The rise and fall of Judge Roy Moore

Mark Murray Deputy political director

WASHINGTON - Three years ago, Roy Moore was well on his way to becoming the Next Big Thing in American politics.

Despite being ousted as Alabama’s chief justice for defying a federal order to remove his controversial 5,300-pound monument of the Ten Commandments inside the state’s judicial building, Moore quickly became one of the most popular figures in Alabama and an icon among religious conservatives. Supporters saw him as a possible candidate for governor, senator -- or even president.

Then came President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, which was greatly aided by a wave of evangelical voters, a further sign of Moore’s political potential. Indeed, a poll from January of last year showed Moore leading Alabama's incumbent Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who had been wounded politically from his failed $1.2 billion tax increase of 2003.

Moore, a fellow Republican who believes that God is the sovereign source of America’s laws and government, will face Riley in the gubernatorial primary on June 6. Yet, in what seems to be one the biggest political reversals in recent memory, Moore is trailing Riley in the polls by nearly 50 points.

A new Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register poll shows Riley leading Moore, 69-20 percent, among likely Republican primary voters. It’s the newspaper’s third consecutive poll in four months that has Riley ahead by at least 28 points. Close watchers of the race say these numbers mirror findings they’ve seen in other polls.

The Riley-Moore contest was expected to be a classic clash between two different pillars of the Republican Party: the business community (represented by Riley) and religious conservatives (represented by Moore). But it hasn’t turned out that way. “I guess it has come as a surprise to a lot of people who follow Alabama politics,” notes Keith Nicholls, a political science professor at the University of South Alabama who conducts the Press-Register poll.

Roy Moore Fact File Age: • 59 Education: • B.S., West Point, 1969 • J.D., University of Alabama, 1977 Experience: • Deputy District Attorney for Etowah County, 1977-1982 • Private law practice, 1984-1992 • State circuit judge, 1992-2000 • Elected Chief Justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, November 2000 • Ousted as Chief Justice, November 2003

Part of the reason for Moore’s free-fall, Alabama political experts say, is that Riley is on the rebound (due to a growing economy and favorable reviews of his response to Hurricane Katrina). Another reason is that Moore has committed some embarrassing gaffes. He recently suggested that the first case of mad cow disease in the state was a conspiracy to help pass a state animal identification system.

But perhaps the biggest reason for his decline is this simple rule in American politics: single-issue candidates rarely win higher office. William Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, says voters know where Moore stands on the Ten Commandments and religion.

“But they want to know what he’s going to do about industrial recruitment … or coping with prison overcrowding,” Stewart explains. “He has not demonstrated that he is very well versed in these issues.”

The 'good fight'
A Vietnam veteran, kick-boxer, and then state judge, Roy Moore first grabbed headlines in Alabama in the mid-1990s, when the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue him for displaying a copy of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. That controversy helped catapult him to win election as Alabama chief justice in 2000, and he installed his granite monument of the Ten Commandments after taking office.

In November 2003, after defying a federal court order to remove the monument because it violated the separation of church and state, Alabama’s court of the judiciary unanimously ruled to remove Moore from office for placing himself above the law. The entire episode transformed the Montgomery courthouse into a media spectacle. It also made Moore a hero of the religious right.

“We fought a good fight,” he told his supporters immediately after his ouster. “We kept the faith. But the battle is not over. The battle to acknowledge God is about to rage across the country.”

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