Voters in Baldwin County’s District 2 are set to decide a runoff election for the county commission seat, pitting first-term incumbent Bob James against businessman Chris Elliott after neither candidate cleared a majority in the June Republican primary.
The primary field included a third contender, Cody Phillips, whose exit from the race left James and Elliott to battle for the remaining support. James edged ahead in the first round with roughly 9,250 votes to Elliott’s 9,100, while Phillips trailed with just over 3,000 votes. The tight margin between the top two finishers set up a runoff that both camps say is very much a toss-up.
Elliott has argued that many of the ballots cast for candidates other than the incumbent reflected dissatisfaction with the current commission, and his campaign is betting that a chunk of those voters will return to the polls to back him. James, for his part, credits Phillips’ strong showing partly to his military background and says he isn’t convinced the runoff numbers will break decisively against him.
James, a New Jersey transplant who has made Baldwin County home for many years, co-owns a local excavating company and is seeking a second term on a platform built around fiscal restraint, transparency and a willingness to make unpopular budget calls. He has sought to draw a contrast with Elliott by suggesting his opponent represents a return to looser spending habits, pointing to past allocations of more than a million dollars a year toward outside groups and contingency accounts.
Elliott, who leads a disaster restoration and mitigation firm and has been involved for years in county and state Republican Party organizations, including a stint chairing the county’s young Republicans group, rejects that characterization. He describes himself as equally committed to conservative budgeting, but says his approach to governing emphasizes working collaboratively with other elected officials and administrators to find resources rather than simply declaring requests unaffordable.
Both candidates describe an energized final stretch of campaigning. Elliott’s team says its volunteer base has grown substantially since the primary, and he points to broad support from various corners of the county as evidence of momentum heading into the runoff.
Whoever wins will take office in November. Baldwin County commissioners currently earn $32,000 annually, with the commission chairman earning $37,000, though a recently passed state law will tie future commissioner pay to Alabama’s median household income figures going forward.