Beck on the District 17 Race, Dark Money, Doorknocking

Michael Beck is a Republican candidate for Alabama House District 17, which includes Lamar, Marion and part of Winston Counties, and the Cities of Hamilton, Detroit, Sulligent, Gattman, Vernon, Millport, Winfield, Britt, Bear Creek, Hackleburg, and Haleyville.

ALPolitics.com spoke with Mr. Beck about the race. We began, as always, with asking Mr. Beck to tell us why he’s running for House District 17.

“As a small business owner, I've been noticing, if you draw a line down the middle of the State, which is I-65, there's more money going up that right side than there is up this left side. And I really feel like the kids in our District have been left out. I feel like the small business owners here have been left out. I feel like the elderly, the seniors, I feel like they've been left out. I'm running to go down to Montgomery to fight for every dime of money that I can get to bring back here to spend on our kids, our seniors, our citizens, our school teachers, our local businesses, our roads,” Beck began.

“I've sat back and watched and I've asked, I've never been in politics, really, and never have gotten involved. But I've sat back, and I've watched, and I've asked, ‘Hey, can you help here? Can you help here? Can you?’ And they said ‘Oh, yeah, yeah.’ Well, the help never comes. And some of this stuff that they promised must be really hard to get because it never comes true. There's a difference between going to Montgomery to ask for money and going to Montgomery to get money, and I'm going to get it, and they know I'm coming. I'm going down there to fight for every small dog on the block, which is our towns, our citizens. I'm going to be for District 17, and District 17 first.”

District 17, like many Districts in this State, is more rural than urban, and our rural Districts all across the State seem to have significant trouble with roads and other infrastructure. We asked Beck if he could comment on that.

“Yes, I can,’ he said. “We've been promised four lanes — four lane access across to Lamar County, four lane access across to Marion County, in particular, Hackleberg, and down to Vernon and Lamar County. And that's never came true, but it's been promised for years.

”I didn't realize how bad the roads are until I’ve been riding around (with his campaign), in Marion County just today. Just over in Lamar County, if you want to find a dirt road, brother, you come to District 17! They call them County roads, but they're all dirt and gravel, and the roads are really, really bad here. The ones that are tar and gravel, they're so bumpy. I mean, you bounce up a road to somebody's house and knock on their door, and before they can even tell you what they want, what they need? You already know, because you bounced up that road. The roads are not good here. The gas tax has not seemed to have helped our roads here.”

“Something else I would like to say is, when I go to these Fire Department meetings and when I go to these C3 meetings, or when I go to the City Council meetings, they all promise better roads and more industry. They're going to bring in all these plants, and they're going to bring in all this industry. But what ends up happening, in all reality, is our roads get worse and our businesses move out. They close down and move out.

“We've had the Tiffin plant close down here in Winfield, NTN Bower has closed down in Hamilton, and there's  other plants that are talking about closing down here. UPS is moving out of Winfield. There's some serious needs here, but we need to put somebody in there that's going to go down there and tell these people, ‘Hey, we matter too, over here in District 17, and we need some industry in here.’ 

“Something else that I would like to get accomplished if elected is the facilities on the right side of 65 are phenomenal. They're all turf. You know, there's hotels, there's restaurants, there's all kind of tax free tax dollars flowing into these cities up through Cullman, Arab, Albertville, Scottsboro, Athens, Huntsville, all up through the right side of the State. Well, over here in District 17, we don't have any turf fields, all of those fields over there, just just about our turf, and we don't have that here. So I feel like our kids are not on a level playing field.

“I want something that we can see, feel, touch and use, and I want these kids to be able to wear it out, you know, I think it's time for us in District 17 to have a little bit of what they got over there.”

We then asked Beck about any other infrastructure needs he sees in District 17.

“We have some schools that need some facility upgrades. In particular, you know, Bear Creek and Brilliant have been left out, I think, the most in Marion County. And I think in Lamar County, you know, South Lamar down there, they need a little help, especially in their parks and their schools,” he said.

”I was a school teacher for 20 years, and I'm going to be big on the kids. I'm going to be big on the education system and anything we can do to help them. That's a big industry. People don't realize that it's probably one of the biggest industries in our area — teachers and people. People don't equate that, because it's a schoolhouse, but it employs a lot of people.

“And, we should compensate our teachers that way. We should keep our facilities up in that way. It is a big industry here, and so is the travel ball industry — travel baseball, travel softball, travel basketball, you know, travel football. You know, it brings a lot of free tax dollars in — there's people coming into your town that wouldn't normally be there. Other things follow it, like hotels, restaurants and and it's free tax dollars for the cities, and it's there for the taking. Now, it's just all going to the right side. I've got a huge tournament this weekend over in Albertville.

