RILEY KEEPS HIS PROMISES

September 3, 2006

Montgomery – At a press conference held in front of his Hoover campaign office, Gov. Bob Riley told a crowd of cheering supporters that, despite empty campaign rhetoric from his gubernatorial opponent, he has kept the promises he made during his first campaign for governor.

 “We promised to lay the foundation for a world-class education system.  We are doing it, and the rising scores prove it.  We promised to restore honesty and integrity to state government.  We are doing it, and our transparent administration proves it.  We promised to put Alabama’s economy on the right track.  We are doing it, and our historically low unemployment proves it,” Riley told the crowd.  “Almost by any standard, Alabama is better off than it was four years ago.”

Four years ago, Alabama was bleeding jobs, the education trust fund was going broke, and the Governor’s office was mired in scandal.  In just four years, Riley has been able to turn the economy around, and as a result, 100,000 jobs have been created and Alabama has been rated as having the best economic development in the nation.  He has put a record amount of funding into the classroom by increasing education funding from $4 billion to $6 billion.  The cloud of scandal that once hung over the Governor’s Office has now been replaced with transparency and accountability.  

Riley said he made some bold promises in 2002, and these results prove that he has kept them.

“Our opponent has traveled around this state calling our plan from 2002 a book of fairy tales,” Riley campaign spokesman Josh Blades said.  “Well, Lucy Baxley needs to come back from Wonderland and see what she has missed in four years,”

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