Possibilities of reform in Alabama's political system
Though he believes that Wallace's legacy would continue to send moderates into the Republican Party, Nettles also hopes that as Wallace becomes more active on the national political scene, incoming politicians will begin to reform Alabama's state programs.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Bert Nettles, July 13, 1974. Interview A-0015. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
When a
new legislature comes in, this new group that's going to be majority
newcomers, do you see them working actively for reform and being
successful in it?
- BERT NETTLES:
-
Yes.
- JACK BASS:
-
This is more or less what happened in Florida.
- BERT NETTLES:
-
I think they can be successful. In Florida you had this big situation . .
. quite different. And I'd be the first to admit it. Kirk gave the
Florida legislature no other choice. He was a Republican governor, to
begin with. The legislature suddenly asserted itself and said
"We don't want a Republican running the legislature or running
state government. The legislature's got to be independent of the
governor and we've got to keep the Republicans from cleaning out
Tallahassee and the state government generally." And Kirk, by
his very nature, was his own worst enemy. He even . . . ended up that
the sizeable number of Republicans in the legislature . . . . They had a
one-third veto control of the legislature. Ended up with the reform
movement because of Kirk's hard and fast position against any type of
reform. I've talked with Pettigrew and Terrell
Sessums and others. And the stories they tell! Just tremendous what they
did. But they had . . . . It was not only a vacuum. But they were almost
forced into a position of reform. Now here you've got a strong governor
and a strong lieutenant governor and others who are building for the
future who are playing the old game of keep the legislature weak. They
can talk legislative reform all they want to, but there's been no
serious effort. Wallace could have got annual sessions passed by just
lifting one little finger. By making one statement: "I'm for
annual sessions of the legislature." But he allowed that
constitutional amendment to be defeated at the state wide vote,
primarily by advertising campaign sponsored by the chamber of commerce
on one hand and the Farm Bureau on the other hand. This was back in '71,
December of '71. That was the biggest reform we've pushed. Now Wallace,
in my way of thinking, has never, since he's been governor, done
anything in the cause of legislative reform that he wasn't absolutely
forced into. He has had several hard brushes with the legislature and we
have defeated him on several things.
- WALTER DE VRIES:
-
Would it be true to say this, as you look ahead, not only in the next
four years but let's say eight years, that Wallace-suppose he
leaves the scene in '78 . . . wide open primary of the Democrats and so
on. Plus you've got single member districts. You've got a whole lot of
new people coming in. Young people and so on. And that the era of reform
may be four years to eight years ahead in this state in terms of the
legislature. That it will assert its independence. Become a stronger
branch.
- BERT NETTLES:
-
Except . . . . I think it's an overstatement because I think it's going
to come quicker than that. I foresee Wallace in the
next two years very busy on the national scene. Plus Wallace has his
health problems. And I think the legislature is going to continue to be
somewhat . . . to fend for itself as long as it doesn't get into areas
of real importance to Wallace. And I think there's a real possibility
we'll see some major reform accomplished during the next four years. But
certainly the impetus for further reform will be there from '78 on.