Candidates for Alabama House District 43 in the Nov. 8, 2022, general election are, from left, Libertarian Jason Burr, Democrat Prince Cleveland and Republican Arnold Mooney.
The race for Alabama House District 43 is one of the few in the area that includes people from three parties.
Democrat Prince Cleveland of Inverness and Libertarian Jason Burr of Meadow Brook both are trying to unseat Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney, who also is from Meadow Brook.
House District 43 roughly covers the portion of north Shelby County between U.S. 280 and Old Town Helena, including Oak Mountain State Park.
Here’s a look at each of the candidates:
JASON BURR
Burr, 47, is in his first run for public office. He said he’s always had Libertarian political principles and was publicly attacked for being a supporter of Donald Trump.
He believes in smaller government and is a big supporter of citizen initiative and referendum legislation that would allow people to vote on laws for themselves if they get enough signatures to put a proposed law on the ballot.
It’s not anything new; Teddy Roosevelt was a champion in 1912.
“It’s important for people to be able to have the power to govern themselves the way they see fit,” Burr said. “Why it has evaded Alabama politics for so long I cannot be certain.”
Burr said he also favors fewer taxes, especially the elimination of the grocery tax. “That’s just ridiculous; only five states have it,” he said. “So many other states have the ability to not tax groceries, yet we have to?”
Burr said he also favors term limits and the elimination of the qualified immunity law that protects government officials such as police officers from lawsuits. “Nobody should be taking an oath to serve and protect people and be able to break that oath without being held accountable,” he said.
He also opposes government mandates on people’s health decisions and believes all gun laws are a constitutional infringement.
Burr said he sees himself as a better representative of the regular blue-collar worker who sometimes lives paycheck to paycheck and understands the significance of things like rising gas prices. Like the average person, his personal finances are more susceptible to changes in the economy, he said.
Burr notes that Mooney claims to be an outsider but actually has a long history in politics, getting a bachelor’s degree in history and political science and working in federal and state campaigns since at least the 1980s.
Burr noted that he grew up in Altadena off Caldwell Mill Road. He graduated from Shades Valley High School in 1993 and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Birmingham-Southern College in 1999. He lived about 15 years in Calera but moved to Meadow Brook in the past couple of years to be closer to his parents, he said.
He has worked in pharmaceutical research, industrial food quality control, industrial paint coating and commercial truck driving and currently delivers pizza for Domino’s.
He has been a longtime member of First United Methodist Church in downtown Birmingham, has worked on mission projects in Costa Rica and Panama and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity.
For more information about his campaign, go to Jason Burr Alabama House District 43 on Facebook.
PRINCE CLEVELAND
Cleveland, 41, also is running for office for the first time.
He said he got tired of seeing people on the ballot uncontested and wanted to give residents in the district a choice.
He said so many legislators in Montgomery are acting like demagogues, bringing up issues that are designed only to deceive and divide people.
A prime example is critical race theory, Cleveland said. Critical race theory is the belief that U.S. social institutions (such as the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market and health care system) are based on racist laws, regulations, rules and procedures that lead to different outcomes for people of different races.
There has been much backlash against critical race theory and people acting as if it’s prevalent in the Alabama education system, but it’s not really a problem and not really being taught in schools, Cleveland said.
Cleveland said he would rather focus on issues such as eliminating the grocery tax, expanding Medicaid and investing in public schools, which he considers the “real issues.”
Alabama is one of just a few states that still tax the sale of groceries, and he believes the state gave some relief to Alabama families, he said.
As for Medicaid, a lot of disadvantages areas of the state would benefit by expanding it, Cleveland said. There are a lot of rural hospitals that have closed or in jeopardy of closing, but the expansion of Medicaid would ensure that those hospitals stay open, he said. Those hospitals are the economic engine for a lot of communities, so they are very important not just for health care but for the economy in general, he said.
Cleveland also said he believes there has been a push to destroy public education in Alabama in the past four years, with people wanting to raid the Education Trust Fund and divert money to private schools.
