Guy Hunt became Alabama's first Republican governor of this century in a 1986 landslide that his critics viewed as a fluke. In a bid for re-election, Hunt is locked in a close race against Democratic challenger Paul Hubbert, executive secretary of the 67,000-member state teachers' union. Hunt is trying to put his name in the history books alongside George Wallace as the only Alabama governors elected to two straight terms. Hubbert is trying to become the first National Education Association member elected governor of a state, according to NEA records. Hubbert has tapped the state teachers' union's political war chest and its state-wide volunteer network. Several top aides to former governor Wallace also are working in the Hubbert campaign. Hunt has warned business interests that Hubbert is a pro-union candidate who would carry out a liberal agenda. Former President Reagan visited Alabama to attend a Hunt fundraiser and rally. Hubbert says the governor of Alabama is elected by the white, middle-class, working male and that by watching what pickup trucks carry ``as far as bumper stickers are concerned, you'll see what direction the race is going.'' But ``the guy in the pickup truck ... I think he's more of a Hunt voter than a Hubbert voter,'' says Margaret Latimer, a political science professor at Auburn University. Hunt, a north Alabama fruit farmer and a Primitive Baptist preacher, was Reagan's campaign chairman in Alabama in 1976 and 1980. He never went to college and sold Amway products while struggling with a six-figure debt left from a losing 1978 campaign for governor. A bitter Democratic primary four years ago alienated many traditional Democratic voters and propelled Hunt from GOP obscurity to victor. Like Wallace of the 1960s, Hunt bristles at criticism of the state. In June, he seethed at a national magazine article that depicted Alabama as chained to a political history preventing it from enjoying New South prosperity, tax reform and educational advancement. In contrast, Hubbert says Alabama must recognize it rivals many Third World countries in its pockets of poverty, infant mortality rates and dismal health care in backwater communities. Hubbert, also from rural Alabama, holds a doctorate in education. He became known as ``governor'' in the 1970s by building the biracial teachers' union into a major political force. Despite his ties to liberal and progressive wings in the Alabama Democratic Party, Hubbert has billed himself as fiscally conservative and tough on crime. The ethics of both candidates are a campaign issue. Democrats produced a check showing that Hunt's campaign organization paid a personal mortgage note held by Hunt and his wife. Hunt said the mortgage was tied to debts left over from his losing 1978 campaign. Hubbert said the Hunt camp pilfered a document from Hubbert's headquarters. The document says the Democratic nominee should focus on the question: ``Is Guy Hunt a crook?'' Hubbert is running a ``dirty tricks'' campaign, Hunt asserts. Hunt ran an attack ad showing Hubbert sitting in a car with his top associate, a black political organizer from the Alabama Education Association. The ad ``reminded me of the campaigns of the early'' Wallace years, said political science professor Latimer. Deliberately or not, she believes the Hunt ad ``will play racist.'' The governor's campaign press secretary says the ad is simply an attempt to point out Hubbert's base of support, the state teachers' union. Hubbert's campaign is his first race for statewide political office and it comes one year after he received the liver of a 15-year-old boy in a transplant operation. A Hunt supporter has injected the issue of Hubbert's health into the campaign. ``I've had doctors tell me that anybody who has a liver transplant can become very sick, very quickly,'' said former state attorney general Charlie Graddick. Hubbert, 54, is ``healthy as a horse,'' retorted Hubbert spokesman Michael Tucker. ``We're seeing an attack by a thoroughly discredited hatchet man.'' Graddick switched to the Republican Party after unsuccessfully seeking to become the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in the bitterly contested 1986 primary.
