Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, speaks on his bill criminalizing certain forms of absentee ballot assistance in the Alabama Senate on March 19, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Gudger, a two-term senator, is expected to become Senate President Pro Tem, the leader of the chamber. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The incoming leader of the Alabama Senate said he wants to improve communication among his colleagues.
“I do think that there’ll be a little bit more communication as we move forward into legislative session,” said Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, during a phone interview late last month. “There might be a few more caucus meetings on both sides of the aisle, so that we have more information of how to handle each week than just having one at the beginning of the week.”.
Gudger, who has served in the Senate since 2018, won the Republican caucus’ nomination for Senate President Pro Tem in December after Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, announced that he would leave the Senate to take a job advising Gov. Kay Ivey on workforce development. He still needs to be voted on by the whole Senate officially, but Republicans hold 27 of the chamber’s 35 seats.
The two-term senator has compiled a conservative record like his GOP colleagues, voting for the statewide abortion ban in 2019 and sponsoring a law last year that criminalized some forms of absentee voter assistance.
Gudger was also the only Republican senator last year to vote against the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program that would allow families to claim up to $7,000 a year in tax credit for children for non-public school expenses, including private school tuition. Gudger said that the bill would have cost his district $2.8 million, and his constituents expected him to vote against it. He said his district has good schools and open enrollment.
But he said he will need to think about the whole state in this new role in regards to legislation around charter schools, education savings accounts and voucher-like programs.
“I do think there is a need for it statewide,” the senator said. “What I have to focus on now is what’s happening at the state level, and so that was the reasoning behind my vote, but I do think that was what my district wanted,” he said.
Gudger said during the interview that he expected the Senate to work on economic development and funding for mental health in the 2025 session, which starts in February.
He said changes to the ethics law and laws on in-vitro fertilization could come up, though he was less certain on that and more noncommittal about the possibilities of gambling legislation and a proposal from Blue Cross Blue Shield to use Medicaid expansion dollars for a state health insurance program.
But Gudger said he mostly sees his role as a facilitator. He said he hoped to start get more meetings among lawmakers from the same regions..
“The coastal region is different than the Wiregrass,” he said. “The Wiregrass is different than the Black Belt. The Black Belt is different than north central Alabama. So north central Alabama is different than the urban areas in Huntsville. And so it’s hard to sometimes to just blanket legislation for the whole state, because it affects those demographic areas differently. And I want to make sure that I understand the demographics of the state and what the constituents in those areas want through their senators.”
He said that his role is to be in charge of the whole Senate, regardless of party.
“Obviously, both sides of the aisle have different issues as we go forward, but I’m looking forward to working on both sides of the aisle to help everyone in the Alabama State Senate,” he said. “That’s my job is to try to keep harmony and to keep us moving in the right direction as a body. If I was the majority leader, that would be in charge of the caucus, but I’m not. I’m in charge of the body of the Senate, and so I know that my role is to make sure that we work on both sides of the aisle to help everyone in that chamber.”
Gudger was cautious about issues that could come up. Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, sponsored a bill to overhaul ethics law last session which he plans to refile.
He Gudger said that ethics is “just whispers” of what people are thinking about bringing back.
“I just hear that as we did our first round of polling that came up from some particular senators, and so I know that they’re still interested in bringing that forward,” he said.
The Legislature quickly passed a bill last year to protect fertility clinics from criminal and civil liability for offering in-vitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were children and that parents could claim civil damages for their destruction. Lawmakers said they would continue to study the issue, but a promised commission on IVF was never formed.
Gudger said some senators “mentioned it as a list item,” but added that it was “not rated at the top, and we still have another round of polling to do before I know anything about that.”
Alabama has not expanded medicaid. But, in last session’s gambling package, there was language around rural health, and AllHealth has become a discussion among some state leaders.
Gudger said he was open to looking at ALLHealth, Blue Cross Blue Shield’s proposal to use Medicaid expansion money to give insurance to over 100,000 Alabamians in the “coverage gap,” but the “bottom line” is the cost and how it impacts the state and Alabamians.
“I think there is a need for helping people that do not have insurance now or can’t afford it, so I’m looking at different opportunities that are in front of us through legislation to help everyone,” he said.
He said that he was not planning to bring gambling legislation, but he thinks a few senators would like to see it come up, either in a clean lottery or a comprehensive package.
Gudger said it would require a majority of Republicans and Democratic support.
“It’s got to be a bipartisan event for that to happen either way,” he said.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.