From Tax Professor to State House? Hamill Announces Bid for Legislature

This morning's Tusacloosa News brings news that my former colleague and friend  Susan Pace Hamill, a law professor at the University of Alabama, is running for the Alabama state legislature. 

Hamill's scholarship is on tax equity.  She received national attention -- including a front page story in the Wall Street Journal and very favorable coverage in the New York Times Magazine -- for her work on the equities (or not) of Alabama's tax system.  Her book The Least of These: Fair Taxes and the Moral Duties of Christians played a major role in debate over the attempted reform of the Alabama tax system in 2003.

From the Tuscaloosa News' story:

Hamill, a Democrat, on Wednesday listed the core principles that she said compelled her to seek public office.
“I believe government must serve the weak equally as well as it serves the strong,” she told friends and supporters in front of Trinity Methodist Church. “I believe tax policy should be written not by those with the most lobbyists, but those with the greatest commitment to equity and fairness.
“I believe the quality of public education we provide our children should not be determined by their address, their race or the circumstances of their family. I believe the process through which government makes all policy should be premised on central moral and ethical standards.”

Here's an interview from Southern Spaces.  And more from an Examiner story.  It'll be an exciting campaign for sure.