By Chris Peeks July 4, 2023
The administration of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has been a very interesting one. It almost seems that things have been calmer. After all, in one of her ads in 2018, she was quoted as saying she "steadied the ship," and there may be some truth to that. Now, some don't like her, but she has many more that do. I mean, she had, at one point, 88% approval ratings. Now before people get all up in arms blasting me about defending the Governor. Hear me out.
The six years that Memaw has been in office have been the best times in the history of Alabama. When was the last time you heard talk of us going into proration? We have all-time high tax revenues because of better jobs being brought into the state and people making more money which is going to increase the coffers. Now that's not all because of Kay, but when you're the governor, and things are going well, you should get the credit just like you should get the blame if things are going wrong. It is what it is.
Ivey has high approval ratings for numerous reasons. One she looks like everybody's grandmother, but something else is deeper about that. Everybody trusts their grandmother. They're going to do what's right for their grandbabies, and I believe that that's how people look at Governor Ivey and that she has tried to live up to that image for good or bad.
Now I'm not saying all of her decisions have been right, but for the most part, I believe that Governor Ivey has done what she thought was for the state's best interest, and she has done something else that grandmothers do for their grandchildren. She has provided a comfort zone to the citizens of Alabama. They feel that if anything terrible happens, Memaw will have a plan.
Chris Peeks
Reporter and Columnist
Alabama Political Contributor