Better Know A District- Alabama 1st Congressional District

By: Artemesia Stanberry

June 25, 2013

Better Know a District-The Alabama First Congressional District (AL-01)

The race to replace Congressman Jo Bonner is of interest to me.  First of all, I am very frustrated that a Democrat is afraid to run for the seat. Perhaps afraid is too strong of a word, but they are buying into the notion that a Democrat cannot win that District.  The First Congressional District has been held by just 3 people since 1965, all Republicans. 

Rep. Bonner has been a member of Congress since 2002 and immediately prior to that, he served as former Congressman Sonny Callahan’s Chief of Staff.  Over the course of these past few decades, only a Republican has held the seat (Rep. Callahan was a Democrat who was encouraged by Republican Congressman Jack Edwards to switch to the Republican Party so as to run once Edwards retired (source, the Almanac of American Politics, 2002).  Thus Callahan held the seat from 1984-2002 and Bonner was elected in 2002.  The list of candidates for the seat is mostly Republicans, conservative Republicans, I may add.  There are only a few Democrats who are considering the seat, but conventional wisdom is that a Democrat cannot win that seat. The first Congressional District covers all or portions of Baldwin, Clarke, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, and Washington counties.  This ranges from the beach areas of the Gulf Coast to rural areas in the Northern part of the district.  Of the approximately 670,000 constituents, the number in Mobile and Baldwin counties are 595, 257, according the figures found via the U.S. Bureau of the Census.  Mobile County has approximately 412,992 people and Baldwin County 182, 265.

Now, in 2013, where one of the two largest cities in the district elected an African American mayor for the first time in and in a country that has elected its first African American President, Democrats don’t believe they can make history by taking back AL-01 from a Republican grip, in a Special Election!

When one looks at the turn-out for previous elections, one sees that there are still a lot of votes left on the table. A Democrat could expand the electorate by engaging citizens who haven’t seen a congressman in their area. A strong Democratic candidate can speak with voters as opposed to speaking at them, especially the most vulnerable, in terms of poverty due to lack of access to transportation, jobs and decent healthcare, to move them from poverty and working-class status to middle class status.  And I am not talking about a conservative Democrat; a moderate Democrat can be very competitive in AL-01.

Better Know a District

Mayoral candidate Sandy Stimpson has gotten a lot of free media, which is what a challenger needs to overcome the name-recognition advantage that an incumbent has.  In his latest free media coverage, Stimpson invited Business Insider reporter Julie Zeveloff who COMPILED a list of the most miserable cities that included Mobile, to come to Mobile to see for herself how great the city is, or to at least prove that it isn’t a miserable city, after all, Stimpson is running for mayor so he can’t fully brag about the wonderful city that is Mobile (http://blog.al.com/live/2013/06/tour_of_the_city_for_out_of_to.html) .  That would mean that the current Mayor, Sam Jones, was doing something right.  Anyway, Stimpson flies Zeveloff to Mobile on his own dime to experience the city, the original home of Mardi Gras, to taste the seafood, to see the historic sites, to meet the friendly people, in short, to promote Stimpson- my bad, in short, to promote the fact that Mobile is not a miserable city. This had absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming mayoral election, nothing at all; Zeveloff tells us: “Disclosure: A couple of months ago, I included Mobile, Alabama on a list of the "most miserable cities in America," based on Gallup data. Sandy Stimpson, a mayoral candidate in Mobile (#3 on the list) objected to my characterization, and offered to fly me down and show me how great the city really is. After a little prodding, I agreed to a visit. Stimpson is paying my travel expenses and arranging my travel in the city. I'm not planning to cover the mayoral race, but will be writing about my trip here.Read about what she discovered after her visit here. http://www.businessinsider.com/things-to-know-about-mobile-alabama-2013-6?op=1#ixzz2XGvbGmU4

Good Press, good free media, good way to win over voters and, possibly, donors.  Well, regardless of the motive of Mr. Stimpson, he has an idea that a Democrat can use to promote his/her campaign.  I realize that not everyone will have the money that Stimpson apparently has to fly a person to Mobile and to pay for lodging and food, but for the price of a tank of gas, a Democratic candidate hoping to be competitive can engage in a “Better Know a District” campaign. You know, the piece Stephen Colbert does on The Colbert Report where he highlights a congressional district (http://www.colbertnation.com/better-know-a-district).  So let’s take a city in Washington County, where Democratic candidate Judy Belk, who challenged Rep. Bonner in 2002, won.* This was one of only twice that Bonner had a Democratic challenger.  On the Chamber of Commerce’s website for Washington, County is “Where Alabama Began” (http://washingtoncountyal.com/).  That slogan in it of itself is fascinating. In 1990, 41 percent of its population had less than a high school diploma and by 2008 that number went down to 18%, isn’t that worth exploring.  And, according to the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, there are plenty of good places to eat. In keeping with Zeveloff’s theme of the different foods available in Mobile, perhaps a candidate can highlight the local food in a given county.

A Democrat can invite the press to the city in the district and highlight what makes the city not miserable and how to increase the “we’re totally happy here” index. He/she can hold a rally at the school, armory, general store, etc and get citizens to talk about what they like about their town and what they think would improve their town. Do this once a week with various cities and you’ve got yourself followers who are appreciative that you took the time to better know your district, the entire AL-01, and this can be rewarded by votes.  And those voters can encourage their friends and family in the two larger counties to vote.

Conclusion

Mayoral candidate Sandy Stimpson is using social media pretty well, he even kicked off the opening of his campaign headquarters with a rendition of the Harlem Shake, as I recall. Is it working? Time will tell.  But with a typical low-turn-out Special Election, a Democrat can use the media savvy of Stimpson and get media coverage by going to these places that many may only see on a weather map, expand the electorate, and be competitive during the Special Election. 

Peace,

Artemesia Stanberry

 

*2002 race when Jo Bonner first ran for the 1^st Congressional District of Alabama

County	Baldwin	Mobile	Escambia	Monroe	Washington	Clarke
Belk	11,071	44, 729	3375	3224	3328	1779
Bonner	32,662	59,800	5328	4710	2762	2844

(source, us census)

 

Artemesia Stanberry, along with former Congressman Glen Browder, is co-author of Stealth Reconstruction: An Untold Story of Racial Politics in Recent Southern History.  

http://freerodneystanberry.com/blog/2013/05/28/best-wishes-and-farewell-congressman-jo-bonner/

All views expressed in these blogs are mine, as an individual citizen. Sometimes one needs more space than just twitter and Facebook to express one’s views. This is the purpose of this blog, nothing more and nothing less.