Election Central

There is a kind of machine-gun quality to Josh Segall's responses to questions. First, a spurt of verbiage addressing the issue at hand, then — before you can get a word in, a follow-on question or request to clarify — there is the squeezing off of details of policies to be implemented, opportunities awaiting and then his thoughts on matters close by and far away.

In rapid fire, he will explain to you why the Iraq war was a disastrous foreign policy decision, why children's insurance should be readily available, why infrastructure is so important, why the Eastern Parkway is crucial to the development of the entire region and why he should be the next congressman to represent Alabama's 3rd district.

That he is smart, there is no doubt. He read his books at Brown University and did his homework at the University of Alabama Law School and knows his bankruptcy statutes in his work at his firm, Memory & Day in Montgomery.

But it is his grasp of issues that shows — to the knowing as well as the casual observer of politics — that he has the ability to absorb and react to the dizzying world of policy-making in Washington.

In this way, his riffs can be mind-numbing. It is not good enough, for example, that he is supportive of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a piece of deceased legislation that grew out of a workplace discrimination case spawned by a person of the same name at the Gadsden Goodyear plant. He is sunk in the deep down of it, in the inequality he says it represents and the fact that his opponent, Mike Rogers, does not share his view.

And in this way, at times, he can be Clintonesque. You'd better know your stuff before engaging him even in idle chatter on anything having to do with the public good.

So after a while, a realization settles in. That rattle from his cerebral banana clip is a sign of someone passionate about fixing what is broken, rather than a wonk who gathers up the information as hobby.

Smarts alone, though, won't get you there, especially a candidate as young as Josh Segall. At 29, he's not new to politics, only to the running for office part, a big difference in most people's books. (If he did manage to beat Mike Rogers in November, he would be one of the youngest members of the House of Representatives.)

And youth, at least in Mike Rogers' mind, is no asset in this race; experience that comes from years in the state House in Montgomery and three terms in Congress is.

"He is a kid," Rogers said in a recent interview in the halls of Congress. In the stretch of an afternoon, he called Segall "a kid," no fewer than three times.

"My age is an advantage to the people in east Alabama," Segall countered. "I can build coalitions and bring new jobs to Alabama. If there is a higher bar for me because I am younger, then I am eager to meet that standard. If people will give me a shot, then I'll show I know my stuff."

Then he added, "You know, experience hasn't given us much, has it? Rogers doesn't have a plan to create new jobs, he has done nothing with our economic potential. He has not been a leader in job creation."

On the local, local issue of the Eastern Parkway, Segall is all about the importance of the project to the entire district.

"Anniston," he said, "is a town that ought to be booming, and that Eastern Parkway is the most important single thing we can do to make that happen. There is no more important priority a congressman can have than that."

He says he would work "day and night to get that done."

As to funding for the project, he insists, unlike Rogers, that it can and should be paid for with more federal highway dollars.

"We have to get it from federal funding," he said. "The federal government, if it can put its money into that infrastructure, can make the money back. Anniston would really see its economy grow."

The youth thing, though, crops up in just about every conversation one has about Segall.

Fresh faces, change and youth are somewhat in vogue this year, one might say. Just have a look at the top of the Democratic ticket.

When asked about Segall's youth, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, reminded this reporter of his own experience.

"He is young," Davis said in his office in Washington. "But it is a mistake to underestimate him. I know, I was underestimated."

Davis was 33 when he ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Earl Hilliard in 2000. Although he lost that race, he won handily in 2002 against Hilliard and has held the seat since.

Davis, who stresses that he has a good working relationship with Rogers, said that for Segall to have a shot at winning, he not only has to raise enough money to buy ample TV advertising, he has to carry out that advertising in a thoughtful and strategic way.

It is, at the very least, an uphill struggle for Segall. Polling shows incumbents in Alabama, including Rogers, with comfortable leads at the moment.

But Segall is fond of raising a scenario that hands the district to the Democrats in November. Rogers, he says, won handily over the poorly funded and poorly organized campaign of Bill Fuller in 2004, but beat Joe Turnham in 2002 by a narrow margin, a year when the national GOP was unstoppable. His candidacy, Segall argues, is most viable in a bad year for the GOP.

He adds that there is also this: The 3rd is not an overwhelmingly Republican district, and blacks make up more than 30 percent of the voting population. In Segall's figuring, a large African-American turnout gives him a few more percentage points, something he argues will happen, given Barack Obama's name on the general election ballot.

Segall also points out that President Bush has reached a staggering level of unpopularity nationwide. (In Alabama, recent polling showed that 41 percent of state voters were unhappy with Bush while 41 percent were happy with him.) Segall reckons that will either drive Republicans away from the polls or cause them to vote Democratic.

Up from Montgomery

Josh Segall grew up in Montgomery. He is the son of prominent attorney Bobby Segall, a past president of the Alabama Bar Association. He went to private school at Montgomery Academy and later obtained his bachelor's degree in political science at Brown. He earned his law degree from the University of Alabama.

His political experience thus far has been with other people's campaigns. He worked on Mark Warner's successful 2002 campaign for governor in Virginia, as well as Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold's successful campaign. He also worked for the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone in his Washington office.

He is said to throw himself into every job facing him, and his friends and admirers will tell you that if nothing else, Josh Segall is enthusiastic.

"I have to say, though, that his enthusiasm is matched by his follow-through," said Edward Miller, a law school friend who is now a Birmingham attorney.

"I met him my first week of school," said Miller from his office. "At first I wasn't sure if I was going to buy his shtick. You know, big talkers with big plans, they are either a jack ass or they are genuine. Well, he's genuine."

Segall, Miller says, loves the issues, is intensely interested in policy, and all his talk about tending to the welfare of the people of the 3rd Congressional District is very much authentic.

Indeed, Segall is pinning a large part of his campaign on what he calls Mike Rogers' neglect of the district.

He points to Lilly Ledbetter, to free trade agreements, especially the Central American Free Trade Agreement; to the children's health insurance program, SCHIP; and to Rogers' opposition to the 2006 Farm Bill, though the congressman voted for the measure this year.

Segall also takes Rogers on about the war.

Should we continue our involvement in the Iraq war?

"No," is his flat reply. The focus should have always been on eliminating al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

He has surprising and surprisingly hard positions on the sizzling, yet marginal, issues that have excited the electorate for so long.

He is pro-choice.

"We should have fewer abortions," he says. "And I wouldn't advise it for a family member, but I don't think the federal government should decide that for you."

Yet, there is this: He "will not do anything to advance the cause of gays in the United States." Period.

He thinks the United States should have a humanitarian approach to immigration, is opposed to any sort of amnesty, and describes outspoken CNN commentator Lou Dobbs as "a crazy person."

He feels that prayer should be in public schools. "We ought to teach right and wrong in our schools, what it is to have a meaningful life. I believe in character education."

And what, by the way, is he going to say to that little old lady who corners him at the fish fry and asks what church he goes to in Montgomery?

"Well, I'll say I go to synagogue like everyone else goes to church," he said. "The important thing to people is that you are a person of faith and that you understand people. What it is to lead a meaningful life, well that is very important to me, and I believe that should be a part of what an education should be."

Meet the candidate

Josh Segall, D-Montgomery

Born: 1979

Marital status: Single

Education: Brown University (Class of 2001), University of Alabama School of Law (Class of 2006)

Other experience: Attorney; Clerk for U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins; Campaign aide for nationally prominent Democrats Mark Warner, Paul Wellstone and Russ Feingold, among others.