Sifting through the inbox: Election notes

I’m woefully behind on documenting who’s running for what, but I figured I’d take a minute to look through my inbox…

Donald Hudleston is running for State House District 5.  Hudleston was described to me as a “conservative Republican” (not necessarily a redundant phrase).  He is an engineer with Boeing and is currently on the Athens zoning board.  You can learn more about him on his Facebook page.  HD-5 is situated in north Limestone County and includes Athens.  Danny has it listed as a “Safe Dem” seat, but the Republican field looks strong and I see Limestone County trending towards the GOP.  John McCain received over twice as many votes as did Barack Obama last year in the county (23,598 to 9,536).

Madison City Councilman Bill Holtzclaw is formally announcing his bid for Senate District 2 today (Oct 13th).  From his press release:

The kickoff will be held from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Port of Madison Holiday Inn, 9035 Madison Boulevard, Madison, AL.  Mr. Holtzclaw will make his remarks at 6:10 p.m.  The media and public are invited to attend.

Bill Holtzclaw is running in the June 2010 Republican Primary for the seat currently held by Tom Butler. Senator Butler has been in the Alabama Legislature since 1982 and is expected to seek re-election to the Alabama Senate.

Bill Holtzclaw was elected to the Madison City Council in 2008. He and his wife Pam have two daughters, Sydney and Abby.

Following his prepared remarks, Mr. Holtzclaw will be available for questions and one-on-one interviews.

Tom Butler will be tough to beat, but 2010 will be the GOP’s best opportunity yet.  Butler strayed a bit from his alliance with the Republicans last session and may have given his opponent some votes to exploit.  Here is a link to Holtzclaw’s website.

Current SD-9 office holder Hinton Mitchem looks vulnerable, should he decide to seek another term.  He has three announced opponents: John Wilson, Don Spurlin, and Tony Cochran. Wilson unsuccessfully challenged Mike Ball in the HD-10 primary in 2006.  I’m not sure exactly how the demographics shake out, but both Spurlin and Cochran are from Marshall County and Wilson is from south Huntsville.  Will Spurlin and Cochran split a good chunk of the Marshall County vote, while Wilson edges them out on the strength of the southern Madison County vote?

Madison County will have a new circuit judge in 2010.  So far the only candidate I know of (or at least can recall at the moment) is Alan Mann.  Mann tells me he is an Auburn grad with 15 years of experience as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney in Madison County.  Here is a link to his website.