Normally a lieutenant governor, at least in Alabama, takes a backseat when it comes to policy and leading the charge in a crisis unless asked to do so or if something happens to the governor.
But this week, Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth lunged into the role of de facto coronavirus response leader. He wrote a biting open letter to Gov. Kay Ivey’s COVID-19 task force, arguing they were not taking a “realistic approach” about the looming “tsunami of hospital patients.”
The governor, on Friday, shot back by saying that Ainsworth wasn’t helping the state by not offering up solutions.
“As a public official, our greatest responsibility is to be honest with one another and to the people of Alabama,” Ivey said during a news conference. “I invited (Ainsworth) to be on my task force, and he said he was willing to help.
“What is not helpful is raising challenges and criticism and issues we are aware of and (then) offering no solutions and showing no willingness to work with the task force and the team willing to fix it.”
Ainsworth, in a statement to AL.com, responded by saying that his letter “was intended to be a call to arms.”
“The COVID-19 crisis will be resolved only if the governor’s task force recognizes the reality that faces us and works as a team to resolve it,” he said.
The comments on Friday further revealed two constitutional officers at odds with one another as the coronavirus pandemic rips through the state.
“It’s unusual for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to put out such different messages,” said Robert Blanton, professor and chairman of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Politically, it indicates a lack of effective communication between their offices, which is somewhat surprising given the gravity of the situation.”
‘Action now’
While Gov. Kay Ivey has been scarcely visible, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth is trying to ring the alarm on coronavirus.
Ainsworth’s letter was written one day after Ivey, during a news conference, said the state needed to balance public health with the economy, echoing a statement of President Donald Trump, who was pushing to open portions of the U.S. economy by April 12.
The letter from Ainsworth was received well by lawmakers, and it was praised by Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones.
Jones said he spoke with Ainsworth by phone and, during an interview with AL.com, said the lieutenant governor “hit the nail on the head” with his letter. Jones also criticized Ivey for sending “mixed messages” about certain businesses being open -- such as gun stores -- while others considered “non-essential” should close.
Alabama Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, also praised Ainsworth’s stance as being “good for the state.”
Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said Ainsworth’s concerns were similar to his own views. But Marsh also said the concerns are “being addressed by (Ivey) and her team.”
Ainsworth, the 39-year-old former state representative from Guntersville, has been the beneficiary of positive headlines in recent days after calling on the state to be more prepared. His letter provided some alarming projections not previously discussed by public officials, but reported in state media, regarding what he says is a lack of hospital beds.
Ainsworth’s letter called on a doubling of hospital beds in Alabama, and he projected the state could have over 245,499 cases by May 1, with 13,914 hospital beds in use (assuming a conservative hospitalization rate of 13% for people diagnosed with COVID-19).
He also forecasts something more ominous: By May 1, the state could have 6,382 patients in intensive care units around the state who will be in need of ventilators. According to Ainsworth, the statewide stockpile is only 1,344 ventilators.
“I believe that the public’s safety and simple common sense demand that we create a formal plan to double or triple hospital capacity and also provide for adequate staffing levels,” Ainsworth said. “Even with the help of federal government and FEMA assistance, building capacity takes time, which is why we need action now.”
Ivey, during a news conference Thursday in which she announced the closure of schools for the remainder of the spring, was more direct than she had been in recent days by sounding alarms about the public health crisis in Alabama. She called it a “deadly situation.”
Gina Maiola, the governor’s spokeswoman, said that Ivey’s No. 1 priority is “protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all Alabamians, and that very much includes keeping the economy going as much as possible.”
In reacting to Ainsworth’s letter on Thursday, Maiola said, that it “only reinforces the actions of her task force, and the governor intends to continue taking a measured and practical approach regarding both the gravity of the virus and also keeping the economy alive.”
Ivey, asked to react to Ainsworth’s letter on Friday, provided the more forceful criticism.
‘Trains of thought’
Singleton, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader, said it’s healthy to have multiple viewpoints publicly expressed during the pandemic.
“I applaud him in forcing his opinion and how that’s he’s stepped up, and he’s the second person in command in the state, it may (inspire) other folks to look at his position,” said Singleton, who butted heads with Ainsworth last May during a Senate debate over the state’s near-ban on abortion. Ainsworth, a strong supporter of the ban, gaveled down two amendments that would’ve added rape and incest exceptions into legislation, prompting Singleton to respond with anger.
