From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey, welcome to Capitol Journal.

All eyes were on Washington this week as Congress went all the way to the Friday deadline to narrowly approve the White House's request to cut $9 billion in already approved funding.

This includes funding that will impact Alabama Public Television.

Our Washington correspondent Alex Angle reports from Capitol Hill.

The bill is amended as passed.

This week was all about the money.

The Senate passed Presiden Donald Trump's request to claw back $9 billion in foreign aid in public media funding.

Alabama Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt backed the package.

It's easy for us to spend money.

It's hard for us to cut money, and we need to learn to cut money.

Not not that we cut.

Things that are, in dire need of Americans.

But there's a lot of things that we need to cut back on.

Two Senate Republicans joined Democrats to vote against the bill.

They argued the cuts will harm the United States global power and hurt local media.

The package cuts foreign aid spending by $8 billion, it says in a statement that reads in part, quote, as a member of the Senate Doge caucus, I'm proud to support President Trump's goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, end quote.

The House then approved the bill and sent it to Trump's desk.

Alabama's delegation split o party lines in the House vote.

The resolution is adopted.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will lose $1.1 billion.

Congressman Robert Aderholt says he thinks loca PBS stations that aren't pushing a political agenda will be okay in the long run.

Ultimately, we want to see is more money going to the State and for them to do their jobs.

Now that Congress has passe this first Rescissions package.

More could be coming.

The white House and Republicans are eyeing even more funding cuts this year.

Reporting on Capitol Hill Alex Angle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you, Alex and I'll be talking with Wayne Reed, our executive director, of how these cuts might impact appt.

Later in the show.

Also on the federal funding front.

There's an update on that $68 million appropriated to Alabam that had been frozen by the U.S. Department of Education.

This week, U.S.

Senator Katie Britt joined a letter with fellow senators asking the department to release that money, which totals 6 billion nationally.

And on Friday, Britt confirmed tha the funding has been released.

According to the state Department of Education, these funds are mostly used for afterschool programs and summer learning.

Britt said, quote I'm pleased to see these funds released to support after school and summer programs.

I appreciate President Trump and OMB Director Vought responding to our request to ensure local communities can continu to serve students and families.

Earlier in the week, Senator Tommy Tuberville also expressed support for releasing those education funds.

Speaking of summer learning Governor Kay Ivey was in Cullman this week to visit a summer Stem camp that allows local student to continue their math, science and tech learning over the break.

This footage is from Miss Savannah Woods class at East Elementary School, where students are building a mock Mars landing vehicle and rover learning about kinetic energy and space exploration.

Stem camp is free to families and funded through a state Summe and Afterschool Learning grant.

Apts.

Trish Crain was there and caught up with Governor Ivey.

Learning and stopping this summer.

Learning keeps going and water heaters to stay abreast of everything and have experiences.

Some that don't get, you know, is the right decision for me.

So it's important to giv these students an opportunity.

Well, it may be summer, but it will soon be tim to go back to school full time.

In Alabama's annual back to school sales tax holiday is underway.

Giving families a break on school supplies, clothing and technology.

But starting next year, th savings could grow even larger.

Lawmakers have approved changes that expand what qualifies for the sales tax holiday.

Capital Journal's Jeff Sanders reports.

At Name Dropper a baby and children's clothing boutique in Montgomery, Alabama's tax free weekend is more than just a bump in sales.

It's a lifeline for small businesses.

This is like the start of the new, the school year.

You know, everybody's on vacations.

They start to think about, buying clothes and shoes and, backpacks and everything they need fo for school coming up this year.

Under the current law, the back to school sales tax holiday weeken waives the state's 4% sales tax.

And many cities and counties across Alabama choose to waive their local sales taxes as well on key items like clothing under $100, schoo supplies, books and electronics.

But starting next year, that will change.

Lawmakers have approved increases in the price thresholds, giving families more room to shop without going over the tax free cap.

It helps the consumer not only they're going to come in and buy clothes and shoes, they're going to get backpacks and lunchboxes and, books.

We sell books too.

So everythin you need to get back to school.

Retail leaders say the changes are timely especially with rising prices.

The Retail Association is made up of 4500 members of retailers from all across the state.

Your typical boutiques, restaurants, hotels, you name it.

Especially in an economy where things are tight.

And so a lot of retailer also take the opportunity to do other sales that stack on top of this as well.

The Alabama Department of Revenue says the update reflects long overdue adjustments for inflation and cost of living.

And they're going to be adjusted for the consumer price index.

So an approximate adjustment to make it relative to the conversation, an article of clothing that currently is exempt if it's $100 or less will be around $156 or less.

And we're thankful for that adjustment.

And our taxpayers are thankful that it for that adjustment.

And remember, the sales ta holiday isn't just for families with children in school.

It applies to anyone in Alabama.

Maximizing the savings statewide.

Reporting in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Thank you Jeff.

The board governing the Alabam Department of Veterans Affairs got an overhau this past legislative session.

Governor Kay Ivey and legislative leaders hope the updates lead to a better, more responsive state.

VA.

The new board recently met for the first time talking about new ideas for the future.

Capitol journal's Randy Scott reports.

Governor Kay Ivey is on hand to start a new era for the state's Veterans Affairs agency.

This board meeting will be the first for a new commissioner, Jeffrey Newton and several new board members.

There's a single one upside to the bill itself into law.

Alabama's veterans deserve a very fist.

We will use this new structure to better focus on what matters most.

The meeting starts quickly by working on committee leadership and members in those groups.

