Ron[ny] Has Little Lamb

Dan at Between the Links and Jeff at Politics in Alabama have already covered the news that Ron Sparks, the current Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, will not run against Jeff Sessions next year for U.S. Senate. From the media report, Sparks has stated that his reason is that Vivian Figures, a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, is planning to run. He claims that he believes that the only way a Democrat can beat the Republican incumbent is for the Democrat to avoid a primary battle and the expenses associated with it, thus saving the money for the general election fight.

 

I think though that if we apply Occam's Razor, the reason behind Sparks' and Figures' respective moves is that they are both assured that Session will win regardless of who the Democratic candidate is. Therefore, the Democratic Party needs a sacrificial lamb. With Sparks' star on the rise, he is not to be that lamb. The Democrats, and Sparks himself, want to save Sparks for another day for a contest that is winnable.  Such as the 2010 governor's race.

 

At one time, the Democrats might have been tempted to not even field a candidate for that race. However, they learned in the 2000 general election that not fielding a candidate for a statewide office can help a minor political party (such as the Libertarians that year) meet the requirements to maintain ballot access for the next election cycle.  Without opposition from the Democratic Party that year in a Supreme Court contest, a Libertarian candidate received about 21% of the vote, one point higher than was necessary for the Libertarians to maintain ballot access for the 2002 election.  The Democrats aren't going to give a modest helping hand to a minor party again.