Fairhope businessman Rick Gambino, whose family restaurant was for years one of the best-known addresses on the Eastern Shore, announced his candidacy for mayor of Fairhope on May 27, 2008, entering a municipal race that was already drawing attention across Baldwin County.
His announcement leaned on a simple proposition: that a man who spent decades serving customers understands what it means to serve citizens.
“Fairhope has been good to me and my family for over 30 years,” Gambino said. “This is a chance for me to give something back to the city and citizens I love.”
A campaign built on keeping things as they are
The heart of the announcement was preservation. Gambino framed his candidacy around the anxiety, familiar to anyone who has watched a beloved small town grow quickly, that Fairhope’s particular character could be developed away.
“I am concerned about the future and want to make a difference, while keeping the charm and quaintness of Fairhope,” he said. “There is no other town like it. Fairhope is unique and I want to keep it that way.”
That instinct had real force in 2008. Baldwin County had spent the previous decade as one of the fastest-growing counties in Alabama, and Fairhope, with its bluff over Mobile Bay, its flower baskets and its independent shops, sat at the center of the argument about what growth was doing to the place.
The restaurant years
Gambino had been in business in Fairhope for more than 35 years. He and his family ran Gambino’s, a popular restaurant that at one time counted among the city’s largest employers. By 2008 he had moved into rental properties in Fairhope.
He drew his governing philosophy directly from the dining room.
“We need a common sense, business-like approach to what we do for Fairhope citizens and businesses,” he said. “As restaurant owners, Gari and I quickly learned you must serve your customers. As mayor, I will work for and serve Fairhope citizens and the small unique businesses in Fairhope.”
Family, and a house with some history
Gambino had been married 45 years to the former Gari Finley. The couple had five grown sons, Richie, Brett, Adam, Joshua and Lucas, and 19 grandchildren. A 33-year resident of the city, Gambino lived with his wife in a home overlooking Mobile Bay that once belonged to Doctor Greeno, Fairhope’s first mayor, a detail that would not have been lost on an electorate proud of the town’s single-tax colony origins.
The campaign committee, and its message
Gambino’s principal campaign committee was chaired by Dick Noel, a local roofer, and included Kris Wise, Mark Cramton, John Chadwick and Gari Gambino, who served as treasurer.
Noel put the campaign’s case in blunter terms than the candidate did. Recent change in Fairhope, he said, “worries me.”
“Some changes make me uncomfortable,” Noel said. “We need stop the bickering and keep Fairhope – Fairhope. City government needs to be fiscally responsible with its debt and finances. Rick will bring an open, honest and fiscally conservative approach to the office in dealing with Fairhope’s citizens and businesses and the challenges ahead.”
The reference to bickering was pointed. Fairhope’s city politics in this period were unusually contentious for a town of its size, with recurring public fights over spending, utilities and the pace of development.
The field and the date
Gambino was not alone in seeing an opportunity. Jack Burrell, a Fairhope businessman, had launched his own campaign for mayor with a kickoff party at the Yardarm Restaurant at the Fairhope Pier the previous month. The municipal elections were set for Aug. 26, 2008, the fourth Tuesday in August, as Alabama law then prescribed for city elections statewide.
What followed is now part of Eastern Shore political history. The 2008 municipal cycle proved to be the beginning of a long and combative era in Fairhope politics, and several of the names on that year’s ballots would remain fixtures of city government for years to come.
Gambino’s pitch, though, was less about the future than about a promise to hold on to something. Keep Fairhope, Fairhope. It is a slogan that Fairhope candidates have been running on, in one form or another, ever since.