“I want to protect funding for all public schools in Alabama,” he said. “If it’s public funding, it should fund public schools.”
He is in favor of innovation in education, but not at the expense of public schools, he said. He wants to make sure public schools have the programs necessary to prepare students in ways that will keep them in Alabama instead of chasing jobs out of state, he said.
Cleveland also said he wants to protect the right of women to make their own health care decisions and believes there is an effort by legislators in Montgomery to remove that right.
Cleveland claims Mooney is a part of the legislative group that wants to control people’s lives, and he believes Burr doesn’t think government should have much of a role in people’s lives. He sees himself as being somewhere in the middle, wanting government not to control people’s lives, but to improve it, he said.
Cleveland earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Alabama in 2003 and a master’s degree in public administration from Alabama in 2006.
He worked on the fundraising team for state Sen. Kim Benefield in 2006 and then worked as a fundraising consultant for the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta for two years. The past 8½ years, he has been a content usage analyst for Ebsco Industries.
Cleveland currently is on the Shelby County Democratic Executive Committee. He is an active member of New Hope Baptist Church, serves on the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center Young Professionals Board, The Blackburn Institute Advisory Board, University of Alabama Community Affairs board of advisors and the American Legion Alabama Boys State program.
He also served on the board of directors for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Alabama, is an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and a member of the Alabama Leadership Initiative’s 2019 class.
For more information about Cleveland, go to princeforalabama.com, Prince Cleveland for Alabama HD 43 on Facebook, #prince4alabama on Twitter or princeforalabama on Instagram.
ARNOLD MOONEY
State Representative Arnold Mooney.
Mooney, 71, has represented House District 43 since 2014 and was chairman of former Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin’s campaigns for the same legislative seat. He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2020.
Mooney served as a staff assistant for U.S. Sen. James Allen in 1977, ran U.S. Sen. Albert Lee Smith’s campaign for U.S. Senate in 1984 and U.S. Rep. Mo Brook’s campaign for U.S. Senate in 2017. He also has run several other Alabama House and Senate campaigns over the years.
Efforts to reach Mooney for this story were unsuccessful, but Mooney’s campaign website states that he wants to fight encroachment of the federal government; fight for limited government and low taxation; protect traditional family ideals, religious freedom, the right to bear arms and the life of unborn babies.
“America was founded on the principles of religious freedom, but today religious freedom is under siege,” Mooney says on his website. “As a state representative, I would use the platform to defend religious freedom and protect churches from assault by rogue judges, the LGBT movement or anyone who tries to marginalize our First Amendment rights.”
His website also indicates he favors free market health care without government interference and that he wants to repeal common core standards and let local communities make curriculum decisions.
“Our children in public, private and home-schools are too precious to allow them to be subjected to an unproven centrally mandated process that is destined for failure,” Mooney wrote. “State and local communities must maintain the authority to develop curriculum and make decisions for their students so that they can best compete in the future workplace. Education is not a “one size fits all.” Every child is different and has a unique set of needs, and parents should be able to choose the school that best meets those needs. We must empower parents by placing educational decisions in their hands and giving them a choice!”
Mooney earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Samford University in 1973 and a master’s degree in history from Samford in 1975.
He has worked more than 40 years in commercial real estate and is an associate broker at Southeast Commercial Partners and former vice president for Colonial Properties Trust.
He has served on the Eagle Forum of Alabama board of directors; Workforce Investment Board from 1999 to 2014, including terms as chairman, vice chairman and finance chairman.
He is a former Meadow Brook Home Owners Association president and served as chairman of Unchartered Waters Sports Ministry and on the Fellowship of Christian Athletes board of directors and executive committee for north-central Alabama.
Mooney also in the past has been involved in Briarwood Christian School capital campaigns, booster clubs and the school’s soccer program. He has served as a Meadow Brook Baptist Church deacon, personnel committee chairman and capital campaign chairman. He also was on the Southern Seminary Foundation board of directors and led a fundraising campaign for a rugby stadium at Furman University.
For more information about Mooney, go to arnoldmooney.com.
