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Perkins to pursue District 7 seat
Published Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Former Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr., will announce his candidacy Friday for the 7th District congressional race.
Perkins’ campaign released a notice Monday morning that he will make his announcement at 9 a.m. at the Federal Building in Selma. The rumor mill had churned out the news as early as two weeks ago, but Perkins declined to comment on the race, saying he’d talk the day he made his announcement.
He is the second person with Selma ties to seek the office. Terri Sewell, a Selma native and Birmingham attorney, announced her bid for the seat earlier this year. Both Perkins and Sewell are Democrats.
Incumbent Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, will leave an open race. Davis is seeking the Alabama governor’s post being vacated by Bob Riley, who cannot under state law seek re-election.
Perkins made history in 2000 when Selma voters elected him the first African-American mayor. He served two terms. He sought re-election to a third term in 2008, but was defeated by George Evans, a former school superintendent.
Perkins has worked in the business world, having seen employment at Caterpillar Tractor Co. in Peoria, Ill. as a computer programmer and systems analyst during the early-to-late 1970s. He was hired by Martin Marietta Corp. in the late 1970s as a project manager. In 1980, Perkins founded Business Ventures Inc., a technology information company.
The former mayor has served as a member of the Drug Advisory Council to the Selma public school system, the New South Coalition, on the Board of Directors of the Auburn University African-American Enterprise Commission and the Selma-Dallas County Economic Development Authority.
In 2000, Perkins was elected mayor, defeating 10-term mayor Joseph T. Smitherman, using the slogan “Joe’s Gotta Go!” Perkins received 57 percent of the vote. It was the third time Perkins had run against Smitherman.
He is the son of James and Etta Smith Perkins. His father was an elementary school principal. He is married to Cynthia Page. Perkins has four children.
Perkins earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Alabama A&M University and worked on a graduate degree at Auburn University.
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Comments
Posted by NancyC (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 7:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
PLEASE tell me who is opposing him. I will vote for whoever is running against him, even campaign. We don't need this self-serving jerk representing our district.
He didn't do enough damage as Mayor, that he has to try and expand his fields of opportunity (to enrich himself via the public purse)?
Posted by leo71 (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 7:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It will be an open race,NancyC.Terri Sewell and Earl Hilliard Jr.-- i'm sure they'll probably be others-- have already announced their candidacies.A Selmian representing us in Washington certainly wouldn't hurt--cpsenior-- but in my opinion James Perkins is the wrong Selmian. I'll put my money on Terri Sewell--a Selma native also-- before I would him.
Posted by nemo (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 7:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I would love to see Terri Sewell represent us in Washington!
Posted by Tigerphan (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 7:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You gotta be kidding me! But Idiots have been elected before!!!!!! He may take the cake though! As long as Ray Nagin doesn't run too! Perkins ran Selma in the ground for 8 years and Whoa! LOL
His first order of business would be to help pass legislation to provide Secret Service detail to guard his Ego! Jimmy Martin would be back in business on his new Secret Service Security Detail. I hope everyone remembers he did have a full time body guard as a newly elected Mayor due to his self imagined importance. What a Joke! God Help Us!
Posted by SelmaSmartBoy (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 10:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
OMG Must there always be HATERS in the midst??? Don't you people have something better to do with your lives than try to screw over someone else......
Leave that man alone. If his mistakes were NEVER LEGALLY PROVEN (that means, he hasn't been to court & he's not in jail) then let him be. STOP going off of ACCUSATIONS. THAT'S YA'LLS PROBLEM.
Good Day :-)
Posted by allmylife (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 10:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Please!!! Tell me it's not so!!!!! Perk running for public office again!!!!
If anyone needs a refresher course in why he should not be elected please go to the angelfire site and read the articles. Start at the bottom and work your way to the top.
