Our Dueling Attorney General Candidates

Opinion by ALPolitics.com Managing Editor Dr. Bill Chitwood

It’s an end-of-the-month ritual in election cycle politics—the Filing Of The Financials. Candidates are required to file their financial statements at the end of the month, and outlets report on them a few days later, after they’ve been processed.

Often, these reports are drawn not from the raw financial data, but from press releases sent out by the campaigns, touting their success and/or lambasting their opponents. It’s the political equivalent of making faces and rude gestures while jeering “Nyah, Nyah, neener, neener, neener.”

Of all the contests in this cycle, none has thus far been as…interesting…as the race to become Alabama’s next Attorney General. All of the excitement has been on the Republican side thus far—to the best of my knowledge, no Democrat has qualified, much less raised enough money to have to file a financial—but that has only added to the fun.

Jay Mitchell and Katherine Robertson have been going at each other hammer and tongs for months now. It’s been accusation-rebuttal, post-parry-reposte with Pamela Casey getting in her own licks on both of them.

Case in point: the two dueling press releases I just posted from Jay Mitchellj and Katherine Robertson. I took pains to put them up EXACTLY as they were sent to me—so that you could see them in their original forms. No editing. No rewrites. Just copy-paste-here they are.

Mitchell attacked Robertson for taking “dark money” from the First Principles Action PAC, calling the funds “traceless,” among other things.

The rebuttal to Mitchell’s attack presser was swift, with the current Executive Director of the Republican Attorneys General Association, Adam Piper, posting on X that:

“It’s not dark money.

⁦”@RepublicanAGs⁩ and our auxiliary allies are proud to support ⁦@KGRob27⁩ - both formally and financially.

“Katherine has been and will continue to be a force of nature among ⁦@RepublicanAGs⁩.”

Notably, the Republican Attorneys General Association has endorsed Robertson.

And Pamela Casey—who loaned her campaign $500,000 of her own money, the bulk of what she’s raised thus far—chose to respond on Facebook, saying 

“Politics isn’t about money — it’s about priorities.

“I’ve never believed you have to outspend your opponents to earn the trust of the people of Alabama. Hard work, honesty, and good stewardship go a whole lot further than flashy budgets and millions of dollars from special interests.

“On the campaign trail, I pack my own cooler, drive myself from county to county, and stretch every dollar — just like Alabama families do every single day. Because I know what it means to work hard, live within your means, and focus on what really matters.

“Alabamians don’t want an Attorney General who treats politics like a business venture.

‘They want someone who understands that **the job is about the people and service not spending.**

“I’m proud to run a frugal, disciplined campaign rooted in the same values that built me and built this state: grit, responsibility, and respect for the people’s hard-earned money.

“Let’s show Montgomery and Washington that you don’t have to buy this office. You just have to work for it.”

Here’s the most important number you need to know right now: Cash on Hand. That’s the bottom line, and will tell you where each candidate stands in the fundraising Olympics:

As of the end of November, Pamela Casey had $595,608.58. Jay Mitchell had $2,174,376.61. Katherine Robertson had $1,460,034.83.

Now ask yourself: what do those donors expect in return?

We’re gonna need a LOT of popcorn between now and May 19th.

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