Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Green Hill, will try again next year to ban state political parties from keeping candidates off ballots because they accept campaign donations from certain groups.
House Bill 6, pre-filed for the 2025 legislative session, is the same bill Pettus proposed this year.
It was in response to a 2023 rule by the ALGOP allowing it to disqualify candidates for state and local school boards and county school superintendents who accept donations from the National Education Association or the Alabama Education Association.
Political parties set the qualifications for individuals desiring to run for office as a candidate of that political party.
Pettus’ bill says “a political party may not disqualify an individual for nomination to an office based solely on receipt by the individual of a campaign contribution from a particular person or from a particular political action committee.”
Pettus, a third-term lawmaker, has said the ALGOP shouldn’t be able to decide who candidates can’t take money from, whether it’s AEA or any other group.
Alabama Daily News previously reported that in 2022, the AEA spent $2.9 million on State House races. Most of that money went to Republicans, including Pettus.
He recently told ADN he hasn’t gotten financial support from the ALGOP in recent campaigns, including a GOP primary. Candidates need money to run campaigns, he said.
“AEA and others support me and (the ALGOP) is going to come in and say, ‘Oh, we don’t think you should take money from them and if we don’t think you should get money, we’re not going to give you any.’ To me, that’s a dictatorship.
“… The AEA doesn’t control me and I don’t think the party should control me.”
He said it should be up to voters to decide if a candidate’s campaign support is any issue.
“If my voters don’t want me to take AEA money and want to vote me out, that’s them,” Pettus said. “But I don’t think the party should be able to make that decision.”
Pettus’ 2024 bill did not advance out of the House Committee on Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee.
It was opposed by the ALGOP and that opposition remains.
“(The bill) only creates a division between Republicans across the state and would face a serious constitutional challenge based on the right of freedom of assembly,” ALGOP Chairman John Wahl told ADN.
“There have been multiple court cases upholding the party’s authority over ballot access. We believe our time would be better spent coming together and working as a team to elect Republicans who will challenge the radical agenda of the Democrat Party. We want to thank the House committee for voting down this bill last session, and we expect to see the same result next session. The Alabama Republican Party and our legislative caucuses have a great relationship and we always enjoy working with them.”