Candidate Talks Issues, Not Good Looks

By Adam Jones
Staff Writer
Tuscaloosa News
October 28. 2006 3:30AM


Loretta Nall is the Libertarian candidate for governor.


TUSCALOOSA | She’s garnered national attention for her cleavage, but in a speech at the University of Alabama Friday, Loretta Nall wore a shirt buttoned to the neck.

Nall is running for governor as the Libertarian Party nominee, though the party failed to get enough signatures to win a spot on the ballot. To win – which she admits is a long shot – voters will have to write her name on the ballot.

“I’m not your typical candidate," she told a small gathering of students Friday. “I wasn’t genetically engineered to be a politician, bred to run for governor their whole lives."

It was a photo of Nall in a low-cut shirt that displayed a fair amount of cleavage that first brought her fame. The photo was blasted by state columnist Bob Ingram, giving her an opening to turn the notoriety into a fund-raising opportunity. She offered those who gave $50 “the biggest boobs in Alabama politics." Donors get a T-shirt displaying photos of her gubernatorial opponents.

The column and fundraiser led state and national media to pick up the story about a candidate using her chest to get votes. She’s appeared on Fox News, is scheduled to appear on NBC’s Today Show and has been mentioned in countless newspapers, she said.

The photo that led to the controversy in the first place was pulled from the Internet, she said.

“It wasn’t really my fault, but I’ve welcomed the attention," she said.

Nall said her biggest concern, and a staple of her campaign platform, is revamping federal and state policies on illegal drugs, which she claims is hurting the country.

Legalizing drugs such as marijuana, then regulating and taxing the industry, would free law enforcement from spending time and resources tracking those who use and sell the drugs, she said. It would also reduce the number of prisoners in an already crowded state prison system.

“I’m not saying it’s OK to do drugs, but our prison system was not set up to deal with this," said Nall, who admits to occasionally using marijuana.

If elected, Nall said she would not require Alabama schools to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which she said forces teachers to focus on standardized tests rather than individual learning.

“The teachers know better how to teach our kids than some yahoo up in Washington," said Nall, a mother of two. “The federal government only supplies 6 percent of our education budget, and I don’t think that’s enough incentive to continue with No Child Left Behind."

Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.