The article lists various potential candidates, among them State Senator Vivian Davis Figures and State Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks. Sparks, who has successfully run two statewide campaigns, looks to me to be the stronger candidate. During his most recent campaign he was on For the Record and he was very persuasive in making his points about agricultural trade with Cuba and other issues.In 2004, Alabama saw an economic impact from trade with Cuba of over $300 million. In 2005, Cuba purchased about $140 million in products from Alabama creating a $400 million economic impact for the state. In 2006, Cuba bought almost 1/3 of its entire US purchases from Alabama. I have for a long time been a proponent of normalizing relations with Cuba, our embargo does nothing but hurt the people of that country.
In this picture Ron Sparks is giving Pedro Alvarez, the CEO of Alimport (who determines which North American products will be imported to Cuba) a cooking lesson with Alabama catfish.
In Sparks last election in 2006 he received 701,000 votes across the state. In Sessions last election in 2002 he recieved around 793,000 votes. The senate race is always a much higher profile race, so it is not surprising that Sessions would get more votes, especially considering the Republicans were thought of favorably in 2002. Now the political scene is different, and I believe Sparks could make up that difference and we could send a Democrat to Washington. He is in his second term as Agricultural Commissioner and can not run again. He would not have to give up his current office to run
It's not too early to start thinking about these things.
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