went to work for Merrick Garland as the Deputy Chief of Staff and counselor to the Attorney General. Though he had been in Washington for most of his working life, he saw the creation of a second district in Alabama from which a Black candidate could be elected. He came home to Mobile to announce his candidacy for the newly created Alabama 02 district.
Shomari Figures led in the Democratic primary run off, but did not get a majority. He won in the run off and will face Republican Real Estate attorney Caroleene Dobson. More than $8 million was spent before we are ready for the general election. Dobson attacked her Republican opponent for not being sufficiently supportive of Donald Trump – spending $1.7 million. A Super PAC, Protect Progress, funded by cryptocurrency people spent $2.7 million on behalf of Shomari Figures.
Dobson also returned to Alabama after being away. She had grown up on a fifth generation cattle farm owned by her parents, whose main business was timber. Upon her announcement, she was endorsed by the Alabama Forestry Association. She had returned to Alabama after going to Harvard as an undergraduate. From Harvard she went to Baylor Law School and practiced law in San Antonio. She returned to Alabama in 2019, joining the Maynard Nexsen law firm in Birmingham. A shareholding partner, she described her practice as focused on Energy & Natural Resources and Commercial Finance. The firm has offices in 25 cities, most of them in the south. The main office is in Birmingham, Alabama which they have more than 200 attorneys. Compare that to their Fifth Avenue New York City offices where there are 14 attorneys.
Even though these are both young people under 40 years old, even though they are both attorneys who have operated at a high level in their field, even though they are both returned Alabamans they are very different. It is not just that they Black and white. Nor is it their difference in family wealth. Look at their campaign websites. Both choose against a long laundry list of issues. Each emphasizes only a few. At the top of Shomari Figures’ list is health care which stresses the loss to Alabama of not expanding Medicaid and mentions the importance of reproductive rights. At the bottom of Caroleene Dobson’s list of five issues is her opposition to abortion, her version of what it means to be pro-life, her promise to protect Alabama values.
As of March 31, neitherl candidate began the general election campaign with much money. Shomari Figures had $80,000. Caroleene Dobson had half that amount.
Caroleene Dobson will have lots to draw from for resources for the balance of the campaign. Let’s not leave Shomari Figures financial support to the cryptos. DONATE TO SHOMARI FIGURES. He needs our support, too.
Other congressional races in the region
US House of Representatives
FL 09 Congressman Darren Soto represents a district south of Orlando, inland from Melbourne. He is an attorney and a singer/song writer radio host. Like a substantial portion of his constituency, his origins are Puerto Rican. Hurricane disaster funds for Florida and Puerto Rico are both important. The district is designed to make him vulnerable and he will probably face a county commissioner John Quinones who, as of the December 31 reporting period, had barely begun raising money. Darren Soto reported $550,000. To be reelected to a swing House seat, he will need a lot more. DONATE TO DARREN SOTO. See Len’s Political Note #585
FL 13. Whitney Fox has been a transit authority marketing director and brings a real commitment to public transportation to her campaign against right wing fringe incumbent Anna Paulina Luna. The district includes a portion of St. Petersburg and continues north west of Tampa along the coast. Whitney Fox is a local who can run as the voice of reason. Luna did not have a lot of money, at $550,000 at the end of 2023. Whitney Fox had less — $150,000. DONATE TO WHITNEY FOX. This would be a big win. See Len’s Political Note #625
FL 23 Jared Moscowitz represents a district along the East coast from Boca Raton to Fort Lauderdale. It juts inland to Coral Springs. He did emergency management in a non-partisan role for Governor DiSantis, served in the state legislature where he got a gun safety bill passed, and is completing his freshman year in Congress. He ended 2023 with a modest $300,000 available. No Republican appears to be raising enough to challenge him. Keep it that way by supporting him. DONATE TO JARED MOSCOWITZ. See Len’s Political Note #584
FL 27. The Democratic challenger is Miami school board member Lucia Baez-Geller. Incumbent Republican Maria Elvira Salazar was an anchor for Telemundo before being elected to Congress. She is not on Len’s List of vulnerable Republicans, but she is tied for #24 on Daily Kos’s list. Salazar entered 2024 with $850,000; Lucia Baez-Geller had $85,000. Consider. DONATE TO LUCIA BAEZ-GELLER
North Carolina 01. Inc Don Davis is defending the seat to which he was first elected in 2020. An Airforce Academy graduate, one of his assignments was to inform families of the death of their child or spouse in the war. He has a connection with East Carolina University where he earned advanced degrees and taught. In Congress he has been particularly interested in infrastructure construction. For that purpose, Joe Biden’s presidency has been a delight. He has raised $1.2 million and, on February 14, still had almost a million dollars for the rest of the campaign. His opponent, Laurie Buckhout raised $1.3 millions, but spent a million dollars winning the primary, She had $300,000 on February 14. She has the resources to get more. She retired from the military as a colonel and started her own business. Using a million dollars of her own money, she created a business consulting in Electronic Warfare and cyberspace operations. She says she a proponent of small government. The DCCC says she is a big opponent of abortions. She will accept abortions to save the life of the mother and in the case of incest, but does not so far as to allow abortions in the case of rape. DONATE TO DON DAVIS. See Len’s Political Note #577
South Carolina 01 Michael B. Moore is the great, great grandson of Robert Smalls, an enslaved man who was an American hero in the Civil War. For most of his life, Michael B. Moore was interested in business. His family was prosperous. He worked for Krafts and Coca Cola. He became CEO for the Black family brand Glory Foods. After he made his nut, he focused on good works – much of that in and around Charleston. He also served a Trustee for the prep school he went to – St. Mark’s in Massachusetts. DONATE TO MICHAEL B. Moore. See Len’s Political Note #637
The Big Senate race nearby
Florida – Former Member of Congress Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, came to the US when her mother brought her four daughters from Ecuador. Debbie Mucarsel became a professional fund raiser for non-profits and was elected to a term in Congress. She is running against billionaire incumbent and former governor Rick Scott. She began the year with $1.5 million available; he began the year with $3.2 million in his campaign fund. Her candidacy could be difficult because she has a primary opponent. There are still no useful polls, but the world has changed. Scott’s proposal to vote on Medicare and other programs valued by the electorate will not be forgotten. Florida’s Women’s Freedom Coalition have submitted nearly a million signatures, well more than the requirement, to put protection of the right to an abortion into Florida’s constitution. That proposal could change the electorate in November. DONATE TO DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL. See Len’s Political Note #598
Another Nearby Senate Race
Tennessee – State Rep Gloria Johnson is known nationally as one of the three state reps who protested against the Tennessee House for refusing to debate a gun safety proposal. Two young Black reps were expelled from the legislature; she was not, by a single vote. She is running against Senator Marsha Blackburn – whose attacks on Democrats put her in a league with Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Rick Scott. Gloria Johnson started the year with $1.4 million. Blackburn began the year with $7.4 million. Polls are not encouraging. An April 2 poll had Blackburn up by 16 points. DONATE TO GLORIA JOHNSON See Len’s Political Note #622
We have a presidential race to win
Support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
As we look toward November, 2024, help sustain the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaign. Eleven polls between April 1 and April 10 found Trump ahead in 6 of them ranging from +1 to +6, Biden ahead in 4 of them ranging from +1 to +4. One poll was even. Every donation, large or small, makes a difference. Larger donations mean more money for the campaign. But large numbers of small donations are a measure of enthusiasm for the candidate. Make a small donation if you cannot afford a large one. DONATE TO JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS. See Len’s Political Note #605
#20 in the Stephenson County, IL list of Biden accomplishments: Signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins.
