MONTGOMERY &8212; Now that the dust has settled from one of the least exciting major state elections in memory, a few observations:

While both Roy Moore…who took a terrible beating in the GOP gubernatorial primary…and Don Siegelman…who absorbed a similar whipping in the Democratic Primary…are playing coy about their political futures,

the hard facts are that neither of them has any reason to think they will be major players on the state political scene in the future.

Moore&8217;s chief claim to fame is the Ten Commandments issue, and to think that issue will still be burning as brightly in 2010…the next governor&8217;s race…is simply unrealistic. The election just ended was his best shot and he didn&8217;t come close.

Siegelman left little doubt in his post-election comments that he still thinks he has a political future but he is now 0-2 in his last two races for governor. That sort of record will get a football coach fired and it certainly doesn&8217;t bode well for his future in politics.

It attracted scant attention but one of the most significant developments in the Democratic Primary was that for the first time the black voters of this state paid scant attention to the endorsements made by the two major black party groups &8212; the Alabama Democratic Conference led by Joe Reed and the New South Coalition led by Sen. Hank Sanders.

In past elections these endorsements have generally produced 90 per cent or more of the black votes for the candidates who were fortunate enough to be blessed.

It didn&8217;t work out that way last Tuesday.

Democrat Lucy Baxley was endorsed by both of the groups, but thousands of black voters rejected that endorsement and voted for Siegelman.

Yes, Baxley got a majority of the black vote, but it was by no means overwhelming.

It could be that more and more black voters are now making up their own minds on how to vote and don&8217;t need or want any directions from Reed or Sanders or their organizations.

There was some pre-election talk that there might be a record turnout of voters…how wrong they were.

About 35 per cent of the voters turned out, no where near a record.

It is obvious that primary elections in Alabama no longer grab the attention of the voters. The vote in November is the &8220;real election&8221; and you can bet the farm that hundreds of thousands of more voters will go to the polls then than showed up last Tuesday.

A few other stickouts from last week&8217;s election which had few stickouts:

Who among you can explain how Larry Darby polled an incredible 162,000 votes…46 per cent…in his race for attorney general in the Democratic Primary against John Tyson Jr. of Mobile?

Darby is an atheist, he was outspoken in expressing his doubt of the Holocaust, and his racist comments offended many.

Yet he polled more votes than Roy Moore did in his losing race for governor.

And if any newspaper must be embarrassed by Darby&8217;s showing it has to be the Decatur Daily.

It called Darby a &8220;fruitcake&8221; in an editorial…Darby responded by carrying Morgan County…of which Decatur is the county seat.

Roy Moore not only took a pounding in his run for governor but four Supreme Court candidates aligned with him also went down to defeat.

There is no other way to put it…it was a bad day for Moore.

Justice Tom Parker was soundly defeated in his bid for Chief Justice by incumbent Drayton Nabers, and three other Moore supporters lost their bids for seats on the high court by overwhelming margins.

Democrat incumbent Secretary of State Nancy Worley? She has been in hot water…and under heavy attack from the press…almost from the day she took office in January, 2003.

Yet last week in winning re-nomination she polled more votes than any candidate on either of the ballots.

Go figure.

Back to that run-off on July 18.

Certainly the race for the Republican nomination for

lieutenant governor will create at least some interest. Luther Strange, whose name became a household word in a few weeks thanks to a remarkably effective TV advertising campaign,

goes into the run off with a commanding lead over George Wallace Jr.

You can be sure the financial backers of Strange…and he outspent Wallace by a wide margin in the primary…will still be doling out the big bucks for the run-off.

They have invested too much in him to quit now