No Democrat holds elected office in Baldwin County. The county is a conservative stronghold by most every measure. Even the politically wounded Roy Moore gobbled up more than 61 percent of the vote there during last year’s special Senate election.
Baldwin remains a daunting situation for Democrats, and that fact was made well-known Thursday by county GOP Chairman Michael Hoyt.
Speaking before a large crowd gathered inside the rustic Oak Hollow Farm south of Fairhope, Hoyt said Baldwin County may very well be the most conservative county in Alabama.
But Danielle Mashburn-Myrick appears to be undeterred in her quest for a Statehouse seat. Mashburn-Myrick, 34, an attorney in Fairhope, is campaigning door-to-door in hopes of becoming the first Democrat in memory to win an Alabama House seat that encompasses portions of Baldwin County. Her opponent is a longtime veteran of state and local politics, Republican state Rep. Joe Faust.
Recent internal polling and campaign acknowledgements suggest Mashburn-Myrick has somewhat of a chance of unseating the incumbent as Democrats in Alabama look to whittle away at the GOP’s 72-32 supermajority House status.
“Baldwin County has not elected a Democrat to office in a long time,” said Mashburn-Myrick, who is running for office for the first time. “Baldwin County hasn’t had that option in a long time. We haven’t seen competition for local and statewide seats.”
She added, “We got into this race to win and we feel we’ve got a path to victory.”
Growing district
Faust, 78, is running on a record of “experience” and hopes the voters’ familiarity with him will lead to another four-year term. Faust claims to be unworried about the contest; he said he’s confident that Republican voters will show up on Election Day in strong enough numbers to re-elect him.
But he also realizes that Fairhope – which encompasses his House District 94’s western side – has changed a lot since he last faced a Democratic opponent in 2006. The city has grown a whopping 55 percent since he first won the seat in 2002.
Faust said, “We know there are a lot of Democrats who have moved into Fairhope, and they are pretty strong.”
House District 94 also includes Point Clear, Magnolia Springs, Summerdale, the Marlow area and portions of Foley and Robertsdale. The district, as of the 2010 U.S. Census, contained nearly 60,000 residents and was nearly 90 percent white.
The district – similar to Baldwin County as a whole -- has grown considerably since the last Census count. The county is Alabama’s fastest-growing, adding more than 28,000 residents between 2010-2017.
But has that growth led to a political change? Recent elections suggest that Republicans are still comfortably in the driver’s seat: In the 2016 presidential contest, Donald Trump won Baldwin County with 62.1 percent of the vote. A year later, Moore garnered 61.7 percent in an election in which Democrat Doug Jones pulled an upset to win a U.S. Senate seat.
Moore also won in Fairhope’s precincts, although the margin of victory was slimmer than elsewhere in the county.
“The judge still won Fairhope and he won the county,” Faust points out. “So that kind of gives you an idea.”
GOP chairman Hoyt is also convinced that voters will back Faust. “He’s served in the district and for a long time, and they won’t abandon him. Even if it’s closer than you thought … a win is still a win,” Hoyt said.
Clean water
Mashburn-Myrick is hoping her campaign that is focused heavily on environmental and educational issues will give her the winning edge.
Her biggest push is for improving enforcement of water quality throughout her district, including a campaign to “reclaim” Mobile Bay which is often inundated with sewage spills and stormwater runoff during heavy rains.
Mashburn-Myrick said she would like the state to boost the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s annual budget so the agency can add more inspectors to “look at construction sites and at farming and those things that are impacting our waterways.”
“It’s a massive issue and it’s much bigger than just Baldwin County,” said Mashburn-Myrick. “It’s an important state issue. Part of ADEM’s job is enforce the water quality regulations we have on the books.”
She advocates for finding areas elsewhere in the budget to cut, in order to boost ADEM’s budget. She is also supportive of generating more revenue through a state gaming compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which would allow the tribe to have full-scale casinos rather than just electronic bingo.
“Is there something that is not needed at this time where we can reprioritize what we can do with the General Fund?” said Mashburn-Myrick. “We are seeing bipartisan support on this issue. Clean water is not a blue or a red issue.”
Indeed, Faust has come out as well on the campaign trail to talk about cleaning up Mobile Bay and other coastal waters where diseases, such as Vibrio – associated with the so-called “flesh-eating bacteria” – has led to multiple health department notices and warnings in recent years.
“ADEM has done a better job than what we think and we are working with them and we will continue to work with them and it’s a big issue that we have clean water,” said Faust. “It disturbs me highly when someone has a cut on their leg and ends up with Vibrio. We have a beautiful body of water down here but you cannot swim in it and … if people catch fish, and you clean them up, they will see it smells like it’s something coming out of a cesspool.”
