Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate
Doug Jones speaks during a rally
Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, in
Birmingham, Ala. Jones is facing
Republican Roy Moore. (Photo: John
Bazemore, AP)
Turbulent
Senate
race now
in hands
of
Alabama
voters By
BILL
BARROW
and
KIM
CHANDLER
BIRMINGHAM,
Ala. -
Depending
on who
is
making
the
case,
Alabama’s
special
Senate
election
Tuesday
is about
either
continuing
the
“Trump
miracle”
in
Washington
or
allowing
“decency”
to
prevail
back
home.
At
the
center
is Roy
Moore —
“Judge
Moore,”
to his
supporters.
The
70-year-old
Republican
was
twice
ousted
as state
Supreme
Court
chief
justice
after
flouting
federal
law, and
now he’s
attempting
a
political
resurrection
amid
accusations
of
sexual
misconduct
with
teenage
girls
when he
was in
his 30s.
In
Moore’s
path is
Democrat
Doug
Jones,
63, a
former
U.S.
attorney
best
known
for
prosecuting
two Ku
Klux
Klansmen
who
killed
four
black
girls in
a 1963
church
bombing.
The
winner
will
take the
seat
previously
held by
Attorney
General
Jeff
Sessions.
Republicans
hold a
narrow
52-48
Senate
majority.
A
routine
election
in
Republican-dominated
Alabama
wouldn’t
be
expected
to alter
that
balance,
because
Alabamians
haven’t
sent a
Democrat
to the
upper
chamber
of
Congress
since
1992.
President
Donald
Trump
notched
a
28-point
win here
in 2016
and
remains
popular
in the
state.
But
Moore’s
baggage
leaves
the
outcome
enough
in doubt
that
both
Trump
and his
Democratic
predecessor,
Barack
Obama,
have
weighed
in with
last-minute
robocalls
trying
to sway
voters.
The
intensity
also has
spawned
a steady
stream
of fake
news
stories
that
fill
social
media
feeds of
interested
people
in
Alabama
and
beyond.
An
Associated
Press
analysis,
in
cooperation
with
Facebook,
counted
as many
as 200
false or
misleading
reports
heading
into the
weekend.
One
website
claimed
one of
the
women
who have
accused
Moore of
sexual
misconduct
had
recanted.
She did
not.
Meanwhile,
Moore’s
detractors
took to
social
media to
claim he
had
written
in a
2011
textbook
that
women
shouldn’t
hold
elected
office.
He
didn’t.
In
his
final
pitch
before
polls
open,
Jones
called
the
choice a
“crossroads”
and
asked
that
“decency”
prevail.
“We’ve
had this
history
in the
past,
going
down the
road
that ...
has not
been
productive,”
Jones
said.
“We’ve
lagged
behind
in
industry.
We’ve
lagged
behind
in
education.
We’ve
lagged
behind
in
health
care.
It’s
time we
take the
road
that’s
going to
get us
on the
path to
progress.”
At
his own
election
eve
rally,
Moore
again
denied
all the
allegations,
calling
them
“disgusting”
and
offering
voters a
clear
measure:
“If you
don’t
believe
in my
character,
don’t
vote for
me.”
Earlier
in the
day,
Moore
cast
himself
as the
victim.
“It’s
just
been
hard, a
hard
campaign,”
he said.
For
Alabama,
the
outcome
could be
defining.
Democrats
and
moderate
Republicans
see an
opportunity
to
reject a
politician
who is
already
regular
fodder
for
late-night
television
and
enough
of a
curiosity
that
Chinese
leader
Xi
Jinping
paused a
presidential
meeting
in
Beijing
recently
to ask
Trump
through
an
interpreter,
“Who is
Roy
Moore?”
Alabama’s
senior
senator,
Richard
Shelby,
confirmed
publicly
that he
wrote in
a
“distinguished
Alabama
Republican”
rather
than
vote for
Moore.
Many
Republicans,
however,
see an
opportunity
to
defend
the
state’s
conservative,
evangelical
bent in
the face
of
unfair
liberal
criticism
while
delivering
another
victory
for
Trump
and
sending
an
anti-establishment
senator
into a
federal
government
that has
been
reflexively
unpopular
among
Alabama
majorities
for
generations.
Trump’s
campaign
architect
and
former
White
House
adviser
Steve
Bannon
told
Moore
supporters
Monday
evening
that the
race is
a
“national
election”
that
will
determine
whether
the
“Trump
miracle”
continues.
Moore
says he
is
aligned
with the
president
and he
makes
similar
arguments
to
Trump,
blasting
“the
elite”
in the
“swamp”
of
Washington,
D.C.
For
Jones to
win, he
must
build an
atypical
coalition,
maximizing
turnout
among
African-American
voters
and
white
liberals
who
often
don’t
combine
for more
than 40
percent
of the
electorate,
while
coaxing
votes
from
enough
white
Republicans
who
can’t
pull the
lever
for
Moore.
One
of
Jones’
celebrity
backers
framed
the
choice
as being
much
less
complicated.
“I
love
Alabama,”
said
Leeds
native
and
former
NBA
basketball
star
Charles
Barkley,
“but at
some
point
we’ve
got to
draw a
line in
the sand
and say,
‘We’re
not a
bunch of
damn
idiots.’”