I'm going to start with nominations for the Homes Committee, and I have Mrs. Tom's Mr.. Mr.. As mentioned Mr.. Schmidt bar Mr.. Key Mr.. Burkhart Mr.. Law Mr.. Burks on that committee.

It's the first time commissioner Newton sits on a meeting as leader of this agency.

He gives kudos to the new system changes.

It's going to add to him as we're going to look for opportunities to increase our services to our veterans.

You know, we've got new faces.

We've got new thoughts, new ideas.

We've even got a super young veteran on the committee, which is good to see.

We like to see the youngsters come on board.

So we're just excited about the future.

A big task for them, making sure they keep an open channel to lawmakers.

That' something that we've got to work on is continue to strengthen our relations chips with our legislators, especially the military and Veterans Committee for both the House and the Senate.

And we have a good relationship, but we have to continu to work on it to make sure that, you know, our needs throughout the state for veterans are met in the future.

An audience watches the members work for Alabama's veterans.

But Commissioner Newton says he realizes there under a microscope.

I know there's a lot o veterans and veteran coalitions throughout the state that were not happy with the legislation that was passed.

But again, my committee meant to all the veteran coalition and throughout the state, the veterans throughout the state.

My commitment is anything that comes forward to me.

Like before.

It's going to be a directive.

We're going to make sure it happens.

Plus, building a second veterans cemetery in Alabama.

We have our beautiful cemetery down in Spanish Fort, and it's going to build an identical cemetery up north Alabama where it's needed.

So we're ready to go.

We just need we need a veteran farmer or someone to donate about 110 to 115 acres.

Also repairing the new command Sergeant Major Bennie G. Adkins, veterans Nursing home.

We finally got our construction team on site.

They've started the construction repair.

It's going to take some time because of some lead times required for some o the equipment that was damaged.

But we are staying in touch wit our with the governor's staff.

We are staying in touch with our legislators as well as family members, to kind of keep them updated as to what they can expect and bring their veteran residents back home.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Randy.

As Alabama continues to invest in road and bridge constructio under the Rebuild Alabama Act, a growing concern has emerge over the cost and coordination of relocatin utility lines, a step that often must happen before new root ne roads can be built or widened.

This week, a new Utility Relocation Study Commission, chaired by Representative Chris Blackshear, held its first meeting here at the state House.

The bipartisan group was created to examine who should bear those relocation costs utility providers, cities, counties where the state and whether laws regulating this need to be changed.

Here's what Representative Blackshear had to say about why the issue matters now more than ever.

I don't think there's a corner of the state that you don't go to that you see the blue rebuild another project, Rebuild Alabama Road.

And with that comes a lot of things that you never had hurdles before own, such as line relocations relating to utilities.

So what this study grou is going to look at is, is now with new roads coming, expansion of the expansion or widening the roads, you're getting into some areas where infrastructure has been there for many, many, many years.

And currently how the process works and who pays for that is not include in the overall project or not.

We thought it would be good times.

It's along the books, as has been there since 1975, that after 50 years, it was probably a good time just to dust off that law and look at it and see if anything does need to change and be updated.

This past year has seen a major crackdown on gun violence here in the capital city.

That violence, and the same in other cities throughout the state, helped spark a public safety focus from the legislature, including an expansion of the metro area, crime suppression Unit, which brings together state, federal and county resources to work with city police to focus on crime.

This week, the Montgomery Police Department offered an update after a few particularly violent weeks in the city.

MPD Chief Jim Gray Boy detailed efforts to confiscate illegal guns and sai many of the suspects they arrest are out on bond for other crimes.

We have been very much publicizing the fact that we have bringin been bringing violent crime down by over 28% year over year since last year.

That's the truth.

That's the numbers.

When we have an uptick, we go after those offenders and we get them.

That's one thing that' very obvious from these cases.

In these particular cases, none of them were random suspects.

And unfortunately, the victims knew each other.

And of course, I will sa each case is so important to us that we do not stop them until we solve them.

Now, if you notice, we have a table out here on this table is just 5050 of the 376 guns that we have taken in the last 60 days, we have taken 376 guns of the street in the last 60 days.

In the course of our investigations, and in the course of our working to keep this city safe.

Gun violence is multifaceted.

Now for the police.

We're going to arrest people.

We are going to arrest the bad guys when we catch them.

One thing that really frustrates me is a lot of the people that we are arresting are on bond for other crimes they committed.

Now, the thing about it is, if a subject can make bond very quickly and they're a repeat offender, they're very likely to come back out and commit more crimes.

So I think that we need some help from agencies beyond the police department to look at how fast people are being let out, or how easily a violent felon can get out of jail.

After the break, we'll b talking with tonight's guests.

Stay with us.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

aptv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Senator, statesman, and U.S. Vice President William Rufus King of Dallas County, served in the US Senate for more than 30 years.

In 1852, King was elected vice president on the ticket with Franklin Pierce whil recovering from illness in Cuba.

King became the only member of the US executive branch to ever have been sworn into office on foreign soil.

He passed away less than a month after being inaugurated.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is state Auditor Andrew Sorrell, who is a candidate for secretary of State of Alabama.

This is surreal Thanks for coming on the show.

I appreciate it.

It's good to be back in here.

Absolutely.

Well, again, you're running for secretary of state.

You were wanting a promotion here.

So the campaign is off and running again.

It starts earlier this than I've ever seen.

It does.

So let's start here.

Let me ask you just the most basic question.

Why are you running?

