State Rep. Jeremy Oden of Cullman was poised to fill a vacancy on the Alabama Public Service Commission, according to sources familiar with Gov. Robert Bentley’s intentions. The opening was created by Commissioner Twinkle Cavanaugh’s elevation to PSC president following her Nov. 6 victory over incumbent Lucy Baxley, one of the last Democrats to hold statewide office.
A Cullman Republican moves up
Oden, 44, represented District 11 in the state House of Representatives, a seat covering Blount, Cullman and Morgan counties, and served on the Ways and Means, Education and County and Municipal Government committees. A native of Vinemont first elected in 1998, he held a degree from Asbury College and had completed graduate work at Asbury Theological Seminary. In private life he served as chief financial officer for Delta Discount Corporation and was active in his church and a range of civic and fraternal organizations.
His anticipated appointment reflected the broader Republican consolidation of statewide power that followed the 2012 elections, in which the party swept Alabama’s constitutional offices.
Reading the Mobile city vote
Even amid the Republican tide, a closer look at the returns inside the city of Mobile told a different story. A canvass of Mobile County precincts showed the county splitting roughly 45 percent for President Barack Obama and 55 percent for Mitt Romney. But when the count was narrowed to city precincts alone, excluding hard-to-place absentee and provisional ballots, Obama drew about 60 percent to Romney’s 40 percent.
Analysts noted only two precincts straddled the city line, Plateau and Mt. Ararat, and appeared to largely cancel each other out. The Plateau count included Prichard voters, inflating the Obama total, while Mt. Ararat included white voters in Theodore outside the city limits, inflating Romney’s. By any method, observers concluded, the city broke roughly 60-40 for the president.
A preview of the 2013 mayoral contest
The numbers carried immediate local significance. Advisers to Mobile Mayor Sam Jones pointed with satisfaction to the president’s strong showing on the incumbent’s home turf, hoping Jones could mirror or exceed that appeal when he faced business leader Sandy Stimpson and others in the August 2013 municipal elections.
Stimpson, for his part, cautioned against drawing straight lines from the national race to a city contest. “We are running a very different campaign in Mobile than Mitt Romney or the President,” he said, arguing that municipal issues hit closer to home than the questions dominating a presidential year. He predicted a tough race and pledged a hard-working campaign, adding that his team expected to have some fun along the way. Elsewhere in the region, the Baldwin County Republican Executive Committee prepared to elect officers for the coming year at a meeting in Robertsdale, with state chairman Bill Armistead as guest speaker.