Roby, Moore, Cavanaugh visit Dale County

The Dale County Republican Headquarters in Ozark celebrated its grand opening Sept. 6 with visits from Alabama Public Service District 1 Commissioner Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate Roy Moore and U.S. Rep. Martha Roby.

Cavanaugh, who is currently running against Democrat Lucy Baxley for the position of President of Alabama’s Public Service Commission, spoke on the Republican Party’s hopes for state and federal government.

“In Dale County, 20 of the 21 elected officials are now Republicans,” Cavanaugh said. “Yall are doing a great job.”

Cavanaugh called the party’s national ticket fantastic, but focused mainly on her upcoming state election.  

“My opponent has been serving in public office, and I say that word loosely, for over 30 years,” she said. “It’s time that we paint the state solidly red. She’s the last remaining Democrat in state of Alabama and it’s time to send her home packing.”

Cavanaugh said since her first day on the APSC she’s worked to trim state government spending and plans to continue doing so as president.

“It’s my job to be a better steward of the money that you send to Montgomery, and I feel like that’s why you put me in office,” she said. “It’s about serving the people and not about serving the people that are in public office.”

Cavanaugh said she wants to make sure Alabamians have reliable and affordable utilities to attract better paying jobs.

“This boils down to jobs for the state and putting people back to work,” she said.

Former Chief Justice Roy Moore, who is seeking the position again after severing form Jan. 2001 to Nov. 2003, focused his words on morality and the lack of it in politics today.

“I think we have forgotten where we came from in this country and say that very sincerely,” Moore said opening his speech.

Moore said the recent Democratic National Convention exemplifies the absence of morality in government.

“In 2004 they had seven references to God in their platform. In 2008 they only had one. This year they had zero and when they got embarrassed they put it back in,” Moore said. “That’s the problem in our country. We’re embarrassed to acknowledge God.”

Moore said he was seeking the office of Chief Justice again because he feels judges, at all levels of government, are turning from the constitution.

“We need to remind judges that they don’t make laws, they’re there to interpret law,” Moore said. “I wish the United States Supreme Court, both Republican and Democrat, would recognize states’ rights and the right of the state to control its destiny. We’ve got a big problem with that.”

Moore said the U.S Constitution has been completely negated at the high levels of the country and cited the Affordable Health Care Act as an example.

“Here we have a bill pushed by Obama, not read by our Congress and (approved) by the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “In the last few years I’ve learned this has been going on the whole time.”

Moore’s closing remarks explained the crucial nature of November’s presidential election.

“If Barack Obama gets in office again, we’re liable to not have a country,” Moore said.

Rep. Martha Roby followed Moore and thanked Dale County for its leadership.

“It’s so good to see our Republican offices opening up,” she said. “It’s great to see you all getting involved in politics. It shows that you really do care about where our country is headed.”

Roby said independent voters would be the deciding factor in the upcoming presidential election.

“We have two choices in November,” Roby said. “There’s the status quo of more bloated government and more government in every decision you make, or we can choose Gov. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”

Roby said Republicans aren’t just highlighting the country’s problems, but are also providing solutions.

“When we do win back the White House and a majority in the Senate, then we’ll have some real tough decisions to make,” Roby said. “We’ll be the ones leading the turning of the ship and that’s when we are going to have to stand together and sacrifice based on what we know we need to do and restore fiscal sanity in this country.”