Education funding
Mashburn-Myrick is also pushing for changes in the way that Alabama funds education so that fast-growing counties are not sending a disproportionate amount to other areas of the state.
Mashburn-Myrick said she first became politically active after Baldwin County voters, during a special election on March 31, 2015, overwhelmingly shot down ballot initiatives to raise extra money to fund school construction as well as defeated renewals of school tax millage.
“Our son, Telly, was born the day Baldwin County voters decided not to renew funding for our public schools,” said Mashburn-Myrick. “We had a 2-year-old at the time and a newborn and thought, ‘What is our community doing if we are not investing in this generation?’”
Mashburn-Myrick said if elected, she will help foster a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in other fast-growing counties such as Lee, Tuscaloosa and Madison, and push for change in the state’s “equity funding” formula.
She said she wants to see a change in how teacher unit allocations are funded.
“Every county gets a teacher allocation allotment based on the previous year’s students but Baldwin is adding 1,000 students each year,” said Mashburn-Myrick. “You can see in a county that is growing that using retrospective numbers will leave a county like this with too few units.”
Faust said he campaigned on the same issue years ago, but learned that altering the state’s funding formula to benefit the fastest-growing counties isn’t a political reality.
“We’ve tried and tried and tried it for years and we’ve tried to get that changed 16 years ago but it’s not something we can do,” said Faust. “Those kids in the poor counties are trying to get an education, too.”
Faust said he was pleased to be a part of the Baldwin County delegation that, in 2017, helped the school system secure stabilized funding through a sales tax swap plan.
“Of course, you have to be a big supporter of the schools,” said Faust. “There are 5,000 people a year coming into the county and we got to be able to help our school system.”
“If we had not done (the sales tax swap) … and I’m talking about the governments working together with the school board and the county commissioners working with the legislative bodies … we’d be in bad shape right now,” he said.
Transportation needs
Faust’s campaign focus has been on bolstering transportation spending, which he says is much needed in Baldwin County where roadways are often clogged especially during the summer tourism months when visitors flock to the beaches.
He said he’s open to the possibility of an increase in the state’s fuel tax. The gasoline tax, which has not been increased since 1992, is expected to be an issue before the Legislature when the next session starts in early 2019.
“It’s definitely something we have to talk about when we get back up to Montgomery,” said Faust, a member of the House transportation committee. “We have bridges that are out which school buses cannot travel on.”
Mashburn-Myrick says she’s open to considering an increase to the fuel tax, citing more fuel-efficient vehicles on the roadways causing a greater need for repairs.
“These delays on (Alabama Highway) 59 and (Interstate) 10 will discourage investment in our state,” said Mashburn-Myrick, who calls infrastructure improvements a form of economic development. “I want us to go out and market ourselves as the best place to do business.”
Campaign differences
The Mashburn-Myrick/Faust race, on the surface, has similar elements as Alabama’s race for governor: Youth versus experience, Democrat against Republican.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, the 45-year-old Democratic governor hopeful, was in Fairhope earlier this month to speak in support of Mashburn-Myrick during a rally outside an American Legion Post. Gov. Kay Ivey, who turned 74 on Monday, was in Fairhope on Thursday and delivered a campaign-rally speech at Oak Hollow Farm.
“We have some big challenges in front of Alabama and we need as many legislators who are wiling to help pass the lottery, expand Medicaid and address roads and bridges in Alabama,” said Maddox. “Danielle is certainly one of those candidates. Secondary to that, we love the energy in her campaign. It reflects the energy in ours.”
Mashburn-Myrick is probably Faust’s toughest opponent to date, raising close to $50,000 and entering the final stretch of the campaign with around $24,000 cash on hand. Faust’s last Democratic opponent, Gene Ponder, didn’t report any contributions during the 2006 election which Faust won with nearly 77 percent of the vote.
Faust is in a better position financially this month, heading into the final leg of the campaign with $51,300 cash on hand.
And Hoyt said Baldwin County’s GOP has homed in on District 94, and is encouraging voters to mark a straight-party vote in support of Republicans.
Meanwhile, he’s warning Baldwin County’s reliable conservative voters that a support of any Democrat politician is akin to supporting the national party.
“If you are running under that Democratic mantle, you are signing on to run on the values of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi,” said Hoyt.
Mashburn-Myrick said in her campaigning, she hasn’t noticed a stark partisan view from voters.
“Fewer people are asking about party than the about the critical needs in their lives,” she said. “While we have this media narrative about folks being hyperpartisan, when you go out and meet the people … I am refreshed that they want to talk about the issues.”