Alabama Supreme Court

Last week’s primaries have left many Alabamians longing for a better choice for another option for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, but it is probably too late, unless one of the parties convinces its candidate to step aside, according to Birmingham lawyer and election law blogger Ed Still.

On Sunday, the Birmingham News reported that insiders of both parties were looking for options to avoid a choice between former Chief Justice Roy Moore and Pelham lawyer Harry Lyon, but the deadline for independent candidate petitions were due the day of the primary. By the time to votes were counted last Tuesday, it was too late, Still writes, and all this talk about an independent candidacy “has as much effect as a hound dog’s baying does on the moon.”

If the “insiders” want to do something, they are going to have to get Lyon or Moore out of the race. Ala. Code § 17-13-23 says, “The state executive committee [of a political party] … where a vacancy may occur in any nomination, either by death, resignation, revocation, or otherwise, … may fill such vacancy, either by action of the committee itself or by such other method as such committee may see fit to pursue.”

EARLIER: Five things you should know about Harry Lyon, Roy Moore’s Democratic opponent