By M.J. Ellington
DAILY Staff Writer
mjellington@decaturdaily.com · (334) 262-1104

MONTGOMERY — Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley says a politician doesn't announce she's running for governor in 2006 two years ahead of time. But...

"Two years is a lifetime in politics," Baxley said, last week from her office in the Statehouse. But ...

"If the election were today, then the answer would be yes, I'd run, but it's not," she said.

Instead, Baxley said she is putting the framework for a campaign in place and going about the job Alabamians selected her for in the 2002 election.

Whichever office Baxley decides to run for in 2006 — governor or lieutenant governor — she'll be in the race as a Democrat.

"When I was growing up in Houston County, I didn't know a Republican," Baxley said. "I grew up with a feeling that Democrats had an empathy, a caring for people and I liked that. I'm not saying that my Republican friends don't have those things, but that's the way I grew up."

But Baxley said she does not get her personal integrity or views from party affiliation, and she does not believe in switching from one party to another to win votes.

"I do not subscribe to the view of some people that, because it looks like there are more votes over there, I need to switch parties; I won't do that," she said. "I don't have the need to take on the mantle of someone else's cause to gain people's respect. I want them to vote for me because of what I stand for."

Helping the vulnerable

Those views include finding ways to provide services for children and elderly people she calls "the state's most vulnerable," but she concedes there will be challenges ahead in trying to accomplish that. Issues of accountability, the perceived role of lobbyists in the Statehouse, and finding ways to fund government will continue to be factors for the future.

Baxley believes the challenges — especially ones involving funding issues and constitutional reform — took a setback with the September 2003 failure of Amendment One.

"Unfortunately, people across the state now think constitutional reform means tax increase," Baxley said. "They haven't separated in their minds the reform measures from the taxes."

The result is that constitutional reform and more explicit accountability legislation are likely to have difficulty passing the Legislature any time soon, said Baxley.

"I think the possibility (of constitutional reform and real accountability) is in worse shape than it was before Amendment One," Baxley said.

Setting priorities

Looking back on the last session, Baxley said the greatest accomplishment was "finding a way to keep state government afloat."

In what lawmakers termed the biggest financial challenge in a lifetime, Baxley said at the end, lawmakers and the governor's office had to come together and do "the same thing a family does. We had to set priorities, and we could not fund everything we would have liked."

Making government more accountable was one term that came up often during the most recent session as a way to reduce pass-through pork contributions to pet causes and have more money available to fund the budget.

Baxley questions how effective such measures would be.

"Accountability legislation is in the eyes of the beholder," Baxley said. "You can't legislate honesty."

She believes that one way to make the legislative process more accountable, however, would be to "find a way to punish the person who put the pork in a bill." Some attempts at accountability legislation in the past have included punishment for department heads rather than the specific legislator who had the pork added to a bill, she added.

Baxley said she doesn't like the concept of pass-through pork. "I have never asked for it; I don't want it; and I won't ask for it in the future," she said.

The lawmaker's views on the impact of lobbyists are a contrast to those on accountability, and it is because of the function Baxley sees that they provide.

A valuable service

"A good lobbyist performs a valuable service," Baxley said. "People or groups, who believe they are being seriously impacted by a piece of legislation, hire someone to provide a voice for them. People or groups on the opposing side do the same. There is no way it is humanly possible to learn everything about all those bills. So, reputable lobbyists can help with that.

"But, a lobbyist is only as effective as his information is reliable. If a lobbyist gives out faulty information, it spreads like wildfire through this place. The legislators would no longer trust him."

Baxley said legislators still need to hear from the public through public hearings and by allowing enough time for voters to learn about legislation and to respond.

As the ex-wife of former Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley, whom she calls her friend, Baxley might have been expected to gain valuable information about the Senate from his experience.

"The Senate does not operate by Roberts Rules of Order," she said. "They rewrite the rules every four years, so things don't stay the same.

"So many things play into a session, so much is going on on the floor, the personalities and strategies that play into which bills might be brought up. I soon found that I was engrossed in what was going on that I didn't have time to be nervous. It surprised me. I like the mental challenge of dealing with several things at once."

Like motherhood

The only female lieutenant governor in state history, Baxley compares the job of presiding over the heavily male Senate to motherhood, with the constant need to do more than one thing at a time.

"I was well aware of the apprehension these people had of working with a female as presiding officer," Baxley said. "Only three of the senators are women. They had a reservation that mother's watchful eye was going to be over them. But as they worked with me, they realized I was not going to try and take over anyone else's life. I was willing to earn their respect. I was not trying to say, 'You have to respect me because of my office.' I was willing to earn it. I think I have."

Baxley and her husband, Jim Smith, live in Montgomery. A typical workweek for her is 60 to 70 hours. Married first at 18, because "that's what everybody in Southeast Alabama did at that point," Baxley grew up in Pansy, near Dothan.

Divorced from her first husband after five years and the birth of her daughter, Becky, she later went to work for Bill Baxley. They married, had a son, Lewis, and divorced after 11 years.