Dear Mr. Brewer:

   Thank you for taking this historic step towards making the Presidential Selection Process more open, diverse and reflective of the Southland of our United States. No Democratic Nominee for the Presidency of the United States can make it to the White House without first winning electoral votes in the South. You are acknowledging that reality by your actions today.

   Each of the Southern State Parties presenting today are great organizations with unique gifts. Each state has powerful and famous political advocates. Each state has merit and good reason to be chosen. However, Alabama has chosen to present clear, factual data as to why the Democratic National Committee and our Presidential Primary Process is best served by selecting Alabama – First in the South.

Here are the facts:
 

1.	Alabama is the most populous of the Southern states presenting today with 4.5 million people (1.1 million African-American) and 2.2 million registered voters.
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2.	Alabama is 26% African-American and one of the only states where blacks serve in public office equal to their percentage of population.
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3.	Alabama’s Democratic electorate is a microcosm of the Heartland of America…liberals, conservative whites, evangelicals, African-Americans, equally split between rural and urban voters.
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4.	Presidential candidates that can survive Alabama’s primary process, organizationally and from a policy standpoint, can hold their own with tougher Southern voters in November!
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5.	Over 11% (nearly twice the average of most other Southern states) of Alabama households are part of organized labor that spreads equally around the state.
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6.	No Presidential Candidate can win Alabama without covering the entire state. Our vote (including minority vote) is not monolithic and is spread out from Huntsville to Mobile and from Tuscaloosa to Tuskegee. It would require candidates to commit real resources and months of time in order to win in Alabama.
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7.	Alabama has 22 daily and 96 weekly papers, 84 radio stations, and four major Television broadcast markets with 28 stations that wash into Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle.
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8.	Alabama is still a “Blue State” at the local level with Alabama Democrats serving in elected office in 66 of 67 counties and controlling 53 of 67 county courthouses.  Democrats also control the Alabama House and Senate and hold 70 local judgeships.
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9.	The Alabama Democratic Party has gender equity on every county committee and at the state level.  African-Americans are also represented proportionately to their electoral strength on each county committee.
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10.	Alabama boasts the oldest and longest serving Black Political Caucus, the Alabama Democratic Conference (over 52 years). The ADC holds candidate endorsement caucuses through a strict screening process.  Additionally, Alabama has more Historically Black Colleges than any other state other than North Carolina.
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11.	One of the nation’s largest teacher organizations, the Alabama Education Association (sister of the NEA) is represented within the state party with two of its CEO’s holding vice-chair status at the state party along with the State President of the AFL-CIO who is also a vice-chair.
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12.	Alabama’s Democratic Party leadership is logistically well prepared to hold an early primary. The state party has seven full time staff, including 3 from the state partnership with the DNC. We have a fully operable headquarters two blocks from the judicial building, State Capitol building and Legislative Statehouse. We are centered among interest-group associations in Montgomery near the Southern Poverty Law Center and Dexter-King Memorial Baptist Church. Our officers are media savvy and resourceful, veteran national campaigners.
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13.	The aladems.org website logged 637,000 hits in the month of March setting an all-time record with thousands of new, unique users coming online with us each month. Our site is one of the most active in the Democratic family, ready for national media attention and scrutiny.
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14.	Alabama has 97 aviation runways and 5 commercial airports for campaigns to use in traversing the state.
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15.	Alabama is one of America’s most patriotic states with a disproportionate number of veterans, military bases, and more National Guard and Reservists per capita than any other state.
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16.	In a bi-partisan move this week, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill moving our primary to Tuesday, February 5 2008 and will fund the $3.3 million cost of it. They would also accommodate your selection of moving the Alabama primary closer to New Hampshire’s date.

The facts and stats are very clear. We are unique. We have national appeal. We have infrastructure. We are the Old South and New South. We have geographical and cultural centrism. We were the Cradle of the Confederacy and then the Cradle of Civil Rights. We were the Cradle of Cotton and now America’s Cradle of Car Manufacturing.

   Alabama can be a political boot camp for our eventual Presidential Nominee as they face the rigors of confronting the cultural and electoral divide of Alabama and the South that has defeated us time and time again. From the pews of an A.M.E. Zion Church to the family-life centers of the state’s largest Southern Baptist congregations, Alabama holds electoral gold for those candidates that can master the art of navigating this political diversity. Whoever wins Alabama will have mastered the message and organization necessary to win in the Heartland in November.

  From the descendants of those who marched from Selma to Montgomery to those that now assemble the new Honda Odyssey in Lincoln, Alabama - we proudly request to become the First in the South to pick the next President of the United States. Please give us this opportunity. We won’t let you down!

Democratically yours,
 

Joe Turnham
Chairman