Michelle Mayberry, the sales, use and business tax manager for the Alabama Department of Revenue in Mobile, announced in March 2008 that she would run for Mobile County license commissioner as a Republican.
It was her first campaign for public office. The seat was held by Carol Norris, a Democrat who had announced she would not seek re-election after two decades in county office. When Mayberry announced, no other candidate from either party had formally entered.
The pitch: ‘citizen service’
Mayberry, 46, built her campaign around what she called citizen service — the idea that a license office works better when the public knows what to expect before walking through the door.
“What I have seen with the state over these 24 years is if you are focused on getting people the information that they need, then you are four steps ahead,” she said. “People want that information ahead of time. They don’t want to be surprised when they get to the window.”
She spoke warmly of the incumbent. “I think the world of Carol Norris. We’ve worked very well together. I would like to build on what she has there now. I would strive to reach out to the community with the information that they need.”
The candidate
Mayberry was the daughter of the late Mobile County Circuit Judge Bill McDermott — a name that carried weight in Mobile legal and political circles. A graduate of McGill-Toolen High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce and business administration from the University of Alabama, majoring in accounting, and a master’s in public administration from the University of South Alabama. She held a CPA certificate and a certified public manager credential.
She was married to an architect, and the couple had three children. Her sister served as campaign manager.
An employee of the license commissioner’s office was reportedly weighing a Democratic bid for the same job.
What the license commissioner does
The license commissioner’s office is, for most residents, the county government they actually interact with. It issues motor vehicle tags and titles, collects ad valorem taxes on vehicles, handles boat and manufactured home registrations, and issues business licenses. In a county of some 400,000 people, that means hundreds of thousands of transactions a year, most of them conducted in a line.
Because the office is a fee-collecting operation with a large staff and a countywide constituency, it has long been one of the more politically valuable posts in Mobile County — and one of the more thankless, since satisfaction is measured almost entirely in wait times.
The 2008 context
The race unfolded as Mobile County’s courthouse offices were shifting decisively toward the Republican Party. Norris’s retirement, alongside a revenue commissioner’s party switch and a contested treasurer’s race, made 2008 a hinge year for the county’s constitutional offices.
The license commissioner’s contest ultimately drew a substantial field. It was won by Kim Hastie, a Republican and longtime county commission staffer, who took office in 2009 and merged the license and revenue commissioner functions in the years that followed. Mayberry’s campaign, launched first and framed around customer service, helped set the terms on which the race was argued.