Alabama House District 103, which stretches through parts of Mobile and runs south along Dauphin Island Parkway, drew an unusual rematch this fall as Republican Ralph Carmichael, fresh off an unsuccessful bid for a neighboring seat a year earlier, squared off against Democrat Barbara Drummond, a longtime aide to former Mobile Mayor Sam Jones. The seat opened up after incumbent Democrat Joseph Mitchell chose not to seek re-election.
Carmichael’s path to the race was itself unusual. After his elderly mother suffered a fall, he notified the state Republican Party he intended to withdraw from the ballot, but a clerical error kept his name in place. When his mother’s health improved, he decided to stay in the race after all. A former Ford Motor Co. and Quality Management Solutions employee who spent a dozen years as a minister and now runs a day care center, Carmichael described his background as an asset that lets him relate to a wide range of constituents.
His top priority, he said, is building a new Williamson High School and pairing it with a broader revitalization effort in the surrounding Maysville community, where he said enrollment at the current school has been declining for years even though it hasn’t been officially labeled a failing campus by the state. He envisions the rebuilt school including an on-campus football stadium, and he wants to pair that project with a public-private fund that would help residents winterize and modernize older homes, clear overgrown lots, and eventually convert acquired properties into homes sold to new owners. He was careful to frame the effort as requiring “sweat equity” from participants rather than a giveaway.
On the state’s prison system, Carmichael opposed a tax increase to fund reforms but said the state should immediately ensure only female correctional officers supervise the Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, a facility that a U.S. Department of Justice report earlier in the year had linked to allegations of sexual assault of inmates by staff. He said the longer-term answer is preventing crime through job creation, including helping former inmates get bonded and insured so employers will hire them after release.
Like most legislative candidates on the ballot that cycle, Carmichael ruled out raising taxes to close a looming shortfall in the state’s General Fund, saying he’d rather study the budget for savings and make Alabama more business-friendly so companies don’t leave the state. He also opposed a suggestion from Gov. Robert Bentley to tap an Education Trust Fund reserve account for business incentives, saying education dollars should stay focused on K-12 classrooms. On spending from Alabama’s share of RESTORE Act oil-spill settlement money, Carmichael floated using some of the funds for a wildlife preserve near the industrial corridor along Dauphin Island Parkway, arguing environmental restoration opportunities won’t come around twice.
Drummond, who did not attend the sit-down with reporters and editors due to a family matter, had previously said her priorities included education, workforce development, restoring voting rights to former offenders who have completed their sentences, and expanding drug courts and addiction treatment as alternatives to incarceration.