In this north Alabama House GOP primary, it’s an incumbent vs. a former congressman

HUNTSVILLE — If you were looking to his house in Huntsville for guidance, you might find it hard to tell that former U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks is running for state legislature.

Aside from the lone “Re-elect Mo Brooks” sign in his yard and the stack of yard signs propped up just outside of the dining room, there’s little sign of Brooks’ service in Congress or his campaign for Alabama House District 20.

“I was thinking about running for the United States Congress and thinking about running for the United States Senate, the Senate seat being an open seat, but my wife and I thought about it, and decided that we did not want to get back into that rat race in Washington, D.C., where it literally is a 24-hour, 365 day per week job to a large degree, to serve in the United States Congress, as a congressman or as a senator,” he said.

Brooks’ campaign has set up a May 19th GOP primary with Rep. James Lomax, R-Huntsville, who is seeking his second term in the Alabama House. He said this election is about looking at voting records between himself and Brooks.

“We’ve both served in the Alabama House of Representatives, so you can see it’s a great opportunity for voters, because they get to see our records side by side,” Lomax said.

Mutual attacks

The race has started to resemble past campaigns involving Brooks, in which the former congressman, whose anti-immigrant and 2020 election denying actions put him on the far right of the Republican Party, is being painted by opponents as a secret leftist.

Lomax attacked Brooks’ voting record on taxes. The Lomax campaign cites 87 instances of Brooks voting for what they describe as tax increases when he served in the Alabama House of Representatives between 1982 and 1992..

Most of the votes cited by Lomax’s campaign involved votes on local bills outside of Brooks’ district; local bills usually pass as a courtesy to the legislator from the district, particularly if the measure is a constitutional amendment needing a three-fifths margin to pass.

Other votes involved measures to increase fees, most of which were also outside Brooks’ district. According to newspaper clippings, Brooks not did vote for a March 1984 income tax increase proposed by then-Governor George Wallace.

Brooks said several tax organizations have commended his work on taxes.

“The Alabama Taxpayers Defense Fund ranked Mo Brooks number one tax fighter out of 140 Alabama legislators. The National Taxpayer Union named Mo a quote, ‘taxpayers’ friend’ end quote, and number one tax fighter in Alabama’s congressional delegation,” he said.

The National Taxpayer Union is an organization founded in 1969 to work for a “simple and fair tax system.” The organization awarded Brooks the Taxpayers’ Friend Award in 2017 and again in 2019.

In 1986, the Alabama Taxpayer Defense Fund, which was based in Montgomery, ranked Brooks at top for opposing new taxes.

Brooks was first elected to the U.S. House in 2010. He won re-election five times before making a bid in 2022 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Richard Shelby.

The congressman led efforts to claim, falsely, that President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. The efforts initially won Brooks Trump’s endorsement for U.S. Senate. But Trump began to sour on Brooks after an August 2021 rally in Cullman, where Brooks was booed for telling the crowd they needed to put the 2020 election “behind you.” Brooks’ failure to pull away from the rest of the Republican field ultimately led Trump to withdraw his endorsement of Brooks. Current U.S. Sen. Katie Britt eventually won the election.

Brooks said while Trump has influence over the election, he won’t let it stop him.

“Currently, President Trump has influence in a Republican primary, no question. Fortunately, in 2022 I carried House District 20 despite Donald Trump doing what he did,” he said.

According to Madison County election results, Brooks earned more votes than Britt in the county during the 2022 primary election with 20,227 (39.87%) votes to Britt’s 18,418 (36.30%).

Lomax said he’s not concerned with how Trump feels about him or Brooks.

“What I do care about is integrity,” he said. “And Mo Brooks was asked if you have a moral opposition to President Donald Trump, why did you seek his endorsement? And Mo Brooks said, because he had an influence over a high amount of voters. So here’s a person that’s willing to say or do whatever, even if they have a moral opposition to it. That’s not integrity to me.”

Fundraising

Brooks said he was approached by “state elected officials,” including former Ethics Commissioner Stan McDonald in December to run for the seat because they wanted an “honest conservative with integrity in Montgomery” but would only do so if they raised $100,000 from individuals in campaign contributions.

