The Alabama GOP Steering Committee heard the Ledbetter challenge today from both parties. According to the case presented, the committee found that Ledbetter won the decision 16-5.
Letter from DeKalb County Chairman, John Westmoreland
Dear Republican Steering Committee Members,
I want to apologize for not being able to meet directly with each of you. I am employed as a firefighter and your Friday meetings fall on my scheduled work shift. However, I will be attending the Saturday State Exec Comm
The serious issue of candidate objections has been a very hot topic of discussion here in DeKalb County for well over a year. It really comes as no surprise that you have this task before you now, along with the many other objections from around the entire State of Alabama.
Here is where some of the issues in this HD24 race lay.
First. Let me be clear, Nathaniel Ledbetter is a pretty good guy and a decent man. He has in the past been a public official and has served the folks of Rainsville. I do feel that Nathaniel has many good, conservative qualities about him, but many DeKalb Republican voters remain concerned with Nathaniel because of his recent candidacy as a Democrat, his past Democrat party participation and lack of evidence of him supporting Republican candidates, as you already know. Mostly, this is not all about Nathaniel Ledbetter, but rather about a single person or small group of persons outside DeKalb County influencing Dekalb County Republican business.
Now as for Dekalb, it was widely spread here that Speaker Mike Hubbard had hand selected his Candidate for HD24, that person being Nathaniel. All of this was done without any conversation with any local party leaders over a year ago. As a direct result of this pre-maturely picked candidate situation, it created an atmosphere whereby many (and I mean many) would be potential Republican Candidates decided not to even enter the discussion as a possible Republican Candidate. Further, this HD24 candidate discussion also bleed-over into other local candidate discussions, which may have had a chilling influence.
We will now never know, but it could have been that any number of great qualified Republican candidates would have stepped forward to serve but instead felt they did not have much of a chance against the establishment.
DeKalb Republicans were not asked or given the opportunity to provide any input towards “Hubbard’s choice”. Mr. Hubbard pre-maturely made those decisions for HD24 Republicans over a year in advance of the qualifying opening. I have had many, many folks tell me they would consider a run for office but felt Speaker Hubbard had already handpicked someone, many feel the candidate he chose was based on the belief that because Ledbetter had ran against Greeson in the past played into his decision. I don’t know. I only ask that Hubbard should have stayed out of the primary races and gave Dekalb Republicans wider choices.
I have chose to publically not pick a side in any Republican Primary. I would like to have had the best chance possible to have presented the voters with a larger list of local Republican candidates as possible. But some of these outside influences made that more difficult.
I hope that whoever is elected to serve the great citizens of HD24 will represent the citizens here in DeKalb and not any out of county influences. I will support the Republican Candidate that our party elects.
John Westmoreland, Dekalb Republican Chairman
Evidence Against Nathaniel Ledbetter