Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson rolled to an overwhelming victory in Tuesday’s mayoral race and will serve a third term as the city’s top elected official.
The unofficial count from the city showed Stimpson with 62% of the vote, which was an impressive 40 percentage point lead over Councilman Fred Richardson, who was in second-place with 22%. Running in a distant third-place was municipal judge Karlos Finley with 14.3%.
Stimpson, four years ago, defeated former Mayor Sam Jones by a 57%-42% margin.
“I don’t know of any greater honor, certainly in my lifetime, as being the mayor and representing you,” Stimpson said to a large crowd of revelers gathered inside a banquet hall in downtown Mobile. “This is about our home, our neighborhoods and our jobs and the future is very, very bright.”
Stimpson was joined on stage by his wife, Jean, and their family including grandchildren. He also recognized his campaign staff and his executive team at Government Plaza.
“Every single day, we wake up and we are trying to do a better job serving you so this can be the city you want it to be,” Stimpson said.
Stimpson first ran for office in 2013, and defeated Jones, who was the incumbent at the time, to become mayor by running on a campaign theme of “One Mobile.” He continued to speak about the need for unifying the city on Tuesday, but also said that after his win, he is the “mayor for everyone in the city of Mobile no matter where you live or what you look like or what your party affiliation may be.” The mayor’s race is non-partisan.
“It’s hard to explain the gratitude you have knowing the people are putting their trust in you,” Stimpson said.
Stimpson ran a positive campaign, but made few public campaign-related appearances and only attended one of the candidates’ forum before the election. He had a considerable advantage in fundraising over his opponents.
Stimpson said his third term might be the last one, noting that he will be 73 in 2025, and that he will be ready to “teach someone else up” to replace him. He added, “We have a lot of young guns out there who know how to do things.”
Stimpson said that for the next four years, he is focused on advancing several initiatives including the relocation of the city’s commercial aviation services to the Brookley Aeroplex near downtown Mobile, the development of a public park at Brookley, and an annexation plan to add additional residents into Mobile that will boost the city’s population above 200,000 residents. Mobile, according to the latest Census tally, lost over 4% of its population since 2010, and is at around 187,000 residents.
“We really have got to be a city lager than 200,000,” said Stimpson.
Richardson, who has been on the Mobile City Council since 1997, will be leaving city politics once his term is over on November 1.
He told supporters gathered at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion that he was “disappointed” with the outcome, but did not have any hard feelings about any of the candidates. Richardson and Stimpson, for years, have repeatedly butted heads over a variety of issues including their interpretation of the 1985 Zoghby Act, which created Mobile’s current form of municipal government.
But Richardson said he was disappointed about turnout, which appeared to be lower than the 36.6% in 2017, which was a falloff of 10 percentage points from the 2013 contest.
According to the city’s unofficial numbers, turnout was abut 24%.
“The vast majority of eligible voters stayed home,” Richardson said. “There were more than enough voters out there for Fred Richardson to win. But the voters didn’t show up. My message for those voters is I don’t know what you’re hoping for in the future. No vote, no hope.”
Stimpson wasn’t the only Mobile incumbent to win.
Unofficial results show:
*Incumbent District 3 Councilman C.J. Small overwhelmingly defeated Xaviaire Carnike, winning close to 90% of the overall vote.
*Incumbent District 5 Councilman Joel Daves won 75% of the overall vote to be re-elected to another four-year term.
*Incumbent Councilwoman Gina Gregory won 80% of the overall vote and was re-elected.
*In the District 4 race to replace Councilman John Williams, Ben Reynolds held a comfortable lead over Fred Rettig, 65% to 35%.
Runoff elections are likely happening in the following council districts:
*In District 1, the race to replace Richardson on the council appears to be coming down to Cory Penn and Herman Thomas. Penn was leading with 34% of the vote to Thomas, who had 27%, in a seven-person race. In third place was Chamyne Fortune Thompson, who was at 26%, or about 28 votes away from Thomas.
*In District 2, incumbent Councilman Levon Manzie was at 47% and had a lead over former Councilman William Carroll, who was at 23%, in a six-person contest.
*In District 6, the race to replace longtime Councilwoman Bess Rich appears to be coming down to Scott Jones – whom Rich endorsed – and John Woods, executive director of The Grounds.
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