“But, we have to put all of our big tournaments, our big events, over where the turf is, because when you got people coming in from seven or eight States, they don't want to take a chance on a rain out. You have to have hotels there, you have to have restaurants there. You have to have places to shop there. And they come and build, they follow those things. I would like to be able to do that here in my District. I would like to be able to help. I put a lot of tournaments on in Haleyville, Alabama, and in Haleyville, there has been a benefit. They have benefited greatly from my industry, as far as the local restaurants, the gas stations, Walmart.

“If you ask them, on days that we have big events there, what's the difference in the economic impact versus just an ordinary Saturday? I think it would be tremendous. I have people in the mall come up and say, ‘hey, we only open on the days y'all are here because people come over here to our school, our little store in the mall, and they buy things.’ People wouldn't have been here to buy that. So it helps them, so they open.”

A number of Districts in the State have been influenced heavily by Dark Money, specifically by gambling-associated Dark Money. ALPolitics.com asked Beck if this had been an issue in his race.

“It has. I didn't even know what Dark Money was when I started this race,” he said. “I try to do things the right way. When I go in there, and I take money from somebody, I have to put it into my FCPA, my financial reports. This Dark Money, from my understanding, doesn't have to be reported, because it's coming from a federal entity outside our State. It’s somebody, from what I understand, they're trying to get online sports gambling and casinos into our State. Here they're spending 45 million plus in our State to push this in here, online sports betting and casinos online. And, that money is just going to be sucked right out of Alabama, and it's going to go to Virginia. It's where I hear this company is based out of, and even some people that are invested in this or in Europe or other places overseas.

“It’s just crazy that we could let somebody come in here and influence our elections and influence our values, influence our kids. That's our greatest commodity. Our greatest commodity is our kids. They all have a cell phone in their hand, and we want to let somebody come in here with the power to help them go broke by betting online? Because that's what's gonna happen.

“I just don't know why good Christian people could be for the American Conservative fund. And if this was such a great and wonderful PaC, why don't they tell you what it really is? Why don't they say, ‘Hey, this is Draft Kings, FanDuel and Fanatics?’ But they're hiding behind that name, and that's sneaky. It's underhanded, and it's dirty. And if it's dirty, now it's going to be dirty. Once these candidates that they're backing and getting in there, if they're taking money from them now, they're going to take more money from them when they get in there.

”These candidates are telling people, and I've seen them on Facebook with videos, they're telling people that they don't know what it is. You can't tell me that. They can just send stuff out on you with your name, your likeness, and your name, image and likeness on it, and you can't tell them to stop. Get a lawyer, sue them. But they're not doing that. I'm getting three a day from some people from the American Conservative fund in my mailbox, and people are starting to get mad about it. They have sent so much stuff that when you open your mailbox from all these different candidates, there's like 25 flyers in there, mailers, and people are starting to get mad about it.

“You know, I never knew what this was. I've never even heard of this. In fact, I had to ask somebody, what is the American Conservative Fund, and my consultant is the guy that I asked, I trust him a lot, and he told me what it was. Then I started doing a little research on it, and I found out that it was online sports betting and casinos, and I'm not for that, you know. 

“We’ve had a big problem with it. I think one of my opponents has probably had the better part of $250,000 spent from the American Conservative Fund. And you can't tell me that somebody's going to spend that kind of money on you and don't know how you're going to vote. You can't tell me that you're going to take that kind of money and don't know that they're going to expect you to vote the way that they want you to vote.”

We then asked Beck if he had a final message for the voters of District 17.

Beck began by saying, “I want to talk about some grassroots campaigning that I have been doing. When I started this thing out, I went around to a lot of the industries in District 17. I'm the only candidate in my race that has not taken, to this day, any PAC money from Montgomery. So I don't have any.

“When you go look at my statements, there's none from any PAC in Montgomery. I raised my money from the people around here, and then I put my own money in, because I felt like if I was willing, if I wanted something bad enough, I needed to have a vested interest. I needed to put some of my money in, and so that's what I did. I matched what I raised. I raised $50,000 and I matched $50,000 so I had more than anybody. Neither one of the other guys, they weren't even close. But then all this Dark Money starts coming in.

“I'm sending five flyers out. My last one will go, I think, Friday or Saturday to the people. And I think I'm going to send out one or two texts, but I have gone out, and I have knocked on more than 10,000 doors. I knocked from about eight o'clock in the morning till about eight o'clock at night now, because of the daylight, you know, we got a little bit more daylight.

