The Machine - Machine Opposition

Machine Opposition

Over the years, numerous campus political groups have been formed in an attempt to motivate independent students to vote for non-Machine candidates.

The University Party was formed by Ed Still and Jack Drake in 1967. Drake lost the SGA Presidency to Ralph Knowles and Still lost to Joe Espy.

An anti-machine group called "The Coalition" formed in 1968 and operated through 1972. This was a joint effort by the men's dormitories, small non-machine fraternities, International Students Association, women students, and the Afro-American Association. It was formed by Steve Windom (later Lt. Governor), Tommy Chapman (later District Attorney), Steve "Red" Wadlington (later political campaign operative), Don Gilbert (later head of Alabama Trial Lawyers Association) and Jim Zeigler (later Public Service Commissioner). The Coalition succeeded in 1969 in electing Joe Estep as vice-president over the Machine's George Culver. It elected Henry Agee as secretary-treasurer over the Machine's Phil Reich. In 1970 it elected Zeigler as president of SGA as an independent. It also elected Windom to the Student Senate and almost 40% of the Student Senate in 1970-71.

Another anti-Machine group was the Alabama Student Party (ASP), which was founded by SGA Senators Fred L. Gibson, Jr. and O. Kevin Vincent in 1985. ASP intended to run a full slate of independent candidates, but its efforts were temporarily thwarted when the Machine orchestrated a takeover of ASP by flooding its first general campus meeting at Ferguson Center with fraternity pledges and members and electing Neal Orr, a freshman member of a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta) that belonged to the Machine, as its president. Orr's fraternity was also the fraternity of the then SGA President, George Harris. Control of ASP was then subsequently retaken by independents later in the year, and it then played a pivotal role as a force for independents in upcoming elections. ASP successfully challenged the Machine with the election of John Merrill, an independent, as President in 1986, as well as a number of SGA Senators. Interestingly, Merrill was opposed by the Machine when he ran for SGA Senator, had been backed by the Machine for Vice President in 1985, and was then opposed by the Machine for President in 1986.

The Alabama Student Party subsequently was involved in the federal court case of Alabama Student Party v. Student Government Association of the University of Alabama, 867 F.2d 1344 (11th Cir. 1989).

Another group actively countering the Machine's domination of campus politics was the Independent Voter Association.

The Mallet Assembly, a men's honors program founded by Dean of Men John Blackburn in the early 1960s, is traditionally opposed to Machine influence, and has campaigned for several candidates under the banner of the "Blue Door Party". Jim Zeigler, who defeated The Machine in 1970 for SGA President, was a member of the Mallet Assembly and actually lived in old Mallet Hall, where his room was burned in 1971.

One of the most controversial elections took place in 1976, when Cleo Thomas, an African-American student and member of the historically black fraternity, was elected to the SGA Presidency with the support of the Mallet Assembly and a coalition of several sororities. Several years later (in 1980), sororities were admitted to the Machine for the first time. In 1979, the Machine weathered an internal disagreement about who should be the Machine-endorsed candidates, which resulted three fraternities electing to leave the Machine to run their own candidates.

In 1989, independent Joey Viselli lost a very close election for president to a candidate who was reportedly the first ever Machine-backed female candidate for the office. Many people, including Tuscaloosa County election workers assisting with the election, believed there were definite irregularities. Viselli took a challenge of the results to the administration, which ruled against a new election, but did remove future student elections from student control. Later that Spring, Viselli was elected President of the Residents Hall Council after a challenge by James Adams, a freshman member of a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta) that belonged to the Machine. Viselli's father Fran was a popular community figure who was the founder and owner of Bama-Bino's Pizza in the Tuscaloosa area. It has been widely believed that the Machine initiated a retaliatory boycott against Bama-Bino's following the election which, when combined with new competition, soon led to the closure of all Bama-Bino's.

In November 2011, the Crimson White ran an exclusive article detailing the connection between the Greek societies' fund-raising efforts and the Machine.