More importantly, why do you want to be Alabama's secretary of state?

Well, I care deeply about election integrity.

And if you care about election integrity, Secretary of state is the most important office in Alabama.

And people ask me the other day, so do you daydream about being governor?

I said, no, I daydrea about being secretary of state.

Now, as state auditor, I've been very involved in the elections process already.

As you know, I have appointments for Board of Registrars member in 66 of Alabama, 67 counties.

So I'm already speaking at the conferences.

I'm already very involved.

Talk to registrars on a weekly basis.

And that's helped develop my interest in election integrity.

When I was in the legislature, I have what I describe as a perfect record on election integrity.

I voted righ every single time on it, helping clean up our elections.

And I've developed a solid plan to fix Alabama elections once and for all.

Now, when I say fix them, I don't mean to imply that they're in terrible shape.

Alabama's elections are actually ranked second in the nation right now, which I'm proud of.

We should all be proud of that.

The kind of metric the heritage heritage put tha out in Tennessee is ahead of us.

And if there's anybody other than Tennessee, I might live with it But we've got to beat Tennessee.

But I'll tell you how we do it.

We're going to partne with more states and expand that Alabama voter integrity database that West Allen started as the time we're having this recording, West is partnered with ten other states, and we're sharing our voter files with them, and we're looking for duplicates.

And he's already identified 40,000 duplicates on the voter rolls.

Just sharing our data with ten states.

So my pledges, we're going to triple that in my first ter lined up to 30 partner states.

Then we're going to lower service fees, we're going to lower services for businesses, and we're going to lower service fees for individual.

Secretary of state's office is completely supported by service fees.

There's no general fund money flowing into that.

Merrill got that set up bac when he was secretary of state.

But for example, some of the fees I'm going to cut, it's a $100 fee if you want to update your business's registered agent.

I don't know if you've ever done this.

I have that's how I know about this fee, but it should be a $10 fee.

It's a simple nam and address change, that's all.

It isn't a $100 fee.

And I know people who have said, I'm not going to update that because it's too expensive to do.

If you want to shut down your entity, if you've got an LLC s-corp, you're not using anymore $100 fee to close your entity down on the way out the door.

Well, nobody shuts down their LLC because it's making them a lot of money, right?

You only shut it down if you're not using it, or if the company is losing money.

And we're going to kind of kick in the rear end on the way out the door and charge you another $100, I'm going to go through all nine pages of the fees.

The Secretary of State's offic charges with a fine tooth comb, and I'm going to look to slash them.

And we're going to make business faster and easier than ever before in Alabama.

Now, over on the personal fee side, you know, if you wanted to purchase the Alabama voter list, that would cost you $38,000, right?

These are like for campaigns that want to access the voter list.

It's really a way to make money for the secretary of State's office.

Well, it is I mean, as campaigns like the Republican Party will give you access to the voter roll if you're a Republican candidate.

I don't know what the Democrats do, but let's say that you'r an election integrity activist.

You're in a group or you're just an individual and you want to kind of double check secretary of state's office, make sure they're doing a good jo keeping the voter rolls clean.

We'll cost you $38,000 to buy a copy of the voter rolls.

Now, to illustrate how obnoxious that amount of money is, you could buy all 49 other states voter rolls for a total of $53,000.

So we are way overpriced.

We might even be violating the federal voting rights Act by charging this much money.

I'm going to cut that fee by 90%.

I might cut that fee by 99% but we're going to get that down and get that in line with other states.

And then we're going to audit our elections.

And this is something you've probably seen me.

I was very active, very vocal very passionate about this issue during this legislative session.

And the last one, the election audit bill carrie by Representative Debbie Wood.

You know, we're one of just five states in America that has no type of post election audit.

Now that bill is passed out of the Alabama House a couple times, it's stalled in the Senate.

We've got to get that bill over the finish line.

The only way we know that our tabulators are counting the votes correctly is if we hand-count some randomly selected precincts and compare that hand count to the tabulator result we're going to make that happen.

If I'm Secretary of State, and then we're going to form a new division of election integrity, we're going to have a staff of about five people who are going to clean u the voter rolls and investigate all the claims of voter fraud that we have pouring in.

We're not going to prosecute it.

We're just going to refer them over to the local DA's or to the attorney general for prosecution.

And we're going to change the, the voter registration advisory Board to be the voter Registration and Election Integrity Advisory Board.

We've got almos every eligible voter in Alabama is already registered to vote, something like 97%.

I don't think we need advice on how to register voters.

We need advice on election integrity, and we need i from the sheriffs, the probate judges, the circuit clerks, the registrars, and just ordinary Alabama citizens need to have input on cleaning up our elections.

So I'm going to change that board.

So that's kind of the the quick that's a lon answer to your short question.

But those ar the things I want to accomplish.

Exactly what I wanted to know.

And I'm guessing a lot of this agenda takes legislation to get enacted.

Almost all of it.

A lot of the some of the fees are administrative code.

So I could update those myself.

But most everything I just mentioned would require partnerships with the state House and state Senate to get done.

That's correct.

Talk about election integrity.

There have been instances, you know, often is at the local level of people voting outside of their precincts, some precincts getting messed up, and things like that.

How can the Secretary of state from the, from the top, fix a lot of that stuf to make sure it doesn't happen because it can impact elections?

Well, it can, and we had it happen actually, in my home area in Lauderdale County, there's some people that went to vote in the House district two election back in 2022.

Right.

That was one example.

Yes.

And there were several hundred peopl who were given the wrong ballot.