Condemn the site if you wish but no one has been sued for anything that has been posted there!
http://www.angelfire.com/un/selma/
Posted by acourtland (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To Perkins's credit, he did come after Joe Smitherman, and he was the biggest idiot in Alabama politics. Anyone coming into office after 30 plus years of Smitherman's rule really had a tough job ahead of him. Let's see what Perkins can do; after all, he is an AAMU graduate :-
Posted by allmylife (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We had eight years of seeing what perk can do
Posted by allmylife (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
acourtland: Smitherman left a 1.9 million dollar surplus in the city's general fund. Your buddy perk left us at least $200,000 in the hole. Who's the idiot?
Posted by catchem (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Smart Boy" you are about as smart as a box of rocks or "acourtland." The record shows Smitherman had a surplus in his budget 34 or his 35 years in office. Seems like ya'll were part of the Perkins administration.
Posted by catchem (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
acourtland: sorry, I misinterrpreted your first statement!
Posted by eyeonyou (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If you haven't figured out by now, selmasmartboy is a huge advocate of Perkins. No matter the facts and figures, this moron loves to look over the obvious truth. Must be kin to Perkins or one of his many cronies feeding off the dole. How can a guy like Perkins that ran this town into the ground turn around and take on a greater responsibility in Washington for Selma? I guess he's just your typical slush mouth, fast talking, excuse making politician. I can't wait to hear all his boasting of "good deeds" and "economic development" he lied about in his last campaign. Time to breakout the same old playbook of half truths. I will vote for ANYONE other than this clown.
Posted by Tigerphan (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Perkins Wins Mayor People move out of Selma
Perkins wins District 7 people will move out
Perkins wins bid for Alabama Governor Move to another state
Perkins wins President of the United States
LOL Mexico and Canada now have Immigration Crisis
Its all cylical!
Posted by allmylife (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is there a Terri Sewell campaign headquarters open in Selma?
Let's come up with some campaign slogans and post them here.....
Here's my suggestion
"Perk... Just Say No!"
Posted by eyeonyou (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 2:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Perk gotta go, Perk gotta go!!!! That was a brilliant jingle!!!!
Posted by dingaling (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 2:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
See Ya Later Perkulator
Posted by disgruntled (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 3:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As excited as I was to hear Artur was running for Governor, I now wish he wouldn't. Isn't that awful! I would sacrifice having a good Governor for not having Perkins anywhere near Congress. Congress has enough problems without Perkins adding to it. Didn't we just elect a president who was trying to end corruption anyway?
Posted by OLDGANG (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 8:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
IF YOU FORGOT [EYEONYOU], SELMA WAS ALREADY RAN IN THE GROUND BY SMITHERMAN AND HIS CRONIES, WHEN PERKINS WAS ASKED BY CITIZENS AND CHURCH MEMBERS TO RUN FOR MAYOR TO GET US OUT OF THE DEEP GROUND. SMITHERMAN KEPT HIGH PAYING JOBS OUT OF SELMA FOR YEARS.[ALLMYLIFE] HOW MUCH SURPLUS WENT MISSING OVER THOSE 35 YEARS IN OFFICE, SOME WE KNOW ABOUT,OTHERS TRACKS WAS COVER UP SO IT WOULDN'T LEAD BACK TO THE LEADER. HAVE YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE FBI INVESTAGATIONS, ACCUSATIONS,AND ARRESTS [GOD REST HIS SOUL]. PERKINS IS JUST THE PERSON WE NEED IN WASHINGTON DC.,BECAUSE HE LOVES PEOPLE, OUR COUNTRY, AND LOVES SELMA AL.HE'A GOD FEARING MAN THAT ALWAYS PUT GOD FIRST IN EVERTHING HE DO.THAT'S THE WAY HIS MOTHER AND FATHER RAISED HIM. [TIGERPHAN] PERKINS IQ IS HIGHER THAN ANYONE INCLUDING ME, POSTING THESE COMMENTS. ALL HE EVER TRIED TO DO WAS MAKE SELMA A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE AND ASK GOD TO LEAD HIM TO DO THE RIGHT THING.AND WHAT DID IT GET HIM MISUNDERSTOOD, STABBED IN THE BACK, AND MISTREATED. *GO PERK GO*!!!
