EDITORIAL: It’s Ivey’s time in Alabama. Will she succeed?

Nov. 07--Kay Ivey, Alabama's long-standing and loyal public servant, is no longer a mere replacement for deposed Gov. Robert Bentley, the Tuscaloosa Luv Guv. Voters emphatically selected her Tuesday to guide this state for the next four years.

Indeed, this is Ivey's time.

We're not sure she's up to the task. She's been sheltered during this campaign, refusing to debate her opponents and rarely appearing before voters who may pose uncomfortable questions. We've infrequently seen the unscripted Ivey and heard scant details about her plans for the coming term.

Will she expand Medicaid? (Probably not, but nothing definitive.)

Would she support a lottery for public education? (She's lukewarm on it.)

What's her plan for preventing the loss of any more rural hospitals in Alabama? (We'd like to know.)

What's her anti-poverty ideas? Her "Strong Start, Strong Finish" education program has a catchy title, but is it the long-sought answer to Alabama's poor education rankings? And what about ethics reform? Isn't it time Alabama relinquishes its place among the states with the highest levels of public corruption?

In fairness, Ivey deserves commendation for two accomplishments: first, she's the first woman to win a gubernatorial election in Alabama since 1966 (and the first Republican woman ever to do so); and second, she rolled past Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, the state's strongest Democratic candidate for governor in some time. In a nation where a percentage of voters couldn't bring themselves to vote for a woman in the 2016 presidential election, Ivey apparently faced little, if any, electoral discrimination because of her gender.

Nevertheless, we firmly believe Maddox has a place in Alabama politics. He's young, thoughtful and smart, and he owns a history of civic leadership. This could have been his time -- if he could have loosened the Republican grip on the state's centers of power, namely white suburban areas and the top lobbying groups in Montgomery. Without that, and minus hints of Ivey vulnerability, he stood little chance. The Democratic surge that seeped into the U.S. House didn't trickle down to our governor's race.

Ultimately, a majority of Alabamians didn't care enough about Maddox's top promises -- expanding Medicaid and pushing for an education lottery -- and voted for their favored party and the status quo.

That's why this is Ivey's time.

She can't be a mere figurehead. She must lead.

She can't be largely absent as she has been during this campaign. She must be constantly visible. We need her to be feisty, even if it means figurative fist-fights with legislative members of her own party.

She mustn't be a predictable toady to President Trump. Alabamians may prefer a conservative in the governor's chair, even a Trump booster, but they also need a governor who thinks more about protecting our interests than staying on the president's Christmas card list.

Most important, she must be a game-changer. Alabama is near the bottom nationally in public education, its poverty rates are too high, much of its heralded job growth is in low-wage, service-industry positions and roughly 300,000 Alabamians today don't have health insurance because of Republicans' refusal to expand Medicaid.

Alabamians have selected Ivey. She's in charge. She owes it to the people of this lovely state to take it to a place much better than where it is today.

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