And that may have actually affected the outcome of who made that runoff.

It was only separated by 20 or 30 votes.

And one one lady claims she had 60 votes.

60 people went to vote four and one on their ballot.

And the answer to that is number one.

I changed out the registrar on that county.

The registrars messed up drawing the district lines, and that's what happened.

And when I came in as auditor, I changed out my registrar.

So I've already begun to fix that problem.

But second, we need to make sure that ever county is using the electronics software to redraw district lines.

We don't need anymore of this old pen and paper type stuff that they used to do.

We've got to clean that up.

We got to get every county using the software, and if that requires funding from the state, from the legislature to general fund or from the Secretary of State's office, we're going to make that happen.

And when we redistrict again after the 2030 census, whoever's the next secretary of state will likely be in charge of that.

If they do two terms, they're going to be running that.

And we've got to make sure that that's done right.

You talk about election integrity.

You talk about, I mean, the role of the Secretary of state really is to ensure that.

And yet it's an elected office, right?

You're going to be in this very Partizan, you know, political process or a Republican primary than a general election.

So how do let's say you're elected?

How do you keep the politics out of the job?

That really is the Alabama's chief elections official.

We enforce the rules fairly.

I mean, the law is what it is.

So if you have Republicans or Democrats filing the reports late, that's a problem.

If you have Republicans or Democrats, ballot harvesting that's illegal in Alabama.

And I think know which party's doing no matter which party is doing it.

And as far as the new election integrity division, if we get complaint about a Republican or a Democrat stealing votes or an independent or some other party, well, you got to put the same time and effort into investigating all those.

And I think if you just follow the law, then you don't have the problem of, of our office being too political.

Enforce the law fairly.

Now you'r running against Caroline Dobbs and she's jumped in the race now.

How do you go about differentiating yourself from her because you've talked about clean campaigning and I understand that.

But you know, one person's attack a is another person's issue.

AD.

So what exactly how is how do you see this race playing out in terms of, differentiating yourself against your opponent?

Well, trying to keep it clean.

Well, first of all, if you ask any of my opponents for when I ran for auditor, I had four opponents plus a libertarian in the general.

When I ran for the state legislature, I had a primary and a general opponent.

You could even ask the Democrats I've run against in the past.

I don't engage in negative campaigning.

It's just never something that that I've done.

So I did challenge Caroline to do a clean campaign pledge and I'm waiting.

Response I'm optimistic that they are going to to sign that and make that pledge.

But I think the way you differentiate yourself is I have an actual record that you can go check.

You know, I was I was in the legislature for four years.

I was the most conservative legislator, three out of the four years that I was there.

So I think people know that I'm going to I'm a real conservative, and I'm going to do the thing that I say that I'm going to do.

Now, when I got to the legislature, not everybody liked what I attempted to do but nobody was surprised by it.

Todd, when I ran for state legislature, I said, I'm going to work to pass constitutional carry.

Well guess what?

I sponsored that bil and carried it for four years.

Built the co-sponsor lis from seven people to 38 people, including the speaker of the House my last year.

So no one doubts that Andrew Sorrell is going to do what he says he's going to do.

And I have that advantage at serving in the legislature and as auditor of I have a record that you can actually go check.

Okay.

Well, do you have a website that the viewers can go check to find out more?

I do, it's Andrew sorrell.com and CRL is sorry.

Well we're also all over all the social media is Andrew Sorrel secretary of state on Facebook.

Awesome.

Well loo I really appreciate your time.

Good luck on the campaign trail.

Thank you so much for having me.

And we'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Carolyn Dobson, candidat for Alabama secretary of State.

Carolyn thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks so much for having me.

I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

Well, we're in this incredibly early start to the 2026 campaign season, but you announced just the other day, I guess, last week, that you were running for Secretary of state.

So I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about why why run for this office?

Why do you want to be.

Secretary of state?

Well, a as probably most of your viewers know, I was the Republican nominee in the second Congressional District last year, and while I was disappointed in the outcome, I was not.

And the experience and and the opportunity to to campaign, to run for office in this state only deepened my desire to want to serve the people of this state.

We've got a tremendous state with incredible resources, wonderful people, and I would love the opportunity to serve.

And after the election and thinking and praying and talking with my family, I felt led to this office.

My entire career has been spent as a transactional attorney, helping advise small businesses which interact with the Secretary of State's office on a daily basis.

And then that, combined with my experience of being a candidate in a very highly conteste general election and witnessing firsthand the importance of election integrity, not only as a candidate, but also in motivating people to want to participate in the process.

If people don't have trust in the election system and in their election officials, then they're less likely to vote to be engaged.

People want to know that their vote, that their vote counts, of their vote matters.

And so I think there is nothing more fundamental to ensuring that Alabama continues to prosper becomes, safer and more secure and healthier economy.

Then to serve in this role.

Now, I imagin running for Secretary of State because it's a statewide role, a little different than running for Congress as you just mentioned, federal versus state.

So have you noticed that on the campaign trail in terms of the differences between the two?

Yes.

Well, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to to campaign statewide and, and, you know, I will say to, all of your viewers, so many folks throughout the state, even not in the second Congressional District or second to, send words of, of encouragement and support last year.

And so it's great to interact with all people in our state and the second Congressional District.

Bifurcated a lot of kind o geographic and cultural regions of our state.

It had part of the Wiregrass, but not all of it.

Mobile County, but not Baldwin County.

Part of the Black Belt, part of the Pine Belt.