A message seeking comment from McDonald was left Friday afternoon.

“I personally did not think that they would be able to raise that kind of money in such a short period of time, because they met with me right before Christmas, and qualifying was January 23rd,” he said. “But lo and behold, on January the 22nd they called me up and said, we have the commitments to provide you with the financing.”

Brooks said he did not want money to come from political action committees (PACs) like Lomax does.

“I’ve been in public service for a long time, and I know what these special interest groups do with their wily ways, where they either try to sweet talk you to do something bad, or they try to intimidate you into doing something bad. By bad, I mean, it’s not in the public interest, it’s in their special interest,” Brooks said.

Campaign filings reveal through April 1, Lomax has raised $318,398 while Brooks has raised $50,834.

According to the filings, through April 1 Lomax received $245,000 (78.9%) of his donations this election cycle from PACs and 15% of his donations came from individuals. Only 6.7% of Lomax’s campaign contributions came from businesses.

The filings also show that Brooks has accepted donations from no PACs during this election. According to the filings, he has received $45,284.50 (89%) from individuals and $5,550 (11%) of his money from businesses.

It also shows that in January, Brooks made a $98,000 donation to himself marked as a “form loan.” He said in a message Friday that he did not raise the money himself and McDonald knew more about where the money came from.

Lomax criticized Brooks’ decision saying the former congressman has taken PAC money in several elections. According to Open Secrets, Brooks accepted a total of $1.6 million from PACs while he was in federal office.

“Mo Brooks has accepted PACs in every single election except his very first one, when he wasn’t offered any PAC money, and this one, when he felt like it was a political opportunity. Mo Brooks is the original political opportunist,” he said.

Lomax also accused Brooks of passing “one stand-alone bill” in his 12 years in Congress.

While a congressman, Brooks sponsored 67 bills with only one passing which renamed a post office in Athens. However,  over 50 cosponsored bills that Brooks cosponsored became law.

Lomax cited his own work in his first four years in office, including a bill signed into law last week that would give a $1,000 tax deduction for qualified overtime tax deduction and a two-month grocery sales tax holiday, coinciding with May primary and the June primary runoffs.

The winner of the primary will face Democratic nominee James Linderholm, a former attorney and first-time political candidate.

“They’re spending huge amounts of money saying horrible things about each other on social media and advertising and TV and everything else that will spend their money. You know, I think people are tired of that,” Linderholm said in an interview last week.

Fixing infrastructure

One thing Brooks and Lomax both agree on when it comes to aiding the residents of House District 20 is fixing infrastructure needs.

“Huntsville has been blessed with tremendous economic prosperity, but those Huntsvillians who have lived here for a while are suffering from a lack of infrastructure, infrastructure improvements that keep up with the population growth, such that our quality of life is declining instead of improving,” Brooks said.

Brooks did not give specific examples of the issues he wants to address, only saying he would do what’s in the “public interest” of House District 20.

“The wily ways of the special interest groups that do everything they can to pad their wallets, either with taxpayer money or with special legal treatments, all to the detriment of the public interest,” he said. “So if I’m elected to the state legislature, that’s one thing that the public can count on me doing.”

Lomax said he plans on working with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to improve infrastructure in the city.

“I think we’re going to have a new ALDOT director under a new governor, and that’s going to be the first thing we do is working with our Madison County delegation to make sure that we’re getting ahead of the infrastructure needs of Huntsville, which is the fastest growing city in the state of Alabama,” he said

Linderholm also criticized both candidates for using time and donations slamming each other on social media.

“People are ready for change in a way that I don’t think we’ve seen for a long time,” he said Thursday. “They’re tired of career politicians, they’re tired of people who will tell them what they want to hear. They’re tired of people who will say whatever it takes to get elected. They’re tired of people who will do whatever it takes to get elected.”

Edited at 6:21 p.m. to correct that Brooks did vote for an income tax increase in 1984. He did not vote for that income tax increase.