The most unpredictable race for Mayor of Mobile in around twenty years lived up to expectations last night. State House member Barbara Drummond and former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis will face each other in a runoff in late September. Unofficial results gave Drummond the edge as top vote getter by more than 1,600 votes. Cheriogotis finishing in second. But, between now and next month the former judge may have the edge in fundraising. The two survived a race that included former Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine and Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson. Both finished far behind the frontrunners.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson set Tuesday into motion back in September of last year. That’s when he announced he would retire after three terms in charge of government in Alabama’s “Port City.” That was the opening shot in what was called the most unpredictable Mayoral race in twenty years in the second largest city in the state. No one, it seems, thought they knew what the outcome would be. Election Day in Alabama was mostly for municipal races. No Presidential pick was on the ballot, nor was Alabama Governor, or any of the high profile offices that typically prompt a big turnout at the polls.
Along with the ballot for Mobile, voters in Central Alabama went to the polls for more than one hundred races in Central Alabama. There’s also a special election for Alabama’s State house district eleven between Birmingham and Huntsville. Republican Heath Allbright won that race over Democrat Alexandria Braswell. Allbright received almost ninety percent of the vote with his opponent earning just over eleven percent. The district covers parts of Cullman and Blount counties, representing around fifty thousand constituents. Randall Shedd resigned the House seat back in February, so he could become a staffer for Senate Pro Temp Garlan Gudger.
In Birmingham, incumbent Mayor Randall Woodfin was elected to a third term in the "Magic City," by winning more than fifty percent of the vote, over a crowded field including eight challengers.