And so it's it's really nice to get to campaign statewide and also to get to campaign in north Alabama.

My mom's, sixth generation, north Alabama and grew up in Coleman County.

And so it's great to, to reconnect with some roots up there and also just see all the beautiful spots in North Alabama that there are to see.

We forget sometimes what a big state it is.

It's geographically.

And just like you said, culturally.

So it's interesting you put it that way.

Okay, let's just sa you become secretary of state.

I've always been fascinated by this role because it's an elected office.

You've got to run to get it, meaning you've got to like as you are now in this primary, it's going to be lots of ads and partizanship and all that kind of stuff in a general election.

Then you've got to be secretary of State and actually preside over the elections process.

So my question is, how do you go about keeping politics, keeping Partizan politics out of that overseer role?

Understan you've got a constitutional role to, you know, ensure fair elections.

You know that you make a good point.

And I think that's where my experience of running in a contested general election last year, really, really benefits me because I was campaigning all over district two, and I'm going to campaign all over the state.

I was talking to voters that weren't just, dyed in the wool Republicans.

I was talking to all voters.

And and I really think we in this state, regardless of of which party folks are, they're they're committed to a better future for our kids here in Alabama.

As the mother of two.

I talked with many other other voters, again, of of all different, parties or affiliations.

And, and we all want safer communitie and we want more opportunities here in Alabama.

And so as a top election official, and in the role of secretary of state, that will be my commitment to ensuring that we have maintaine voter rolls so that, you know, residents of Alabama are the only people voting in Alabama elections that have that have legally registered to vote.

Because I think what people don't really think about is, is when we have people on our voter rolls who aren't residents of this state, who who are not residents o the US, that's disenfranchizing the voices of Alabamians who are engaged, who are trying to make our state better.

And so I will take that commitment to heart.

I also want to form an election crimes team.

Florida has a similar model.

But actually, developing a group of of election experts within the office of the Secretary of State to work with our law enforcement, with our prosecutors, to actually apprehend investigate, and prosecute folks who who try to violate our election laws.

And, again, any violation of our electio laws is a disenfranchisement of of my voice, of your voice, of the voice of rightful Alabama voters.

And sometimes it's no necessarily a violation of law, but there have been instances in the last few years, you know, 4 or 5 years of, you know, district lines being messed up in terms of people getting the wrong ballot for this and that.

Right.

Is there a role the Secretary of State can play in making sure that because even just a few votes can really impact an election if people get the wrong, like yeah, just just error as well.

No, no, I think there's a lot to be done on that front.

And we've had som great secretaries of state and, and our state legislature agai with our anti ballot harvesting bill, in last year's session.

Again we've had some some great steps in the right direction.

But as far as increasing efficiencies and and just make sure making sure that we have, updated voter rolls and also again, prosecuting those wh who do try to violate the law.

Letting folks know that that we do have these laws on the books and they're going to be enforced.

I think that's incredibly important to securing our elections and building trust in the system.

Let's talk about the campaign.

The idea of a clean campaign has been brought u by your opponent, Andrew Soro.

Talk about this because it's my observation.

Just in years of politics, that one person's negative ad is another person's issue, add or contrast.

And so how is this going to play out?

I mean, you've got to run, you've got to differentiat yourself between your opponent.

So how do you do that while maintaining a clean campaign, if you will?

Well, I think the key is, is integrity and honesty.

You know, I think that's what what everyone can, can agree on is, is being truthful and honest in your campaign.

And my goal is to share my vision for the office and how my experience makes me the best qualified candidate.

Again, in additio to my firsthand experience with election security last year again, I've spent my my career helping advise small businesses, and I would love to to parlay that knowledge into helping make Alabama the number one destination for incorporation.

It's great if we have businesses locate here, but if they're still incorporating in Delaware or cooperating in Nevada, then that doesn't benefit the state as much.

And I really think that there's a role for the Secretary of State's office to play in trying to actively recruit businesses here.

A lot of folks don't understand that role of the secretary of State's office.

Can you kind of elaborate?

Because, yeah, there's the election stuff.

But, you know, running the business licenses and all that kind of stuff?

Absolutely.

Yes.

And that's a I think if you if you talk to any currently serving or prio secretaries of state, they'll, they'll say that that' actually the majority of the day today is, is the corporate filings and business services aspect of the role.

And I want to reduce business fees.

I want to streamline services, guarantee same day services, make small businesses in our rural areas have accessible and affordable access to the services offered by the Secretary of State's office.

Again, you look at some states that, again, have been attractive in the past to incorporate in Delaware is one of them.

While their regulatory environment, their tax structure, are no longer really business friendl thanks to our our legislature, thanks to our state officials, we've really been making the move to to pitch to businesses to to come to Alabama to locate here.

And we need to expand that pitch to really encourage them to incorporate here as well.

I think that will benefit the state, grow the economy and again, secure these businesses in the state long term.

Interesting.

Well, we'll look we look forward to hearing all of this on the campaign trail is going to be a fascinating race.

This is the Republican primary.

We're not having actually voting until May 19th.

So we've got a long way to go.

But I appreciate you coming on and explaining and, announcing your candidacy, and we'll see you soon.

Thank you so much Good luck on the campaign trail.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

Appy tv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

From 1820 to 1826, Cahaba was the first capital of the state of Alabama.

The capital city was located at the convergence of the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers.

Because Governor William Wyatt Bibb had arranged for a free gift of land for that purpose from the federal government.

An ancient India earthwork was found on the site, so the governor reused it as a dramatic centerpiece for the town plan.

