Loretta Spencer To Run Again?

From Sunday's Huntsville Times:

Several rumored mayoral hopefuls discounted their possible candidacy as just that - rumor. The list of potentials include city school board President Doug Martinson; retired Lt. Gen. Jim Link; city Councilwoman Sandra Moon; state Sen. Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, who ran for mayor in 2004; and state school board member Mary Jane Caylor, who also lost a bid for mayor in 2004. All told The Times they have no plans to run for mayor in 2008.

Griffith, who lost to Spencer in the 2004 mayoral runoff, said she proved a tough candidate to beat.

[snip]

But Spencer's tenure is not without its vulnerabilities. The bungled jail project - now $40 million over budget, two years behind schedule, and mired in lawsuits with contractors - is one setback an opponent could hit her with, Brown acknowledged.

"If you're going to run and (are) looking for something, that may be the best thing you have," he said.

Challengers could also hammer her over her appointment of former Fire Chief Dusty Underwood, who quit after a stormy relationship with the firefighters' union and allegations of sexual harassment of a City Council secretary. The secretary, Carol Jones, is suing the city for $1 million over the incident.

[snip]

Brown repeated the difficulty of toppling a mayor who has presided over a city during some of its most prosperous times.

"You'd be facing some powerful economic forces: the Chamber of Commerce, developers, bankers, the leadership at Redstone Arsenal, the Marshall Space Flight Center and (Cummings) Research Park," he said. "As best I can tell, Mayor Spencer has very good relationships with all of those. I just don't sense the mayor is in trouble with the deep pockets in town that would fund the other campaigns."

Mayor Spencer seems to be planning on business as usual with the support of the local business and development community. Huntsville has some extremely serious growth problems which are not being addressed including increased traffic on our roads as well as the strain on our school system, but, unfortunately given the influence of the business and development community, I see no change in our offerings.

We, as citizens, have little, if any, control of our community and this is also true of the county.