MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A Baldwin County teacher said that one of the main reasons he wants to become lieutenant governor of Alabama is to stop the federal government's "coercion, intimidation and blackmail" of states.
Gene Ponder of Daphne wrote in a recent e-mail that federal authorities have violated the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which requires that powers not specifically granted to the federal government be left to the states or the people.
The e-mail included a proposed resolution, championing states' rights, that he wants the Legislature to adopt.
Ponder, a Republican, proposed that "all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of force by civil or criminal penalties or sanctions ... be prohibited and repealed."
Seven other states have passed similar resolutions, and a few such measures were recently proposed in the Alabama Legislature.
But lieutenant governor candidates on both sides of the aisle questioned the strong tone of Ponder's resolution and whether he could wrest away any of Washington, D.C.'s control from the lieutenant governor's office.
"Anything that is passed by a popularly elected body like Congress, ... how do you put terms that are really criminal, like 'blackmail,' on it?" asked Peck Fox, chairman of Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom's re-election campaign.
State Sen. Hank Erwin, a Montevallo Republican also running for lieutenant governor, said he's supported 10th Amendment resolutions in the past, but Ponder's may go too far.
"We're not trying to secede from the Union," Erwin said. "I don't think you need to use ... language like that to try to get the point across."
Erwin and Ponder will face each other in the GOP's June primary.
Folsom, son of former Alabama Gov. "Big Jim" Folsom, is the only Democrat expected in the race, according to Alabama Democratic Party officials. The general election is in November 2010.
Ponder said his resolution is aimed particularly at recent congressional measures to overhaul health care and limit emissions of carbon dioxide, which many scientists link to global warming.
Erwin shares Ponder's concern: "That type of forced stuff on us from Washington is what's driving the fear at the grass roots throughout the country."
Ponder said Alabama can free itself from many federal rules by declining federal money.
"We ought to invoke our sovereignty," he said in an interview. "We have this liberal mentality in Montgomery that we can't do anything for ourselves, that we have to put our hands out to the federal legislature."
Fox said he did not know Folsom's feelings about congressional health care and carbon-limiting bills, but the lieutenant governor understands the growing frustration over federal mandates. Fox added that the state shouldn't simply reject all federal money.
"You always have to look at what the benefit is and what the cost is," Fox said. "It's a case-by-case basis."
Regardless, Alabama's lieutenant governor has little control over what the state -- let alone the federal -- government can do, Fox said. Under legislative rules, Folsom couldn't even introduce a resolution without the support of a senator, he said.
"The fact of the matter is that the powers of the lieutenant governor are somewhat limited," Fox said.