Democrat Walt Maddox's latest TV ad is meant to showcase his relatively conservative views on gun control and abortion.
But when it comes to Confederate monuments, Maddox draws a line. The Tuscaloosa mayor and gubernatorial hopeful is looking to separate himself from his November 6 opponent, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.
Maddox believes the fate of Confederate symbols are best left to the decision-making of local governments, and not through a controversial state law backed by Ivey. Few issues on the campaign trail in Alabama have as much power to differentiate Democrats and Republicans.
But a recent online poll of AL.com readers placed Confederate monuments nearly last among the 18 biggest issues facing Alabama this campaign season.
Scholars believe the issue has already had its time in the media spotlight, resonating mostly during the primary campaign season after Ivey released a controversial TV ad embracing a relatively new state law that protects symbols of the Confederacy.
"At the time Governor Ivey ran those campaign ads touting her support for (Confederate monuments), she was in the midst of her primary campaign," said Richard Fording, political science professor at the University of Alabama. "At that time, I am sure it made sense to her campaign that she needed to signal to the most racially conservative elements of her white Republican base that she was not 'soft' on race."
He added, "I would be surprised if Governor Ivey felt the need to raise this issue again due to the fact that it will only serve to further mobilize the Democratic base."
Said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas: "It's generally not a voting issue in the general election. It might be in the primary, but not the general election."
Governor's race
That said, Maddox hasn't been shy in objecting to Ivey's campaign of promoting the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, which she signed into law slightly more than a month after taking office last year.
"When you are the governor of the state of Alabama, you are representing everyone regardless of race, party affiliation, religion or socioeconomic status," said Maddox, who advocated during the primary season for Confederate monuments to be placed in museums. "For a gubernatorial candidate to run on a law that is by its very nature is divisive, and where Confederate monuments are considered symbols of a past that we continue to try to build ourselves out of, I don't believe that is leadership."
He added, "As governor, I would never want to begin my term by immediately disenfranchising 26 percent of the population, which is essentially what this does."
Ivey defended the law during the primary season, and was asked about it repeatedly during public appearances. In her TV ad, Ivey criticized "folks in Washington" and "out-of-state-liberals" who should not be instructing Alabamians on what it should do with historical monuments.
The ad prompted fierce backlash from the NAACP, which accused Ivey of previously thwarting productive conversations about race relations. In addition, groups like the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center called the campaign spot "shameful."
Ivey's campaign responded this summer by saying the ad highlighted a law that was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor "to protect all historical monuments."
"We can't - and we shouldn't - change, erase or tear down history. We should learn from it," Ivey's campaign said.
Ivey said in April that she believes she has public opinion on her side in that people "support in protecting our historical monuments." National polling from last year suggests that may be the case, with most Americans supporting the preservation of monuments in public, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
Polarizing debate
But that same poll showed the issue is polarizing: Whites and Republicans largely support preservation, while Democrats and minorities are in opposition.
Critics have long argued that most of the Confederate monuments were erected after the Civil War was completed and during the Jim Crow era as a means to intimidate minorities. Supporters argue that the Confederate monuments are symbols of a state's history and should not be removed or erased.
The Democrat-Republican splits are evident in races throughout the South, including Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina and Virginia.
In North Carolina, political campaigns of all sorts are tussling over the fate of the controversial Silent Sam Confederate statue that was toppled by protestors on Aug. 20 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Polling in North Carolina shows that a whopping 70 percent disapprove the illegal takedown of Silent Sam, though more residents favored the legal removal of Confederate monuments.
In Mississippi's U.S. Senate race, Republican Chris McDaniel is defending his support for Confederate monuments. McDaniel's campaign yard signs display the Confederate Battle Flag, drawing criticism because one of his November 6 opponents is black.
Virginia's Republican Senate candidate Corey Stewart is pledging a nationwide ban on the removal of Confederate statues.
"When you ask a citizen or a likely voter to rank the issues, and they are doing it in a calm and commonsense sort of way, then Confederate monuments (do not rank high)," said Jillson of SMU. "But if someone straps up a Confederate monument and lifts it out of somewhere and it's an inflamed situation, you will see a moderate-sized group that is very exercised over that. If it's an inflamed setting, you'll get some traditional conservatives up-in-arms over the issue."
Defending law
In Alabama, state Senator Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, defends the preservation of Confederate monuments.
Allen, sponsor of the preservation act in 2017, is facing Democratic opposition during next month's election in a state Senate district he won with over 62 percent of the vote in 2014.