The sale of Lots and Cahaba built the state treasury for the new state and paid for the first state house.

Soon, the frontier capital had two newspapers numerous businesses, a theater, and nearly a thousand inhabitants.

Despite the loss of the capital to Tuscaloosa in 1826 as a county seat grew into one of the wealthiest communities in the nation and did not become a ghost tow until well after the Civil War.

Cahaba was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Today it is known as the Old Harbor Archeological Park.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is state Senator Matt Woods, the newest member of the Alabama Senate.

Senator thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Todd.

Good to be here with you.

Again, I'm used to saying State Representative Matt Woods, but you recently won the special election up there in Jasper.

To to represent that district.

This is the seat that Senator Greg Reed, who has used to be the pro-tem stepped down from to become the Commerc or the, Secretary of Workforce.

You stepped up to run and won.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

We're excited about the opportunity to to serve district five and, coming behind Senator Reed.

Now, Secretary Reed, as you mentioned, as, as an honor, he did a great job for the people of, district five.

And so I'm excited to have the opportunity to serve in that role.

What made you want to put your name in the hat?

I mean, it's a kind of a promotion.

Something from the house to the Senate, bigger territory, things like that.

Maybe some greater influence and authority.

Are those kind of the things that led you to run?

Well, I think that the people of district five deserve a good conservativ leader to be in this position, to vote for them accordingly.

And we've had that for the last 14 years.

And so, my experience with the House of Representatives have give me some opportunity to learn the processes of the legislature, and I felt like I could be effective in the Senate.

And so the doors opened and, just like everything that's led me to run for the house in the first place, this door opened and, you know, it was a choice.

Do you walk through that door or not?

And I couldn't find a reason not to.

And so, you know, I'm excited for this new opportunity.

The influence may be a little a little greater in some ways.

Maybe not in others.

But, you know, I think the people, the district, will be happy to know that I'm going to be at work for them and working hard to make sure they're being taken care of here in Montgomery.

The two bodies are different, and they kind of evolve over time.

Sometimes the Senate is more deliberate.

Sometimes the House is kind of goes back and forth.

But I do think it is, valuable as a state senato to have experience in the House, especially when it comes to those sometimes tension between the House and the Senate.

Understanding how that process works.

Obviously, relationships.

Do you think that will help you be successful?

I absolutely do, and that was one of the determining factors to go ahead and run.

I felt like the relationships I built the last three years with my fellow House colleagues and the leadership in the House, Speaker Ledbetter and all the chairmen would be beneficial for my role in the Senate, knowing their processes and the things that they have to go through in order to pass bills through that chamber, would be beneficial for me in the Senate as well.

Of course, a lot of things to learn in the Senate about their process and still but, those relationships, knowin who was experts and what areas, and issues and topic I think will be very beneficial for me to know who I can work wit and lean on for support and help in passing my legislation a it moves to the other chamber.

Now, territorially, like the district you used to represent was included in the Senate district.

But what all did you pick up on geographically with district five?

Well, it's a lot bigger geographically.

It's all of Walker, Fayette and Lamar counties.

It's the northern par of Tuscaloosa and the western, corner, I guess you would say, or side of Jefferson County.

So it's a it's quit a large district geographically and three time the number of people, of course.

Right.

And a lot of, you know, diversity within that district in terms of different types of town and different kind of counties.

I mean, you're on a lot of different local delegations, I would imagine.

Yeah, I've went from one delegation to five all of a sudden, including Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties, which is very busy.

Delegations, I would sa the largest city is still Jasper within that district, in a lot of rural areas, which I'm used to, being in Walker County and growing up in, in Oakman and south Walker County.

There's a lot of small towns all across that district.

So it's going to be, you know, somewhat familiar territory to me and the concerns and issues that come up.

Across the entire district.

So.

Well, again, you'r the newest member of the Senate.

Have your committees been assigned or what if not, what committees are you interested in?

What are your kind of legislative priorities, and how might that work with th committees you're assigned to?

Sure.

Well, it's kind of a unique situation coming into, you know, in the last year or the quadrennial, most of the committees have already been, you know, assigned or fairly full at this point.

And so I have not been assigned committees yet.

I'll be working with the pro tem and the Committee on Assignments to figure that out moving forward.

And I'll be happy you know, wherever I get placed this year will work hard and do the best we can to be, you know, a productive member of those committees.

I would say for me, priority wise, you know, I didn't come to Montgomery pre-loaded with any 1 or 2 issues that, you know, we're burning desire for me, if it helps my district, if it creates better opportunities, help us bring new jobs to the area.

You know, education obviously is topics important to a lot of people as well.

You know, I want to be involved in anything that can help, you know, bring a better quality of life to the district.

If you look back on my service, the last three years, I've had a lot of education related bills and topics and some things that, you know in fact, children and families to try to keep them safer as well.

So, you know, wherever I land on committees, I'll be fine.

I'm just going to work hard to to contribute and be a good member.

Well, you're right, because you're coming in really is everybody's kind of gearing up for reelection.

We've got one more session before the 2026, elections, known as midterms nationally.

But it's our big election here in Alabama.

Can I assume that you're going to run again for this seat that you just got elected to?

I haven't made an announcement yet, but you're safe to assume that.

Yes.

All right, fair enough.

I don't want to get to anybody.

We'll look again.

Congratulations.

We will look forward to our conversations.

As you're now a member of the Senate, the House of Lords, if you will.

But, yeah, we'll look forward to, following your career there.

