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Closed Primaries - TPR's In Focus - March 20, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's Dothan Campus,
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  identifying and preserving historical documents and photographs for research related to the
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  Wiregrass region. More information at troy.edu slash wiregrass archives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the News Wrap from In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Todd
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  Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal, discusses a proposal by the
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  Alabama Republican Party to have closed primaries, and the wild card has a Winston County dog
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  with a bucket full of headaches. Todd, welcome back to the News Wrap from Capitol Journal.
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  Good to be with you, as always. Todd, what's the latest news from the Statehouse?
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  We're getting late in the legislative session. There's only six days left,
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  but a big issue that's been up this week is closed primaries. Legislation passed the House
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  of Representatives that would require voters, in order to vote in the Republican primary or
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  the Democratic primary, to be registered, meaning you have to choose your party. Now,
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  there are some details that are important, meaning you don't have to pre-register. You
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  could just show up and choose your primary to vote, but then you would be registered as a
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  Republican or as a Democrat. This is a big push from the Alabama Republican Party, from its
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  leadership, because they really want to close off that primary to only those who are committed
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  Republicans. They think it will get them more conservative candidates on the ballot,
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  but a lot of people are concerned about it because there's a lot of independents out there
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  who they may vote in the Republican primary because that, these days, is tantamount to
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  the election statewide in many cases, but they don't necessarily consider themselves Republicans,
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  and so there's a lot of concern that you're leaving those voters out, those that don't
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  necessarily want to register as a Republican. The same thing on the Democratic side. This has always
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  been an issue. It's actually gotten through the House this time, but as I said, we're getting
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  late in the session, and so there's no guarantee that it will get over the finish line. Meanwhile,
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  there's another issue that jumped out at me when I was reading your Alabama Daily News,
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  and that is the national debt. The U.S. national debt surged past $39 trillion
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  weeks into the war with Iran. Yeah, and it's obviously, it's not just military spending. In
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  fact, that's less and less what we spend money on, but we're going to be at $40 trillion in debt
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  soon. That is a really bad thing for this country, and I'm glad that you read the article, and it's
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  from the Associated Press, because people need to be aware of this. There's so much that we
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  argue about and focus on. Both parties should be addressing this because it can come with
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  really bad and dangerous economic consequences, including the fact that we're spending more
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  paying off the interest on that debt than we do on national defense, and that's just kind of crazy
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  to think about. And here people are very concerned with rising gasoline prices. Health care is no
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  longer available to a segment of the population, so there are concerns over personal and family
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  expenses. Oh, absolutely. There's plenty of issues to talk about. Well, Todd, how about a wild card?
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  Well, I noticed this story. You know, I love my dog stories, and this one was this poor pup in
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  Winston County got a bucket stuck on its head. I can only imagine he was probably digging around
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  for some food, but the bucket got stuck on its head, so there was these little videos of this
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  poor dog wandering around the woods to have his bucket stuck on his head, so some people tracked
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  him down. We were able to get some clippers out and clip off the bucket, so they saved the dog.
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  He's doing fine in Winston County, Alabama, old bucket head. Well, I'm looking forward to Capitol
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  Journal. Who's your guest? Well, got a special treat. Alex Angle, who is our Washington correspondent,
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  is here in Montgomery, and so I'm going to talk to her about things that are going on in Washington.
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  Every week she has a report from there on Capitol Hill, but we had her in studio this week, and so I
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  caught up with her about her experience at the State of the Union. She was there live in person.
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  I mean, we have really the state's only reporter base right there in Washington, D.C. She does a
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  tremendous job, so I hope you'll tune in to Capitol Journal. That's tonight at 7 30 and again Sunday at
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  noon. Well, thanks for joining us for the News Wrap. Thank you. That was Todd Stacy, host of Alabama
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  Public Television's Capitol Journal. Thanks for joining us today for the News Wrap from In Focus,
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  which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is
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  listener-supported Troy Public Radio.