“It is good for the members of the leadership who have different trains of thoughts on this,” he said. Several Alabama Democratic Party leaders, including Singleton, have called on Ivey to issue a “shelter in place” order, which she has thus far refused. On Friday she said every part of the state does not have the same needs or issues, that Grove Hill is not Gadsden, Dothan is not Decatur.
Singleton added, “It would be good if we all sat down and made those decisions together.”
Indeed, it’s unclear if Ainsworth and Ivey have directly talked about the COVID-19 response together, though the governor’s response hints at a lack of communication. The governor’s office didn’t respond to an email question on whether the two have spoken.
Blanton said Ainsworth’s letter represented a “bold stance” compared to positions and statements from other high-profile Southern Republican lawmakers such as in Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who has overridden local authorities by keeping retail stores open, or Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who recently suggested grandparents like him shouldn’t sacrifice their grandchildren’s economic future over closing down the economy.
“This view of economic growth and public health as being at odds with one another is disturbing,” said Blanton, who said Ainsworth’s approach is “much more in line with what medical experts are recommending” and that it offered a “reset” in the state’s approach toward dealing with COVID-19.
‘Different political calculous’
Ainsworth first talked about COVID-19 on March 17, when posting a self-produced public service announcement on social media encouraging people to protect themselves and their families from the virus.
Ainsworth used a similar strategy in August to announce his opposition to a proposal, backed by Ivey, to assess tolls to help finance a $2.1 billion Interstate 10 improvement project and new bridge in Mobile.
The toll plan was pushed by the Alabama Department of Transportation, but was widely opposed by coastal Alabama residents who flocked to social media to express their disapproval of having to pay tolls to drive on an existing interstate. Ainsworth’s opposition further fueled the opposition movement, and the project was ultimately declared “dead” later in the month.
In Alabama, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor. The two do not share their political party’s ticket together during either the primary or general elections. Seventeen states elect the lieutenant governor separate from the governor.
Ainsworth is a 2003 graduate of Auburn University and an avid outdoorsman who, along with his brother Austin, founded the popular Dream Camp hunting lodge in Guntersville. According to one published report, the camp attracts over 20,000 people each year. The brothers also partnered and founded the Tennessee River Valley Hunting and Fishing Expo that is held each year at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
Ainsworth’s rise to the lieutenant governor’s seat began when was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2014. Four years later, he ran for the statewide seat and won a hotly contested GOP runoff against Twinkle Cavanaugh before cruising in to a general election victory over Democrat Will Boyd.
During an expensive runoff campaign, Cavanaugh -- a much more well-known politician who was the head of the Alabama Public Service Commission at the time -- accused Ainsworth of openly opposing Trump during the 2016 presidential election. Ainsworth was a supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, but he claimed to have always been an admirer of Trump.
The Cavanaugh campaign also attacked Ainsworth for being arrested twice -- in 2001 and 2002. The 2001 incident was for driving an unregistered boat in Jackson County, while the 2002 incident was for what he called a "college prank” with fraternity brothers for stealing fiberglass tigers placed in downtown Auburn for a Chamber of Commerce event. Ainsworth, who was 20 at the time, performed community service and the case was dismissed.
Ainsworth, a married father of three, gained a bit of national attention in 2018 for backing a controversial position of arming teachers. He sponsored legislation that would allow teachers and administrators to be armed while at school if they had undergone appropriate firearms training, a move that political analysts said helped raise his political profile among Republicans voters.
In 2018, he asked Ivey to consider a special session to address school safety measures that included arming trained administrators and teachers. No special session occurred, and the legislation never advanced.
Jess Brown, a retired political science professor of Athens State University, said the Ivey-Ainsworth rift is the first time he can recall one occurring that involves the state’s top two constitutional officers since Republicans took over the Statehouse in 2010.
He said of Ivey and Ainsworth that, “we’ve seen repeated examples of a lieutenant governor differing with the governor on two major policy positions.”
Said Brown, “It may also suggest the difference in their political careers and where they are in terms of their life cycle. He’s a young fellow wanting a higher level of office. I imagine she’s not running for re-election. They will have a different political calculus at times.”