“I've enjoyed going out here. I hope people know and realize and understand that I'm not trying to win this election in the mail with a mailer in the mailbox. I'm coming out to see them, and I have come to see a bunch of people all across this District in person, and I've asked them in person for their vote. My daddy told me if, if their vote means anything to you son, you'll go ask him for it. I have met a lot of people who respect that, and who tell me they're going to vote for me because I came out there.

“What I want the people in District 17 to know is, I've been living for 53 years. I know people down in Montgomery, just like all the other people know people down in Montgomery, but I'm willing to go down there, and I'm willing to go down there and fight for everybody, for all the Districts, for the whole District, and not just some of the District.

“Like I say, at my events, I employ people from Lamar County and Marion County and Haleyville. I have teams that play in my events from all three areas of the District, and so I can't just be for one and not the others. It's just kind of baked into my business. That being said, I'm not doing this for a living. I'm not doing this to try to make a bunch of money. The job doesn't pay that much money, it doesn't have any benefits. It's actually classified as a part time job. I'm not going to quit my other job.

“I want these people to know that I am excited. I'm excited to go to Montgomery and fight for them, to work for them. I'm excited to go fight for the kids, for something they can use, to help level the playing field that has been going on over here — this uneven playing field.

“I want these teachers in District 17 to know that. I promise when I get down there, I will fight for teachers. I was in that classroom. I was a coach on the field. I will fight for classroom materials. I will fight for coaches, because I know the impact that those people have on our kids' lives. You don't know, if you've never been a teacher and had a kid come up 25 years later, and tell you all about everything you've done. You don't know that feeling, but I know. I know what they do, and I know the impact that they have, and I want them to know that I'm going to fight for them.

“I'll be for infrastructure. I'll be for fixing our roads. I'll be for bringing in industry. I'll be for lowering taxes. I want to get rid of the grocery tax. There's no reason we should be penalized for putting food on the table.

“I'll be for repealing this gas tax. I don't think it was good from the get go, but one thing you'll not see me do is vote for a tax increase. I hear some people talking about a tax increase, but if, going back to your school teacher stuff, retired school teachers have not had a raise in 20 years, okay? It's time for retired school teachers to go back to getting a cost of living raise, at least. So when teachers used to get a raise, retired teachers did, and that stopped about 20 years ago. We got to fix that.”

“I'll be for our first responders and our law enforcement. I think they're underpaid, but these guys lay it on the line for us every day, and they have a dangerous job. The next car they pull over could be the last for them. They deserve our best, because we expect their best for us.

In a nutshell, I think this thing comes down to just good, old fashioned common sense. I think this campaign, if I was to frame it. I would frame it like this: do you want a guy bought and paid for by Dark Money, or do you want a guy bought and paid for by the people of District 17? Do you want a guy running a campaign in a mailbox? Or do you want a guy who's come and knocked on your door, who's going to go down and fight for you, because it means something to him?

“I just think this thing needs to be about protecting our values, putting our families first, and just good old fashioned, old school, hard work. I told them in the debate, two days ago, that it's time to send a little bit of old school to Montgomery, and that's me. That means carrying the people's voice down there. That's the way it used to be.

“We need to get back to letting the people make some decisions out here. The people are smart. Our people in our District are smart, and my vote will, every time, be for the people of District 17.

“I'll close with this. I had a man tell me one time that when the bill comes up and you got to vote on that bill, if you get in there, you ask yourself a question: does this bill make us more free or less free? And you make your decision based off the answer that you say to yourself, and there's a lot of sense in that.

Michael Beck is a Republican candidate for the Alabama House of Representatives and is seeking to represent District 17. A longtime educator, coach, and small business owner, Beck was born in Haleyville and lives in Winfield with his wife, Neary House Beck. He graduated from Haleyville High School before earning degrees from Northwest Community College, the University of North Alabama, and the University of South Alabama, where he completed a master’s degree in educational leadership.

Beck spent 20 years as a teacher and coach and has also served as a travel ball coordinator and Southeast regional director for NCS. In his campaign, he emphasizes conservative values, support for education, lower taxes, infrastructure improvements, and creating a stronger business climate for Alabama families and communities. He and his wife are members of Gravel Hill Baptist Church and have two daughters.

For more information, visit https://govotebeck.com.

The opinions expressed by the candidate are solely their own, and do not reflect the views and opinions of ALPolitics.com. ALPolitics.com makes no claims nor assumes any responsibility for the information and opinions expressed above.