A Republican candidate’s careful answer to a debate question about the Ten Commandments on Friday shook up the Alabama governor’s race, as Sen. Bill Hightower began to take criticism from the far right.
“Bill Hightower showed a lack of courage, leadership and conviction and should not be our next governor,” Dean Young said in a YouTube video on Friday.
Young is chairman of the Ten Commandments political action committee and served as campaign strategist for former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Young blasted Hightower for “a less than enthusiastic” response on a question about a proposed state constitutional amendment allowing the display of the biblical laws on public property.
Alabama voters will decide the matter in November.
Hightower on Thursday said the legislation that creates the amendment has “no teeth” because it doesn’t allow state funds to defend it.
“I am much more interested in the Ten Commandments being written on someone’s heart, not on a wall,” Hightower said. “That’s where the emphasis needs to be, frankly.”
Hightower, R-Mobile, is one of four candidates running for governor ahead of the June 5 primary. He made the comment during the WVTM-TV Republican gubernatorial debate on Thursday.
He added, “They are the greatest groups of laws that have changed the course of history of mankind for a long time. There is no doubt on their impact to the world. But this law? I don’t believe it will be a big issue for us. We can’t defend it.”
Read the full story at AL.com
