Former Press-Register editorial writer Quin Hillyer in the American Spectator (excerpted):

…With Riley retiring, his enemies at the hugely powerful, hugely counterproductive Alabama Education Association are going to phenomenal extremes to make sure the governor’s mansion ends up in hands far more pliable for the AEA agenda. So radical is the AEA that a decade ago it actually fought tooth and nail against teacher background checks. Yes, against background checks. Apparently it was more important to protect the jobs of teachers than it was to make sure Alabama’s children weren’t being preyed upon by sex offenders or other criminals. Most people see the AEA as a direct arm of the state Democratic party — or vice versa, with the AEA pulling all the strings: Paul Hubbert, AEA’s major domo since 1969, is a former Democratic nominee for governor and still is co-chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Anyway, the AEA has by reliable estimates spent well over $1 million, and by some claims as much as $3 million, to defeat conservative reformer Bradley Byrne. …Against Byrne in the Republican primary runoff is a relative cipher named Robert Bentley, a previously low-profile state House member who used a stealth campaign to barely edge conservative businessman Tim James, son of former Gov. Fob James, to sneak into the runoff with Byrne. Bentley, who partnered with the AEA while in the Legislature to help kill Gov. Riley’s efforts to legalize charter schools, gladly has accepted AEA’s campaign help, financial and otherwise. The AEA is openly urging registered Democrats to cross over and vote in the GOP runoff, for Bentley.

When I served as chief editorial writer for the Mobile Register, at the time one of the most conservative papers in the country and one of the only conservative papers to regularly win mainstream journalism awards, Byrne was one of the few office-holders we could count on to give us the news straight and unvarnished, whether we wanted to hear it or not. … I remember one time, also, when he was the only member of a key committee to vote against a sneaky tax hike: I can’t remember the details, other than that it was one of those legislative sleight-of-hands by the left that only somebody really paying attention would have caught and raised a stink about. Byrne, to his credit, was paying attention, and raised the appropriate stink…

All of which is fine, you might ask, but why should you care? For one thing, redistricting. … A governor in hoc to the AEA is, through Hubbert, directly in hoc to the state Democratic Party. Bye, bye, any real chance of fair redistricting for those three U.S. House seats. As the fight over Obamacare showed, every single one of those seats can make a huge difference.

Secondly, the national conservative movement would benefit from having a Duke-educated, sophisticated, articulate spokesman, without a good-ol’boy twang, in the state known as the Heart of Dixie. Somebody who naturally sounds attractively southern without sounding the slightest bit hayseed is harder for national establishment media to stereotype and slander.

… The solid South would suddenly have a soft underbelly. And the Left would exploit it without mercy.