Huntsville police officer Bobby Abernathy has taken on the formidable challenge of unseating incumbent Madison County District 5 County Commissioner Mo Brooks in the Republican primary.  With no Democrat opposition in the general election, the primary  winner will take the seat.  Abernathy was kind enough to take a break from the campaign trail to be interviewed.

I scheduled a phone interview with Abernathy for Tuesday night.  On my way home from work I saw him standing on the corner of Whitesburg and Airport during rush hour politicking with passing motorists.  By the time I called him at 8:15 he was just wrapping up a house-to-house campaign stroll.  Such is the nature of his upstart campaign.

Abernathy is a Huntsville native and has lived in the area his entire life.  His family moved to Limestone County while he was young and he graduated from East Limestone High School before making his way back to Huntsville to join on with the HPD.  He’s been with the department ever since, serving most recently as a DARE officer, but has promised to retire if elected to serve the district.  He says that the district deserves to have a full time commissioner.

The biggest problem he would work to remedy would be a lack of cooperation between the city and county.  He maintains that his years on the force and good relationships with numerous city employees will help forge a mutually beneficial consensus on many issues.  He also thinks that the county needs a full time grant coordinator like the city has in order to better identify and secure available funding.  The grants could include homeland security funds and gang prevention programs like one that is in place in Huntsville schools.

Abernathy stated directly that he does not support the proposed half cent county wide sales tax that will be on the ballot on June 3rd.  He also thinks that the county can do more to deal with illegal immigration.  He supports the existing requirement that all contractors certify that they do not hire illegal aliens, but he also thinks that deputies should be ICE certified so that they can enforce federal laws rather than simply allowing known or suspected illegals be released.

On a lighter note, Abernathy claims to be the fastest candidate for the county commission.  He enjoys drag racing and says that his car will hit the 1/8th mile trap at 170 mph.  He is also a musician and plays multiple instruments, mainly bass these days, although in a self deprecating style he claims that he plays too many to play any of them well.  He prefers country, including Merle Haggard and George Jones, and classic rock.  His favorite song is George Jones’ He Stopped Loving Her Today.

When I asked why he decided to enter the race he said that he did it because he cares.  He says that he has served the public his entire career and wants to continue to do so.

Here is an electronic copy of his campaign flyer.  Abernathy can be contacted at electbobbyabernathy@mail.com.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under Madison County, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.