Mobile leaders concerned as non-residential congressman representing the area is possible

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Enterprise native Barry Moore’s victory in the District 1 Congressional primary Tuesday night has local leaders Sandy Stimpson and Bradley Byrne curious about how the Port City’s congressional representation will be as someone who is not from the area could be in that seat.

Republican candidates Jerry Carl of Mobile and Barry Moore of Enterprise ran for the Congressional District 1 seat. Both were congressmen, but they had to rerun after the state redrew their congressional maps that split Mobile County between Districts 1 and 2.

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It was a close race, but Moore beat Carl by roughly 3,000 votes.

If elected, former Congressman and current CEO of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce Bradley Byrne said the Chamber will be educating Moore on the Port City’s needs.

“Well, we’re going to make sure he pays attention,” Byrne said. “That’s our job at the chamber. We will be talking to him about our needs here and asking him to help with the needs here.”

Aside from Moore’s victory, Byrne said the City of Mobile being split between two districts could complicate things because now, they would have to work with two different representatives for the same area.

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“We have to share congressional District One with Enterprise and Dothan,” Byrne added.
“Enterprise has a major Army helicopter base there, and so Congressman Moore will have to pay attention to that base, but we wanted to also pay attention to Airbus defense and space to Austal Shipyard, etc. So they’ll be dividing their time. The congressional district two also has Montgomery. That’s where Maxwell Air Force Base is, and so they’ll have to split their time, too.”

“Being from the Wiregrass, he may have somewhat of an understanding and heard about the things in Mobile, but I think and I’m hoping that he’ll come over here and really spend some time getting to know what opportunity is here,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said.

Both Stimpson and Byrne said it’s up to them and other city and county leaders to educate our future representatives.

“Let me just say that somebody representing us that’s from the Wiregrass; it’s just different,” Stimpson further added. “I mean, it’s never been that way. And so we have our work cut out for us, you know, to make sure that we are adequately represented. And I think that we’re up to that. And so we’ll be reaching out to make sure that we establish that friendship, relationship and partnership.”

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Moore still has to face off against Democratic candidate Tom Holmes, who is from Mobile, for District 1 in November.

As for District 2, Byrne said the Chamber will hold a debate with both the Democratic and Republican nominees of District 2 before the runoff on April 16. A date has not been set.

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