By William C. Singleton III
Journal contributor
Fresh off his Republican runoff victory over State Rep. Paul DeMarco for the Sixth Congressional District seat, political newcomer Gary Palmer said he’s not taking his next opponents lightly.
Palmer will face Democrat Avery Vise and Libertarian Aimee Love in the November general election, and most have penciled him in as winner, given the heavy concentration of Republicans within the district.
Just don’t tell Palmer that.
“We’ve got to regroup. We’ve got to get our campaign team together because we’ve still got another race to run,” said Palmer during his victory party at the Grandview Marriot off U.S. 280 last week. “We don’t take anything for granted.”
The founder of the conservative think-tank Alabama Policy Institute easily defeated his more politically experienced opponent, who has served eight years in the Alabama Legislature. DeMarco held a lead over Palmer in votes and campaign spending coming out of the June Republican primary. The unofficial tally in the runoff election had Palmer leading with 62 percent of the vote compared to DeMarco’s 38 percent.
Palmer said starting out in the race as the underdog will fuel him going into the general election.
“A lot of people knew me from API, but my name ID was 2 percent in January,” he said. “So we have no reason to be overconfident.”
Palmer said he expects DeMarco’s supporters to follow him into the general election. But, again, he’s not taking that for granted either, he said.
“I’m going after all of the voters,” he said. “I’m going after every voter in the district. This is a message about the country, not about the party.”
A disappointed DeMarco congratulated Palmer on his victory and said he had no regrets.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed, but I’m proud of all the supporters we’ve had and who’ve volunteered the past six months on this campaign,” DeMarco said.
DeMarco was heavily criticized by Palmer supporters and local media for an ad which implied Palmer supported raising taxes. The ad pulled a statement by Palmer backing a tax increase but omitted the context in which Palmer framed his support. Palmer’s supporters said the ad was misleading, and even Palmer said it may have helped him in the runoff.
“Paul’s a good guy, but he got some bad advice,” Palmer said.
DeMarco declined to address whether the ad had any influence on the outcome of the runoff.
“I’m not doing any post-mortems,” he said. “I’m proud of my team. I’m proud of the folks who worked for me. I’m proud of all the volunteers. That’s what I’m looking at.”
DeMarco would not say whether he’d seek public office in the future but said he does expect to be active in the community.
“There are a lot of issues that are important to all of us as citizens, and we’ll continue to (support those issues). I love my state and I love my nation,” DeMarco said.
In the other Over the Mountain race decided July 15, Arnold Mooney defeated Amie Beth Shaver in the House District 43 Republican runoff.
Mooney, who works in commercial real estate, unofficially received 68 percent of the vote, compared to Shaver’s 32 percent. Mooney will replace Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, R-Indian Springs Village, who did not seek reelection.
House District 43 encompasses north-central Shelby County, Helena, Indian Springs, Pelham and parts of south Jefferson County.
