Some state Republican Party activists have worried that former Chief Justice Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments cause could seriously split the GOP. Others say Moore's partial success in Tuesday's GOP primary, when just one of four major candidates he backed won outright, leaves room for party unity.
"Only when one side sweeps the other out in the primary do you wind up with a lot of people angry and sitting on their hands in November," said former state Rep. Johnny Curry of Hueytown. "I don't think we've got a split here that can't be resolved."
In the highest profile and most expensive of Tuesday's GOP primary contests, former Moore aide Tom Parker narrowly defeated incumbent Jean Brown to win the nomination for the Place 1 seat on the Alabama Supreme Court. Moore's popularity boosted Parker, but Pam Baschab lost decisively to Patti Smith for the Place 2 nomination and Jerry Stokes is hovering between defeat or a runoff with Mike Bolin for Place 3. Phillip Jauregui, Moore's chief attorney, was crushed by incumbent Spencer Bachus for nomination to the 6th Congressional District seat. In addition, Win Johnson, who cited his ties to Moore, lost big to Tommy Bryan in a Civil Appeals Court contest. Parker narrowly won after tying Brown directly to Moore's fight to keep a Ten Commandments monument that he had placed in the state judicial building rotunda.
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But Leon Enlow, GOP chairman in heavily Democratic Marion County, said Moore may go for the state's top job in 2006. "I think he's laying some groundwork for the governor's race and when he does (become a candidate), I don't think you will have seen such a turnout since George Wallace was down there," Enlow said. "We'll have half the Democrats voting for him in this area."
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