MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith kicked off his Democratic campaign for governor Wednesday by calling Republican incumbent Robert Bentley timid and advocating expansion of the state Medicaid program under the federal health care law.
The former congressman from Huntsville said he would also campaign on legalizing a state lottery to pay for scholarships.
“We know we can create more jobs when we have a healthy, well-educated workforce,” Griffith said.
Griffith outlined his campaign agenda of jobs, education and health care in a letter posted on his new campaign website Wednesday. In interviews and in a letter to voters posted on his website, Griffith called Republican incumbent Robert Bentley timid for not expanding Medicaid.
“Alabama wasn’t built by timid politicians like Robert Bentley,” Griffith said.
In seeking re-election, Bentley points out that Alabama’s 6.1 percent unemployment rate is the lowest in five years and there are 59,400 more jobs now than when he took office in January 2011.
Griffith said Alabama’s job creation is low compared to many states and the decline in unemployment is due in part to workers 55 and older losing their jobs and giving up on finding replacements, which means they are no longer counted as unemployed.
Griffith signed up to run for governor only a few minutes before the Feb. 7 deadline for major party candidates declare their candidacies. He said he needed a few days to pull his campaign together and that’s why he had the kickoff Wednesday.
Griffith and Bentley are both 71 and both physicians. Bentley refused to expand the Medicaid program under the federal health care law because he said he said the program was broken and unaffordable. Griffith voted against the Affordable Care Act in Congress because he said he didn’t like parts of it and other parts were confusing. But he said Tuesday he always liked the Medicaid expansion in the law and believes it would create 30,000 health care jobs in Alabama.
Griffith accused Bentley of making the Medicaid decision based on politics instead of what’s in best for his constituents.
“He’s timid in the sense he’s a captive of the extremists in his party,” Griffith said.
Bentley’s campaign had no immediate comment on Griffith’s remarks.
Griffith faces Fayette businessman Kevin Bass in the Democratic primary June 3. Bentley faces two opponents in the GOP primary the same day.
Griffith was elected to the Alabama Senate in 2004 and then to Congress in 2008 as a Democrat, but switched parties in December 2009 ahead of a national Republican wave. He lost the Republican primary in 2010 to Mo Brooks, a tea party favorite who beat Griffith again in the 2012 primary. Then he became an independent and recently rejoined the Democratic Party to run for governor.
Griffith said he originally left the Democratic Party because national leaders of the Democratic Party were far to the left of the Democrats he served with in the Alabama Legislature. He said he didn’t get along with national leaders of the Republican Party either and decided to re-enter state politics as a Democrat. “I’m wiser for the experience,” he said.
Online: https://www.griffithforgovernor.com
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