MONTGOMERY – This long holiday season not only creates havoc with newspaper deadlines but on top of that it is invariably a slow news period.

State government and politicking slows down during the Christmas-New Year’s Day season. That being so, for this week and next I am going to give you what we call in my trade a couple of “filler columns.” Specifically, as we are on the eve of one of the most intriguing gubernatorial primaries in decades, I am going to do a little reminiscing about gubernatorial elections past.