And thanks again for coming on the show.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

We'll be right back.

Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

Free professional development for educators and childcare providers with access to free, curriculum aligned videos, lesson plans and instructional resources with PBS Learning Media and all the PBS kids programs, parents know and trust.

Learn something new every da with Alabama Public Television.

Visit us at AP tv.org/education to learn more.

Waterloo site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

The day known as the Fort Toulouse Jackson State Park, during the colonial period, Fort Toulouse acted as a commercial, religious and diplomatic frontier outpost for the French from 1717 until 1763.

It was one of a series of fort built by the French to protect their holdings and French colonial Louisiana from British and French during the 18th century.

Fort Jackso played a major role in the Great War of 18 1314, when General Andrew Jackson and the U.S. Army used Fort Jackson, buil on the old side of Fort Toulouse on August 9th, 1814, after their defea in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Upper Creeks surrendered to the United States and the Treaty of Fort Jackson, effectively ending the Great Wars.

19 million acres of cree lands were open for settlement, resulting in Alabama becoming a state only five years later.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is APT executive director Wayne Reed and APT external affairs director Jack Williams.

Gentlemen thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having us on.

Yeah, absolutely.

Making the trip dow from Birmingham.

Appreciate it.

We've already reported on this Rescissions package, right, that, you know, $9 billion.

A lot of that for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Alex reported on it earlier in the show.

It's meant for PBS and NPR, but it trickles down to apt.

We know that.

So, Wayne, I wanted to ask yo first what how does that work?

Talk about the impact financially on APT and how that might play out.

So it's about 70% of that money that came comes to CPB goes out to this local station.

So for Alabama Public Television that's about $2.8 million.

Which we use a majority of those funds to go towards programing, but it's also for our infrastructure on how we how we distribute programing.

How would programing is distributed to us?

Music rights fees.

There's a lot of different other things that are taken care about for the group.

And it makes it mor cost effective for the stations is why it was set up that way.

So we're looking at about to $2.8 million that we've got to figure out what we're going to do.

And quite honestly, at thi point right now, I'm not sure, because we're waiting to get more information back from PBS and from NPR, o how they're going to do things going forward.

They've got a plan B, they've said, they haven't roll it out to the stations, is supposed to come out next week.

I think at that point we'll have a better idea of what, what's going to be available to us and how that would be available to us.

There's a lot of other programing that we'll start looking at outside of PBS.

But, we're going to move forward and do what we do here in Alabama, try to do more local programing, do more stuff with Capital Journal.

What whatever we have to d to serve the people of Alabama and keep our mission, true to what we do.

Right.

Interesting that you mentioned, local and state stations, because that is the disparate impact.

And I think a lot of folks don't really realize that they think about NPR and they think about PBS, not necessarily Alabama Public Television, Georgia Public Television, and things like that.

Mayb not exactly the aim of Congress, but certainly became the unanticipated target.

Yeah.

And and the system is so different.

There are university licenses.

So all of those are done through universities.

There's community licenses that are totally funded by community and community support.

And most of those are in big markets like New York, Boston and Los Angeles, that type of stuff.

And then they're state organizations like Alabama is and, you know, you know, part of the impact of, of, state organization is, you know, we it's harde to raise funds to some degree.

I mean, we appreciate the funds that people give us in the States, but there's part of the reaso that we are funded by the state.

We started by the state.

And I think that's the interesting thing.

People keep askin what's going to happen with PBS?

We started way before PBS.

That's right.

I think started before 15 years before PBS came around.

And so we're going to keep doing what we d to serve the state of Alabama.

And that's going to be our focus.

Jack, you spent a lot of time in Washington talking with the delegation as this was going through.

I'm curious about your message to them, because there is there's this impact that hits locals differently than it hits the national organization.

What has been your conversation with our congressional delegation?

Well, it reminded them why I mentione we're 15 years older than PBS.

Alabama Public Television is the original public television network in the country.

So I let them know about the history.

But I certainly, sit down with our members of Congress and remind them that we're not PBS, we're not NPR.

We're we're we're focused on the state program, our program, and things.

We do that Capital Journal our coverage of the statehouse.

Those ar those are things that go away.

We go away, our high school football and basketball and try and emphasize the value that we provide to their constituents.

And and by and large, I think, our congressional delegation, gets it.

That was a the rescissio was basically a party line vote.

But, I think even, some of our Republican members, understand the value that we bring.

And I'm looking forward to working with them to see ways that we can be helped in the future.

Maybe even as early as the next budget, whenever it's passed.

It's interesting you say that because I always hear the great feedback from the delegation as well.

The Republicans who all voted in favor of this, say look we love OpEd but look, this is, it is what it is, which I understand to a certain extent, because you had Trump and the president go out there and essentially threaten on social media and say, you're voting for this, or else I'm not with you.

And look, I mean it.

The world is what it is.

And that's, I mean, that's that's that's what it is.

What I would say, Todd, there's a lot of things in that, in the rescission bill that I agree with that we needed to get rid of.

Unfortunately, we were packed in there as part of it, but I, I don't think that, you know, part o what they were doing was wrong, and they were $31 trillion in debt.

We totally get that.

I understand that.

And looking to the future for our kids.

So it's not like it's a shock to some degree.

I mean, things are going to have to be done.

We're going to figure out how to how to get through this, though, right?

But I'm glad you brought up the whole, you know, NPR, PBS thing, because that's been frustrating to me as this whole thing.

Well, look, we have not put an opinion out about this or anything, but it is frustrating for me because we work hard here.

