Basketball’s Charles Barkley May Run for Governor of Alabama

Former Phoenix Suns basketball player Charles Barkley has mentioned several times that he might someday have political aspirations. Since he was playing in the NBA he has been talking about running for governor of Alabama, his home state. In 1995, he said that he was considering running as a Republican, but that plan never gained any ground. Barkley continued to tell people he was a Republican until recently, when he decided to switch teams to play Democrat. "I was a Republican until they lost their minds," he said a few weeks ago in Nevada, while playing in a celebrity golf tournament.

Now Barkley has again began talking about possibly running for governor in 2010. "Alabama, that’s my home," said the Leeds native. "I’m thinking about running for governor; they need the help." Barkley reinforced his comments this week while speaking at a convention of public school board members in Florida. In a story reported by The Birmingham News, Barkley’s remarks included him saying, "What I’ve said is I’m rich like a Republican, but I’m not one." He said that his main goal right now is to get his 17-year old daughter through high school and enrolled in college.

After that, he will be settling on a plan for his future, and at that time he will decide whether or not Alabama needs him as a governor. "I really believe I was put on Earth to do more than play basketball and stockpile money," Barkley said. "I really want to help people improve their lives, and what's left is for me to decide how best to do that."

Joe Turnham, Alabama’s Democratic Party chairman, thinks Barkley would be a great candidate for governor. "I say welcome, Charles Barkley," Turnham said Wednesday. "Charles Barkley has been a Horatio Alger story for many people, not only in sports but in business and broadcasting." But Jim Seroka, a professor of political science at Auburn University, said that Barkley should not be talking about a run for political office without first building up a support base in people and money. "He doesn’t’ have any of the bases necessary to win a statewide campaign," Seroka said. But Alabama’s last Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, said that Barkley’s status as a role model for many people will make him "an excellent candidate for high office," and he has enough personal wealth to stage a successful campaign.

Barkley told the school board members this week that poor children have to cope with more serious problems than wealthier students, such as crime, drugs, and teen pregnancy, and that past political leaders in Alabama have not served the state well. "If it wasn’t for Arkansas and Mississippi, we’d be dead last in everything," Barkley said. "I think we can do better." He also made a point of chastising black parents by saying, "There are too many black kids and their parents who do not value a good education. There are places where a black kid who is a good student and tries to speak correctly, you hear stuff like, 'He's trying to be white.' Well, I say, if that's true, we need more kids trying to be white."

The chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, is one of the most outspoken skeptics about Barkley’s potential run for governor. She said that even though Barkley used to call himself a Republican, he never involved himself with the party or its politics, and she has no idea whether or not he’s serious about his plan. "To be governor requires more than a publicity stunt," she told reporters. "It requires real leadership."