The position is most notable because the officer holder takes over as governor if the governor dies, steps down or is in impeached. The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate, votes in case of a tie and makes a number of board appointments. The heated and expensive race comes for a position that has relatively little power with one big exception: the potential to succeed the governor. She was elected to the PSC in 2010 and commission president in 2012.Ĭavanaugh said she is proud of her record on conservative causes but notes that she also worked for a year as a teacher and started a restaurant business. She worked as the first female chairwoman of the Alabama Republican Party and worked for the Republican National Committee in Washington and on Gov. He is running a similar television ad with a star-gazing couple.Ĭavanaugh has spent much of her life in and around politics. “Twinkle Twinkle Swampy Star” is the slogan on an Ainsworth mailer criticizing Cavanaugh’s lengthy resume in politics. Court records show that Ainsworth, along with several others, was charged in 2002 with stealing five fiberglass tigers worth $3,000 each, in downtown Auburn.Ĭavanaugh defended the ad, saying it was a “serious matter.” It was a college prank,” Ainsworth said, saying the ad, which displays a photograph of the balding Ainsworth, makes it look like the arrest was recent.
“It is the most disingenuous and lying ad. The Cavanaugh ad targets Ainsworth’s 2002 arrest on theft charges when he was 20.