Sam Jones’ successful campaign for mayor of Mobile spent almost $936,000 in 2005, according to the annual year-end financial report filed by his campaign in early 2006, a figure that underscored how expensive the city’s top job had become.
Jones, then a 58-year-old county commissioner, opened 2005 with his campaign account empty. Over the course of the year he raised $832,600.98 in cash contributions, $891.43 in in-kind contributions and $120,098.09 in loans. The campaign closed the year with an ending balance of $16,761.
The Race He Won
Jones defeated three opponents to claim the mayorship: former state senator and civic leader Ann Bedsole, former City Councilwoman Bess Rich, and then-City Councilman John Peavy. The office had been relinquished after 16 years by four-term Mayor Mike Dow.
The salary for the job at the time was $89,000 a year, with a four-year term, meaning the campaign spent roughly ten times the annual pay of the office it was seeking. That arithmetic is a familiar feature of American municipal politics, and it explains why serious mayoral candidates in a city the size of Mobile must assemble a financial coalition rather than simply appeal to voters.
Where the Money Came From
The report showed a broad base drawing on organized labor, the trial bar, the business community, engineering and architecture firms, party committees and political action committees.
- Party and PAC money. The State Democratic Executive Committee contributed in three separate $10,000 increments. ACE PAC gave $45,000 across filings, along with a separate $10,000 entry. Other committee support included Tennessee Valley Citizens for Economic Development at $29,500, Capital PAC at $7,500, Alabama Builders PAC at $7,500, Leader PAC at $6,500, Pride PAC at $5,000, Eagle PAC at $5,000, Mobile Auto-PAC at $5,000, Alabama Realtors PAC at $5,000, BIZPAC at $4,000 and WestPAC at $2,500.
- Labor. Contributions came from the United Steelworkers of America, the United Auto Workers Alabama Political Action Account, the AFL-CIO, Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 119, the South Central Carpenters Regional Council, the ILA Benevolent Fund and the Mobile-Pensacola Building and Construction Trades Council.
- Business and professional firms. Volkert & Associates, Goodwyn Mills and Cawood, Johnston Barton Proctor & Powell, Cunningham Bounds, Adams and Reese, Regions Financial’s government affairs committee, Norfolk Southern, ConocoPhillips, Buffalo Rock, Budweiser-Busch Distributing and Atlantic Marine were among the corporate and firm contributors.
- Large individual gifts. Matthew Metcalfe gave $15,000. Mr. and Mrs. J. William Lewis gave $10,000. C.W. Wilcox, Sanford P. Brass, John Miller Jr. and Alexis Herman each appeared at $5,000, with George E. Williams, William M. Lyon and B. White-Spunner at $4,000.
- Fellow Democrats. The campaigns of state Sens. Vivian Figures, Roger Bedford and Gary Tanner all contributed, as did U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop’s campaign.
The Loans
The campaign also borrowed. A $99,500 loan from Compass Bank was guaranteed by Riley Boykin Smith, Larry Wettermark and Clarence Ball Jr. Ball extended an additional $12,000 loan individually. Wettermark, the Mobile County attorney, would move to City Hall as city attorney in the new Jones administration.
Where the Money Went
The expenditure side shows a modern, consultant-driven operation. The single largest reported outlays were $96,619 to Message Audience & Presentation and $48,000 to Magic Box Editorial, followed by $40,000 to LUC Media, $37,453 to Direct Communications, $36,425 to Southeast Research and $24,862 to The Parker Group. Media buying, polling and production, in other words, consumed the bulk of the budget.
Smaller items filled in the picture of a citywide campaign: $9,863.40 to the daily newspaper, $5,365 to Cumulus Broadcasting, $6,179.52 to Image PRM, $3,101 to B&I Trophies, $3,043.95 to a Mobile caterer, and several thousand dollars across two entries at a local lounge.
Why the Report Mattered
Jones’ election made him the first Black mayor of Mobile, and the finance report offers a granular look at the coalition that put him there: Democratic Party institutions and organized labor, joined by a substantial share of the city’s business, legal and engineering establishment. Campaign finance disclosures are the least glamorous documents in politics and often the most revealing. Read nearly two decades on, this one is a map of who held influence in Mobile at the moment the city changed hands.