After the June 25 runoff elections, media outlets around the state debated the power of political coalitions in Alabama.

The Associated Press, the state’s largest news gatherer, released an analysis that concluded Alabama’s black political organizations have lost power.

“Two black political groups that once could almost guarantee a victory for a candidate in a Democratic primary suffered stinging defeats Tuesday that signal the growing independence of minority voters,” The Associated Press said.

The Birmingham News made a similar statement: “To [Artur] Davis and political observers, the message is clear: Voters in Alabama’s only black-majority district looked beyond endorsements and evaluated candidates based on merit and message.”

Dr. D’Linell Finley, a political scientist at Auburn University-Montgomery, agrees with those statements, though to a lesser degree.

According to Finley, political endorsements don’t carry the same weight they did 10 or 15 years ago. However, he doesn’t believe groups like the Alabama New South Coalition and Alabama Democratic Conference need to go away.

“Coalitions are healthy in elections,” Finley said. “They may not have the same influence they once had, but they are good for voters.”

Before the June 4 primary elections, State Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said coalitions like New South (which he chairs) are important to voters.

“I think people, especially the media, forget that the average citizen does not have contact with all the elected officials,” Sanders said. “They can’t depend on advertising … so they use a ballot because there are many candidates they don’t know.”

By ballots, Sanders meant the sample ballots handed out on election day.

But Finley doesn’t “subscribe to that idea.”

“Down there [in Dallas County], I think the voters do understand what’s going on in politics,” Finley said. “People know candidates and they know what people have done for them in the community.”

In the LaTosha Brown-Yusuf Salaam runoff election, Finley said people knew Salaam and knew he had worked hard for this community as a city councilman.

Though Finley doesn’t believe voters are impacted as much by political machines, he does say there is a benefit in having coalitions in the community.

“I’ve heard some people say that there was a white voting machine, or white voting bloc, within Dallas County in this election,” Finley said. “Well, so what.”

According to Finley, just as New South pushes hard to gather votes from black voters, there is nothing wrong with having whites who vote alike. He said that is true in any community.

“You can call it a machine or a coalition or whatever you want to call it, but people have the right to combine votes,” Finley said. “Just as blacks have combined, the same can be true for white voters.”

In fact, Finley said that is the only way to win an election.

“You have to combine votes to affect the outcome of an election,” he said.

The combination of votes also provides a challenge to candidates, which Finley also describes as “healthy.”

“You force candidates to get out of their own neighborhoods and work when you have coalitions,” he said. “Winning an election is about reaching across racial and ethnic lines and earning votes.”