Capitol Journal.

To be fair, I think everybody appreciates that we we try very hard to be right down the middle and just tell the truth.

But it's watching PBS over the years and especially NPR.

I've listened to NPR for years.

Used to every morning, you know, Morning Edition, all things Considered.

There is no question that they have drifted pretty far to the left and recent an I'd say the last several years.

And so I understand some frustration from members of Congress saying, why in the world should be funding that.

And in some cases.

The same is true with PBS, especially with like Washington Week and certain programing.

So that's frustrating for me just from our news station perspective.

That's got to be frustrating to you all as you talk to members of Congress.

I'll jump in quick and then I'll let Jack because he's actually, done this before that.

I've been here for two and a half years now, and ever since I came on and we would go to national meetings.

One of the things we took to the leadership at NPR and PBS, at every meeting that we went to is we have biased issues and we have bias problems.

And it's whether, you know, they're in their echo chamber up in New York or Washington, and they kind of listen to each other and say, no, we're not.

But the problem is, you know, there was a lot of states that would say there's problems that we need to get fix, and we have pushed that from the state level of Alabama and a lot of other states for several years now since I've been here.

And Jack started that crusade even before I did so.

And Wayne's been very gracious to let me continue on that.

We've actually cobbled together at least eight, and I think it go to 12 or 14 state networks that have expressed deep dissatisfaction with, how, news our programing is done in Washington week.

I brought this up directly to the CEO of, PBS and CEO of NPR in a panel discussio in February in Washington, D.C., because it's way before this recess.

Yes.

And even since that time, I've had conversations with the chairman of the board for NPR and the chairman of the board for PBS.

And I've seen both CEOs this week say there's no bias.

And I think as long as, like, double down on that, it's going to make it more difficult for us to work with our with the federal governmen in the future.

It's interesting.

So you're saying that the states, not just Alabama, but several states sent a message to NPR and PBS that, hey, we really got y'all are hurting us, y'all.

Y'all are threatening us if you keep down.

I think my exact words were you're killing us.

Wow.

Well that's my kind of says it all.

And again, collateral damage a little bit in this Jack going forward, you talked about the next budget.

This is this is funding tha had already been appropriated.

Does it mean something in the future?

Can't happen.

Do you see, a willingness to, or an openness to supporting public, local and state stations like us rathe than the national conglomerate?

I think you have to figure out how if we if we do it that way, you got to figure out how do we get the money to the stations.

Because that's what CPB CPB is really just a pass through for, for 70% of this money.

And it would be a little silly to just create a new agency to do what CPB does.

So, CPB plays an important role, but, I do think, you know, we're very fortunate.

The federal budget for publi broadcasting starts in the labor h labor, Health and Human Services and Education subcommittee in that in the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Robert Aderholt from the fourth congressional district here in Alabama.

And, and he's one of those who has expressed publicly.

Yes, yes, he said very kind things about us, even when the, he testified before the Rules Committee to bring the rescission package to the floor of the House, he said that our, publi television does a very good job.

We're fair, non-biased, biased, and that he was going to find a way to help us.

So I think our federal partners won't find ways to help us.

We don't know what they are yet.

When when once you talked abou I want to ask you to once again reassure our audience we're not going anywhere.

This is not reassure us a little bit about this.

Yeah.

That we're we're not going anywhere.

We have been funded next year, we're going to have to make some changes.

We're going to do everything we can do to to minimize those changes but we are going to figure out a way to keep going.

Capital Journal is going to be here.

We're still going to have high school football.

We're going to bring yo the best education programing, and other content that we can bring.

Some of those content may change from their suppliers or if we were getting them from like I said, a lot o that is up in the air right now.

But right now we're staying put.

And and you know, if we if we say it all the time and people joke, make jokes about viewers like you, it is viewers that actually do fund a lot of what we do.

A lot of the programing and stuff that's done by viewers.

So the support that we've seen for our, or wit this has been really, honoring, I mean, and very nice that, that they support us like that and, and the state's been very supportive as well.

And we try to do everything we can to do to support state activities.

I mean, with what we do with the when we're in session and what we do with high school sports and through our education department, we're trying to be a a huge partner and a resource for the state.

Well said.

Gentlemen, it's bee a long week, but thank you for, you know, enlightening ou audience about what's going on.

It's been a lot of questions.

So thanks again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Todd.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

aptv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes on Capital Journal's Facebook page.

The USS Alabama is a World War Two era battleship that first served in the Atlantic theater, but was better known for helping to take Japanese held islands in the Pacific between 1943 and 1945.

During the battle of the Philippine Sea, the Alabama State of the Art radar alerted the fleet to incoming aircraft, providing the American enough time to scramble fighters and decimate the attacking force.

Later, the Alabama serve during the Battle of Lady Gulf and anchored in Tokyo Bay t unload Allied occupation forces.

In 1964, the state of Alabama took possession of the battleship Alabama.

School children raised $100,000 in nickels and dimes to help bring the ship to mobile an create battleship memorial Park.

The park features the Alabama, the World War II era submarine USS Strom, and an American military aircraft collection battleship memorial Park as one of the state's most visited attractions.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week with a special episode.

We'll be on locatio in Birmingham for the Southern Legislative Conference.

That's a 16 state regio that is being hosted this year in Birmingham for legislative leaders from around the region to come and talk about policy and progress throughout the state.

We'll be on location talking to our state leaders and those from other states.

So look forward to that next week here on Capitol Journal.

At the same time, right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team, I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.