Alabama’s Democratic Senate Nominee Barnes Questions Rival’s Health As Issue

Bill Barnes

Bill Barnes, the Democratic nominee for an Alabama U.S. Senate seat in the Nov. 2 election, raised a number of sensitive issues on my radio interview Oct. 14.

Among them, he questioned his opponent’s commitment to fighting for BP Gulf disaster victims and to serving out his term.

In an exclusive interview on Washington Update radio, Barnes said his Republican opponent Richard Shelby, 76, portrayed below in his longtime official photo, has shown scant interest in the plight of Alabama’s victims of the oil tragedy.

Sen. Richard Shelby

In response to a listener call, Barnes also voiced for the first time in his campaign suspicions among high-level Alabama Democrats that Shelby’s health might encourage him to resign shortly after the election to enable Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to shift to the Senate before his gubernatorial term expires in January.

“It’s a strong possibility that Mr. Shelby, Sen. Shelby, is suffering from some health issues,” Barnes said in his interview, noting that Shelby has made few campaign appearances. “Gov. Riley has been in the media quite regularly, drawing a lot of attention to himself, it appears. And I often wonder in my own mind, what’s the angle? Is he [Sen. Shelby] my true opponent?”

Gov. Bob Riley

Access the show nationwide on the My Technology Lawyer Radio Network archive. The weekly public affairs show’s founder Scott Draughon and I interviewed Barnes at 17 minutes past the hour.

See our attached news release for a more thorough description of quotations from the Barnes interview. The other guest was Jim Baldauf, president and co-founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & GAS – USA, a non-profit, non-partisan research and public education initiative.

Tags: Alabama, Barnes, Democrat, health, Republican, Riley, Senate, Shelby