Posted by Tigerphan (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 9:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Old gang! To say his I.Q. is higher than anyone is a bold statement and really disqualifies you as someone that is credible. Its not like I've never met him! Perkins is not a bad person, like I said His policies just SUCK! And he has poor judgement. Proof of that is keeping Henry Allen as Fire Chief and Jimmy Martin as Police Chief. It was bad enough that Smitherman Allen in this position but Poor Judgement is keeping him. My goodness the man put in for a Fire Boat in a government grant for the City of Selma. What a joke!
Posted by Lolcats (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 9:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oldgang said "PERKINS IQ IS HIGHER THAN ANYONE INCLUDING ME"
Never would of guessed that from your post, and your lack of understanding of tense.
He is certainly smart enough to fool the under educated which Selma has an abundance of.
Posted by bamafan (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 9:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I totally agree Tigerphan, it was pretty stupid of Smitherman to put Henry Allen in charge of the Selma Fire Dept., and ignorant of Perkins to keep him in charge, the moral in the dept hit rock bottom since he has been in charge!!
I do agree with another blogger, Smitherman did keep alot of industry out of Selma/Dallas County, he did not want it to grow so big that he could not keep control, however, when he left office, there was a rather substantial surplus, and when perky left, it looked pretty bad, so this alone should speak for itself, he has proven himself in more ways than one, we DO NOT NEED Him in Washington!!
Posted by Redsmom (anonymous) on May 19, 2009 at 11:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't believe all the anyone would still have negative stuff to say about Mayor Perkins, at least he didn't openly steal a million dollars from the city and have other people go to jail for it, among other things. He wasn't stopped on a weekly bases by the police, drunk while he was mayor nor did he frequent bootlegger houses. And I never heard anyone say that he stepped off of a airplane dressed in women clothes. But guest who did.
Posted by Redsmom (anonymous) on May 20, 2009 at 12:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Selma was already run in the ground by Smitherman and his gang years before Perk became Mayor. How can you have a problem with any affiliations with Perk when Smitherman had cronies too. They hide absentee ballards in the basement of the old post office and when they were decovered, they were told to take them out and burn them. They vote for died people and everything else. So how and the pot call the skillet black? Your skin maybe lighter but your hearts are dark and you sins are just as great. Name one among you that has not made mistakes, be afraid that your skeletons don't come out of the closet. And any fool should know that even though there was a surplus of what ever amount when Smitherman left the cost of operating a city, (hell the cost of living) has gone up each year. So how in He-- can any one run a city on a shoe string budget. GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!
Posted by Lolcats (anonymous) on May 20, 2009 at 7:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Redsmom my head now hurts from trying to understand your incoherent drivel. I think i get what your saying but 2 wrongs have NEVER made a right.
Anyway if you could link to some of the articles that you are calling fact I would appreciate it.... What? You can't? ... Oh they don't exsist do they? LMAO you are the type of person that will beleive anything... I've got a bridge to sell ya
Posted by eyeonyou (anonymous) on May 20, 2009 at 9:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's funny how everytime you bring up Perkins, Smitherman is the next word out of their mouth. It's just like talking about Obama...and the next word is Bush. It's a prime example of this group making excuses and not taking responsibility. At the end of the day, PERKINS is the one responsible for Selma. Over 8 years, he made some very incompetent decisions. The one thing that guy could do is talk cirles around people. I've never seen a guy with a better gift of lip service. He could flip a script on you in a second. His ability to create emotion to get votes was amazing. The "Us vs. Them" tactic again!! People around Selma are very easily mislead. It's scary.
Posted by Wedgie (anonymous) on May 20, 2009 at 9:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is all I can say is that if he gets elected into this office we will be screwed again, only this time on a much larger scale. That guy is full of lies, misguidance, and himself. As it was stated earlier, he is a leader of the uneducated because unless you are a moron you won't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. People, we had better wake up, get behind one candidate, and support that candidate or we will be standing here scatching our heads wondering how he got elected. Out of the candidates running so far and I do not know her, but Ms. Sewell seems to be the most qualified and educated. If I am correct being a Princeton graduate is pretty impressive. Wake up Blackbelt, don't let this guy (Perkins) ruin our region.
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