A Stroll Through the Sausage Factory

There’s a quote, often attributed to Bismarck, about how “laws are like sausages — you should never see them being made.”

The 2026 legislative session was, for many, a look into how the sausages are really made in Montgomery. To say they didn’t like what they saw would be an understatement.

This session wasn’t supposed to be anything special, if for no other reason than it’s the election quadrennium. Very little drama was expected from Goat Hill. We all thought the focus would be on the budgets, maybe a couple of other “safe” things, then sine die the frak out so our Glorious Leaders could go and make the world safe for re-election.

Boy, were we wrong!

The end-of-qualifying madness should have been our first clue. When the Chairman of the State’s dominant party resigned on the last day of qualifying to run for office, leaving the Acting Chair to manage a slew of ballot access challenges — one of which concerned that former Chairman — we should have known to hunker down.

Ultimately, ALGOP’s ballot access challenge process was…suboptimal, in the eyes of many GOP faithful. Yeah, “suboptimal.” Let’s go with that.

And then, once qualifying had closed, we got the first round of PSC bills.

Oddly enough, those bills weren’t dropped until AFTER qualifying closed…and some of the people pushing the initial “let’s radically change the PSC” bill had NO primary or general opponents.

I’m sure that was pure coincidence.

The reaction to this bill was intense. People and organizations all across the political spectrum objected quickly, and loudly. Ultimately, that bill died…but as we know, the reorganization of the PSC didn’t stay dead.

And then there were the leaks, neither of which were much of a surprise to those of us who know how Goat Hill works. As I’ve said before, and will say again, I was seriously underwhelmed by both — but I know what making the sausage entails. For me, the leaks were ‘meh’ moments. However, those Alabamians who still had illusions about the legislative process, probably left over from high school civics or Schoolhouse Rock…

The scales were ripped from their eyes, and they saw the sausage being ground — and most of them didn’t like what they saw, not one little bit.

Then there was the drama of expelling a member of the Republican caucus from their caucus. That, coming as it did after the excitement of the new Chairman election at the ALGOP Winter Meeting, and the circulation of THAT petition to have the Speaker removed from the ballot?

It pretty much shredded the polite fiction of “one great, big, happy ALGOP.”

None of that was terribly good for the image of the supermajority party, but then…HB475 and SB360 came along.

Mack Butler’s HB475 — aka the “Make the PSC Do It’s Damned Job Bill of 2026” — was well received by many. Hopes were raised that it would pass, and address a number of issues that had riled up the grassroots.

We should have known better.

You know what happened next. When HB475 got to the Senate, it was gutted, and SB360 was stuffed inside. It passed the Senate 32-0 (with 3 abstentions), and that very same day was rammed through the House — with a No vote from its original sponsor.

And that bill — hollowed out and filled with exactly what a certain special interest wanted, then passed with nigh-unheard-of speed — was for many Alabamians the final proof that our Glorious Leaders actually don’t represent them at all.

Earlier, the previous bill to radically change our elected PSC was disfavored 99% to 1% in a Cullman Daily News poll. SB360 was never put to that test, but given it was condemned by the same widely-divergent groups who condemned the first ones? Yeah, no; the people of this State didn’t want it.

And that didn’t matter at all.

The conclusion, right or wrong, that many Alabamians have reached is simple: what Alabama Power wants, Alabama Power gets. True or not, that’s the perception. And, as we all know, in politics the perception IS the reality.

Oh, there was a lovely name given to the bill — “Power To The People.” Uh huh. Put a little more lipstick on that pig, why don’t you? Maybe a wig, too. Because we ain’t buying it.

And all the good bills that passed this session? Yes, there were quite a few. Sadly, most of them didn’t get the notice they deserved, because they were plowed under by “the PSC bills.” Yes, those bad PSC apples tainted the whole barrel in the eyes of many Alabamians.

I’ve talked to a number of people, and none of us can ever remember a session quite like this one. We all know times when one or more of the Big Mules got their way over the desires of regular folks, but this one was just so blatant and in-your-face that it could not be ignored or explained away.

And now, the primary and general elections are coming up, and people are still furious — not that it matters much.

I pulled the numbers on the races for the Legislature. Of the 140 seats, 31 of them have NO opponent in either the primary or the general. In 74 seats, it’s only Republicans running, and 18 where there are only Democrats. Only 17 seats will have any kind of competition in the general — 12 percent. Another 66 percent will be decided in the primary — and our new election audit bill doesn’t apply to primaries.

So, we have to wonder: the voter outrage that’s circulating now — will it amount to anything at the ballot box? Looking at the numbers for the Legislature, it doesn’t look like it will.

But the Legislature aren’t the only ones on the ballot. Every State office, from the Governor on down, and a slew of local races, will be voted on in November. What’s more, a lot of the anger is being redirected in different ways, depending on which party’s flag you wave.

Republicans are frustrated, and that’s turning into apathy. Angry, frustrated Republicans don’t march or “mostly peacefully protest” — they stay home on Election Day. More than once, I’ve heard “so what good is having a supermajority, if this is what it gets us?” And “why bother voting at all, if this is how they treat us?”

That is, after all, how we got Doug Jones as Senator over Roy Moore. Republicans — especially Republican women — got mad and stayed home.

The Democrats, on the other hand? 

They’re tired of wandering in the wilderness. They’re highly motivated, and they can smell blood in the water. They think they have a shot, not just at the Governor’s chair, but at several other offices as well.

And one more thing: I keep getting asked what it takes to run as an independent, or to start a new party. Honest answer: an independent run in a small district might be doable — we’ve got two already that I know of — and you can get the details from the SecState’s office. A new party? Unless you’ve got a few Sugar Daddies and Sugar Mommies ready to open the checkbooks, it ain’t happening. Don’t bother trying.

How will this all pan out by November 3? I really don’t know. But, I do know this:

People are now aware of how the sausage is made, and once they’ve seen it, they'll never look at Goat Hill the same way.

And after this session and cycle, I don’t expect Alabama politics to be quite the same, ever again.

Dr. Bill Chitwood is the Managing Editor of ALPolitics.com. He is the author, under his nom de guerre Doc Contrarian, of Beyond MAGA: From Trump campaign slogan to political movement to restoring the Republic. He identifies as Conservatarian Contrarian and a staunch Constitutional Originalist. He enjoys being called a First Amendment Nazi — mainly because he is.

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