With the Oct. 16 special general election approaching, the two candidates for Baldwin County’s District 32 state Senate seat worked to settle a debate schedule — and the Democratic nominee attached an unusual set of conditions to his invitation.
A.J. Cooper, an Eastern Shore attorney and former mayor of Prichard, sought a series of four debates across the county. Trip Pittman, the Eastern Shore businessman who won a bruising Republican runoff earlier in the month, had not committed to that number but said details would be finalized within days.
‘Real talk to real people’
Cooper argued that a single forum would not do justice to the issues facing a county in the middle of a growth boom.
“Trip and I have an obligation to let the people of Baldwin County hear our views on a wide range of subjects but especially on issues like returning a fair share of our tax revenue to Baldwin County, tax appraisals, property and wind insurance, education and openness in government,” Cooper said. “If we can’t present our views in front of our neighbors and friends, how can we be expected to stand up and argue for Baldwin County in front of the State Senate?”
He wanted debates “down on the Shore, in Robertsdale, in Bay Minette and in Daphne so folks can get the information straight from our mouths to their ears.”
“Slick mailers … just isn’t the same as a live debate where the candidates have to deliver real talk to real people,” Cooper said — a pointed reference to the mail-heavy, increasingly negative Republican runoff that had just concluded.
The four-point accord
Cooper also proposed a written “play nice” agreement, sending Pittman four terms in an email he closed “with best regards.” The proposed accord read:
- Signs. Both campaigns would abide by county and municipal sign ordinances and remove all campaign signs within one week after the election. They would pay the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts 50 cents per sign collected and returned to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Montrose during the second week after the election.
- Tone. Both would base their campaigns on issues, solutions and proposals, and would “not resort to any depreciatory or pejorative campaign print or media advertisements” or personal attacks.
- Money. Neither would spend more than $100,000, a cap that would include spending by unrelated campaign committees and political action committees.
- Forums. Both would take part in as many citizen forums as possible.
“I look forward to you and I having the best campaign ever presented to the citizens of Baldwin County,” Cooper wrote. “No matter who wins, we will do ourselves proud by agreeing to the above proposals. I have no pride of authorship, so please feel free to change, add or delete the above suggestions and return them to me for review.”
Why the spending cap mattered
The third condition was the one with teeth. Both Republican runoff campaigns had blown well past $100,000 in a matter of weeks, much of it from Montgomery-based political action committees, and Pittman had made that PAC money a centerpiece of his own argument against his primary opponent. A cap that swept in outside committee spending would have bound not just the candidates but the interests behind them — a commitment no campaign could easily enforce and few would sign.
The seat had been vacated by Bradley Byrne, who left to become chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system. In a county that had become one of the most reliably Republican in the state, Cooper faced steep odds, and a series of live, unscripted debates offered one of the few ways for a Democrat to close the gap.
Whether Pittman would agree to four debates — or to any of Cooper’s conditions — remained unresolved as the campaigns turned toward the final three weeks.