At the time of this writing, I have not yet attended the gubernatorial debate being hosted here at the Capstone and broadcast on C-SPAN. But one thing is sure: Ron Sparks will plug his plan for a state lottery, multiple times.

Ron Sparks might be the most single-issue oriented candidate on the ballot in the country this year. His campaign has even produced yard signs that have “Lottery” emblazoned on them.

The idea of a lottery has become for Democrats on the state level what health care reform is for Democrats at the national level: a weird obsession that they just can’t get past, no matter how many times it is rejected by the public.

The last Democratic governor, Don Siegleman, was elected based on his pledge to bring a lottery to Alabama. In the same election, Alabama voters sent Republican Steve Windom into the Lt. Governor’s office. Windom campaigned promising to do everything in his power to fight the lottery. One year later, Alabama voters rejected the lottery in a statewide referendum.

But this column is not about the wisdom of the Alabama electorate. It is about the wisdom of Ron Sparks and his unimpressive campaign for governor.

Sparks promotes the lottery as a magical cure-all for the state’s ails; as if selling worthless tickets to impoverished families in the Black Belt will somehow give the state money to turn Black Belt schools into mini-Andovers.

In fact, a lottery would do almost nothing to help this state. Residents of border towns along the Tennessee, Georgia and Florida lines would continue to do what they do now — buy lottery tickets across the line.

Those states have more people and more established lotteries. They are all members of the Multi-State Lottery Association and Georgia and Tennessee also sell Mega-Millions tickets, which are sold in 42 states. Hence, their jackpots will always be higher and they will always attract more customers.

Alabama could conceivably join one of those programs as well; even then, we would only be sucking money from our own families, gambling to win a jackpot likely to be awarded in another state.

Sparks, though, hasn’t gotten that far in his planning. His campaign calls only for an education lottery that will make children’s dreams come true, whether they “want to be a PhD or a pipefitter.”

Isn’t that inspiring.

Instead of talking about ways to redistribute wealth from those who play the lottery (predominantly poor families) to those who want to go to college (predominantly middle class and well off families) through government run gambling, Sparks would better serve Alabama by offering ideas to grow our economy and create new wealth.

But Sparks doesn’t have any ideas for that. He is one of the only candidates who hardly mentions economic development; he doesn’t even devote a section to it on his website.

Under Ron Sparks, the state would pay for Alabama students to go to college only to graduate unable to find jobs.

Actually, he wouldn’t even do that. Sparks has called for giving lottery scholarships to all Alabama students who graduate with a 3.0. That is basically every Alabama student who graduates.

Even Florida has an objective ACT requirement of 28 for its Bright Futures Program, because a good GPA at one high school does not always equate a good GPA at another. Besides, what teacher is going to be the one teacher that gives a kid a D and wrecks his or her GPA, knowing it will cost that child a full college scholarship?

There is simply no way Ron Spark’s plan will fund everything it promises to do.

If we are going to have gambling in Alabama, we should at least have casinos, which create jobs and might attract tourists from other states. Besides, just look at what casinos have done for Mississippi’s public school system!

Okay, maybe that’s not a good example. But casinos would at least offer a potential for economic development in some communities, unlike a lottery, which would just be one more vice for sale at the local gas station.

As for education, beyond paying for college, Sparks has no ideas for school reform, such as curriculum improvements that would prepare students for their college education. That would only make the state teacher’s union angry, and those are the guys that helped him beat Artur Davis in the Democratic primary.

Alabama voters have already rejected the lottery once. How many times are we going to have to vote on this thing before it goes away? Hopefully not again, as long as Alabama voters do themselves a favor and reject Ron Sparks.

Tray Smith is the opinions editor of The Crimson White. His column runs weekly on Fridays.