Rookie candidate Rick Collins opened a commanding fundraising lead over political veteran John R. Peavy in the summer of 2004 as the two prepared to meet in a special election for the Mobile City Council’s District 7 seat.
Through the first filing period, Collins reported $31,600 in cash contributions and another $1,944.90 in in-kind support. Peavy reported $2,800 — a gap of better than ten to one.
How the seat came open
The special election, set for Sept. 14, 2004, was called to complete the unexpired term of former City Councilman Stephen Nodine, who had won the Republican nomination for Mobile County Commission District 2 and had been appointed to that seat by Gov. Bob Riley. Nodine was set to face Democratic nominee Milton Morrow in the general election that November.
Under state law, a vacancy on the council required a special election when the next regular municipal election was more than a year away. Mobile’s next city elections were scheduled for August 2005.
The candidates
Rick Collins, 43, was a businessman working in commercial real estate. He was the son of the late Fred Collins, who served for many years as the city’s attorney — a name that carried real recognition in Mobile civic life.
John Peavy, 50, owned a construction company with his brother and had already served two terms as District 7’s council representative, from 1985 to 1993. He chose not to seek re-election in 1993. His father, the late Tom Peavy, was for many years the city’s engineer and public works director. Between the two families, the ballot in District 7 amounted to a reunion of Mobile municipal government’s institutional memory.
The veteran shrugs at the money gap
Peavy said he was neither surprised nor alarmed by his opponent’s early advantage.
“I anticipate the other side out-spending us 2-to-1,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me. Honestly, ours is a grass roots effort. Signs don’t vote. It’s a matter of reaching out to people individually and getting to as many personally as you possibly can.”
Council races, Peavy noted, typically generate contributions in the $100 to $250 range. “He’s getting $500 and $1,000 ones and it adds up pretty quick that way,” he said. “Maybe developers relate to him as a real estate guy. But we’ve had good luck with them also whenever I’ve made a call.”
His read on the district’s mood was generous toward his opponent. “My impression is that people feel fairly comfortable with two honest, decent, well-intentioned people running,” he said.
The issues, he said, were the ordinary ones: streets and parks, with some mention of friction among council members. “They talk about basic things like streets and parks, the things Mr. Nodine did a pretty good job with — I should say a real good job with,” Peavy said. “They want to see a continuation with that, which is on our agenda also.”
Inside the filings
Peavy reported $2,800 in itemized cash contributions and no expenditures as of the filing deadline. His donors included James L. and Ann Mason, Airland Corporation, B&B Trucking, Matt Metcalfe and Midway Materials at $500 each, and Charles W. and Cynthia Warner at $300.
Collins reported $31,600 in cash and $1,944.90 in in-kind support. He had spent only $1,392.83, leaving $30,207.17 on hand. RSVP PAC gave $2,500 and MOJO Partnership $2,000. Checks of $1,000 came from W.D. Bolling Jr., Logan Gewin, Pat McAleer and Madge Rody. Dozens of others arrived in the $250 to $600 range from real estate firms, title companies, law firms, insurance agencies and members of the Collins family. Contributions ranged all the way down to a $25 check — a reminder that even a heavily financed council campaign runs partly on small gifts from neighbors.
Collins did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
What was at stake
District 7 covers Mobile’s western reaches, the fastest-growing part of the city in that era and the area whose voters had grown most skeptical of the downtown establishment. Whoever won would serve out Nodine’s term and then, less than a year later, face the voters again in the regular 2005 municipal election — making the September special election as much an audition as a victory.