Will He, or Won’t He? Redux: The Jones For Governor Question

Sunday, The Voice of Alabama Politics (“The V”) reported that Doug Jones—who served in the U.S. Senate from 2018 to 2021–is going to run for Governor of the Great and Sovereign State of Alabama.

Bill Britt, the Editor of the Alabama Political Reporter and Host of The V said, “I got a call from those very, very close to former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, and we can now report with certainty that Doug Jones will file his paperwork with the Secretary of State this coming week to run for governor of Alabama.”

AL.com reported that they had independently confirmed that Jones intends to run.

If it matters, we’ve all been hearing it for days and days now, and I personally had it confirmed last week by a person who heard it from Jones himself.

Well, whoop-te-do. We’ve been here before, with Tommy Tuberville.

I said it then about Tuberville:

“Until The Man himself tells us, I’m not going to believe any of the rumors about what Tuberville will or will not do.

I will, however, enjoy watching everybody else tie themselves into knots about it.

Pass the popcorn, please.”

I’ll say it again about Jones: until it’s a done deal, it ain’t a done deal. Not officially, at any rate.

Is it likely that Doug Jones is going to file the paperwork? Yes, to a virtual certainty. If nothing else, my source is as close to unimpeachable as it gets in this State—and no, I’m not going to say who they are, because I intend to KEEP them as a source.

But…until the paperwork is filed, until the press conference is held, the press release sent out (Doug, send it to News@ALPolitics.com, please, and include a good headshot) and/or I hear it from the candidate’s own mouth…I have to be professionally agnostic about it.

Do I think Jones is going to run? Yep. Am I going to formally announce that before he does? Nope. Betting man that I am, would I put money in it? Oh, yes; but I rather doubt I’d get anybody to take that sucker bet.

Did I see the recent poll that says Jones will have an uphill fight? Certainly.

Have I also heard that the Democrats have a plan, that Tuberville’s campaign salted away roughly half of his initial fundraising for legal fees to beat it back, and that ALGOP is already prepping a counter? Yes, yes, and yes—from a number of sources.

Am I ready to formally announce any of those things in a News piece on this site? Nope. Until and unless I have good, citable evidence, they’re all just rumors, hearsay and wishful thinking, as far as I’m concerned. That kind of thing is okay in an Opinion piece (remember what opinions are like) but not News.

I know Bill Britt, and consider him a friend. I trust that he’s not lying about his source, and I’m as certain as I can be that he’s right. That being said, I’ve been burned before, so….

It’s time to restock on popcorn.