Editor’s note: The following is a compilation of profiles on Democratic gubernatorial candidates produced by The Associated Press.

Cobb stresses decades on bench in run for governor

Sue Bell Cobb was just 25 when she put on a judge’s robe for the first time, beginning a 30-year judicial career that culminated with being elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2006.

After decades on the bench — and seven years out of public office — Cobb, who was one of the last Democrats elected to statewide office in Alabama, is stepping back into the political arena, this time running for governor.

“It’s time to have a governor who cares more about the next generation than the next election,” Cobb, 62, said during a speech in Cullman, repeating what’s become a motto of her campaign.

The former judge’s platform includes establishing a state lottery to fund education programs. Cobb’s proposal, which she calls the Life Long Learner Lottery, would fund preschool; subsidies for child care for working families; and career and vocational technical education. Cobb said she believes her plan will “help more people” than a Georgia-style lottery for college tuition.

“Overwhelmingly, the voters want a lottery,” Cobb said. “I’m going to call a special session in that first regular session and call it and call it and call it, until the Alabama Legislature passes the Life Long Learner Lottery,” Cobb said.

A native of Evergreen, Cobb is a graduate of the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama Law School. She was appointed by then-Gov. Fob James as a district judge in Conecuh County in 1981. She was later elected to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. She was elected chief justice in 2006, winning one of the most expensive judicial races in the country’s history. As a criminal appeals court judge, she pushed for the Children First program, which provided funding to a variety of children’s programs.

Cobb said her experience is what distinguishes her from her opponents. She said she is the only candidate who has been elected to “run a branch of government” and has written and implemented legislation.

“I’m running to fix the big problems, not because I want to have a title. I had a title,” Cobb said.

Maddox seeks lottery to fund education, Medicaid expansion

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said Alabama has serious problems, but he sees only rhetoric coming out of Montgomery.

“We have a state where we are about to leave the next generation worse off than the one we inherited. You look at where we are in every quality-of-life ranking. We are at or near the bottom. That needle has not moved in 45 years,” Maddox said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A Democratic candidate for governor, and often viewed as a rising star in the party, Maddox is proposing a state lottery that would fund a mixture of college scholarships, pre-kindergarten expansion and assistance for the state’s poorest and struggling schools.

“I am tired of educating kids in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee,” Maddox said in a recent speech in Madison County, referencing how neighboring state lotteries benefit from tickets purchased by Alabamians.

Maddox, 45, is a native of Tuscaloosa. He previously served as personnel director for the Tuscaloosa public schools and worked five years as a field director of the Alabama Education Association, which represents public school teachers and employees. Longtime AEA leader Paul Hubbert had approached Maddox about taking over for him when he retired in 2012. Maddox declined, saying at the time Tuscaloosa was recovering from a deadly tornado outbreak and “Tuscaloosa was where I needed to be.”

His campaign for governor has put an emphasis on education and health care. Maddox said, if elected, he would immediately sign an executive order to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, saying it would provide critical resources to keep rural hospitals open and provided needed health care.

To pay for needs in the general fund, Maddox said he wants to sign a compact with the Poarch band of Creek Indians to legalize “the gaming institutions that exist,” ending a long-running attempt by the state to shut down electronic bingo operations at dog tracks.

“Alabama needs revenue. … I think there’s going to be an opportunity for all of us to come together and reach a compromise that helps Alabama without raising taxes.”