Allen's views are similar to Ivey in that he believes the intent of the 2017 law is to "preserve all of Alabama's history."
The 2017 law prohibits local governments from relocating, removing, altering or renaming or "other disturbances of any architecturally significant" building, memorial building, memorial street or monument that is located on public property for 40 years or more.
The law does not specifically say it was drafted to protect Confederate monuments only. An 11-member committee, which has met only sparingly since the law's adoption, is charged with considering exemptions and other questions related to the law.
"My piece of legislation took care of all of history, including civil rights," said Allen, who has gained national attention for sponsoring the measure. He defended the law during an interview by media personality Katie Couric during an episode of her National Geographic program, "America Inside Out."
Allen said he supports the position of former Secretary of State and Alabama native Condolezza Rice, who said during an interview in 2017 that tearing down Confederate monuments was "sanitizing history."
"I agree with Dr. Condolezza Rice when she said last year that wiping away history is a bad idea," said Allen. "If there are parts of American history that are controversial, let's talk about it like responsible adults. But we need to learn from the past - both from the good and the bad. Ripping down statues, desecrating memorials, and trying to re-write or even erase American history is wrong and it isn't healthy for our public discourse."
Allen's Democratic opponent, Rick Burnham, argues that the 2017 law is an attempt to "finding solutions to imaginary problems" and that it should "not be a priority for the Alabama Senate."
Burnham, a Tuscaloosa lawyer, echoes Maddox's comments on the issue when he says there are other priorities - such as approving plans for affordable health care and higher wages--that should be the Legislature's focus.
Unintended consequences
Burnham and Maddox also believe that local governments should be able to best address "local concerns."
In Birmingham, officials in Alabama's largest city have come into conflict with state law over the fate of a Confederate monument downtown.
More than 14 months ago, former Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered a Confederate soldiers memorial to be covered with plywood setting off a legal dispute with Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office, which called the action illegal based on the 2017 preservation act.
The plywood remains and the court case continues.
"From a legislative standpoint, it needs to be in the hands of local governments first and foremost," said Maddox, when asked what he wants to see done with the law.
Scholars have noted that the law's intent is almost entirely to defend Confederate monuments, which were being torn down in cities like New Orleans at the time the law was crafted.
But some unintended consequences have begun surfacing, most notably with protecting other, non-Confederate structures, that could imperil economic development efforts.
In Mobile, the question on the future of Ladd-Peebles Stadium arose in July amid contentious discussions on whether the stadium should be demolished or downsized as part of a proposal to build a new football stadium on the campus of the University of South Alabama.
Some Mobile city officials believed the stadium is worth salvaging, and argued that the 2017 preservation law should shield it from the wrecking ball.
Critics say the Mobile stadium case shows a weakness in the state law, which they want scrapped.
"Personally, I think the law is sort of ridiculous," said Joshua Rothman, chairman of the Department of History at the University of Alabama. "It's an obvious attempt to protect the Confederate monuments without saying that is what it is. The law doesn't say anything about the Confederacy, but we know what it means."
Resonating issue
Rothman, though, questions if the general public cares much about the issue. Though polling from last year suggests strong support for preserving Confederate monuments, the issue hasn't led to widespread protests or controversies in Alabama as it has in other states like Louisiana, Virginia, and North Carolina.
"It's the Republicans who are trying to rally their own base behind this issue that Confederate monuments are disappearing," said Rothman. "But because that isn't happening, especially in Alabama, it's the kind of thing you don't hear about."
Indeed, the issue hasn't resonated much during the campaigns ahead of the general election. Democratic Attorney General Joseph Siegelman hasn't publicly addressed Marshall's involvement in the Birmingham case, and Ivey hasn't talked about it at all since the general election. Her campaign's website doesn't list the preservation act as among her accomplishments or key campaign issues.
Said Fording: "Walt Maddox would love for this to become a campaign issue as his only shot at competing is for the Democrats, and of course African Americans in particular, to turn out in numbers that far exceed their share of the state population."
Black voter turnout is key to Democratic successes in November. In last year's special Senate election, black voters made up nearly 30 percent of the overall turnout and a full 96 percent of them supported Democrat Doug Jones, who narrowly defeated Republican Roy Moore.
Derry Moten, chairman of the political sciences and history department at Alabama State University, said simply: "If I am Walt Maddox, I continue to bring it up."
This story is one in a series of in-depth reports exploring key issues on Alabama voters' minds as they approach the Nov. 6 general election. The topics were determined using polling from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama and informal polls of AL.com readers. For more coverage of issues facing the next governor, go to al.com/election.