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Huntsville lawyer may enter race for Griffith
Published February 4, 2010
The race for the Fifth Congressional District seat currently held by Dr. Parker Griffith (R-Huntsville) may soon get a bit more interesting.
Taze Shepard, the grandson of former U.S. Senator John Sparkman, is considering a run for the seat.
Shepard, a Huntsville attorney, said Wednesday he has been encouraged by friends to enter the race as a Democrat. He served as an elected member of the State Board of Education from 1991-94.
Sparkman served in the Senate from 1946 until 1979. He was elected to the office in 1946 on the same date he was chosen to serve a sixth term in Congress. After being unopposed in a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of John H. Bankhead, Sparkman took office on November 6, 1946. He held the Fifth Congressional District seat from 1936 to 1946 and was the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee as Adlai Stevenson’s running mate in 1952.
Robert E. “Bob” Jones, Jr., a Scottsboro native, succeeded Sparkman in the House of Representatives.
Shepard would be the first Democrat to enter the congressional race. Griffith, Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks and independent businessman Les Phillip are competing for the Republican nomination.
Griffith was elected in 2008 as a Democrat. He defected to the Republican Party in December 2009 saying, “I believe the Republican Party is more in tune with my convictions and beliefs.”
“We must have a strong voice in Washington to protect the jobs we have and to bring more jobs to north Alabama,” Shepard said. “The federal programs here deserve more funding, not less.”
Shepard, 56, is with the firm of Sparkman, Shepard and Morris in Huntsville. He received his undergraduate degrees from Eton College in Windsor, England, Dartmouth University and a law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law.
He professional activities include: Law Clerk to Director, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 1976; Staff Member, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 1975; Staff Member, U.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary, 1977; Standing Trustee in Bankruptcy for Chapter 7, 11 and 12, 1980--. Member, State Board of Education, 1991-1994; Chairman, Governor's Commission on School Violence, 1994; Vice Chairman, Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission, 1995-1999; Member, President's Advisory Committee on the Arts (White House appointment), 2000.
“I am very concerned with the proposed changes in the NASA budget and how the loss of jobs will affect the individuals, their families and the NASA community in north Alabama,” Shepard said.
Shepard’s firm traces its roots to Senator Sparkman who opened the office in 1924.
Griffith, a former oncologist, is serving his first term in Congress after having completed one term in the Alabama State Senate.
Brooks, 55, is serving his fifth term on the Madison County Commissioner. He represented Alabama House District 10 from 1982 until 1994. He made an unsuccessful bid for Madison County District Attorney in 1992 and lost in the Republican Primary for Lt. Governor in 2006.
Phillip, originally from Trinidad-Tobago, became a naturalized citizen in 1978. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a naval pilot. At 46, he is making his first bid for public office.
Shepard gave no timetable as to when he would make an official announcement about his potential candidacy.
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