Sunday marks 234 days until Alabama Republican voters go to the polls to cast a ballot for their preference on who will likely face incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) in an election for the U.S. Senate seat up in 2020.
As candidates campaign for that vote, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle told WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show” that he urged the candidates to take into account his city’s role as a so-called federal town with affordability that cannot be matched by many cities around the country.
That, according to Battle, gives taxpayers “a bigger bang” for the buck, which he said those U.S. Senate candidates should recognize.
“They need to be looking at what we do here,” Battle said. “A lot of people talk about we’re a federal town because we have Redstone Arsenal and we have 74 different agencies working out there. It contributes a lot to our economy, and it is, it does make us somewhat a federal town. But we want to make sure that each one of these people, whether it’s Bradley Byrne, or Tommy Tuberville, or Doug Jones, or any of them as we talk to them – we want to make sure that they understand that the reason that it’s such a great deal for the government to be able to do business in Huntsville is because we’re affordable. U.S. News & World Report just named us the number one most-affordable city in the nation. When you come here, and you decide we’re going to put Army material command here. We’re going to put a missile defense agency here. We’re going to put Marshall Space Flight Center here with NASA. Or we’re going to put ABTF here. When you put all those together, when you put all of those factors together, you’re able to bring people in there. A dollar goes a lot further. You get it for a better price than you would on the East Coast, West Coast. So, we’re able to save the taxpayers dollars. The taxpayer gets a bigger bang for his taxpayer buck. And that’s what it should be about. I want each of them to understand the capacity of what we do here and what all happens.
The Huntsville mayor said he had met with some of the candidates and anticipated meeting with others as we get deeper into the campaign cycle.
“I’ve had conversations with all of them,” he added. “Bradley Byrne had conversations with him. Tommy Tuberville, I’ve seen him here quite a bit. He’s been in the North Alabama area. John Merrill has already emailed, and he’s planning on making some trips up here. We want all the candidates to understand what we’re about, what kind of community we are, and understand that the North Alabama area is an area that we would love them to get to know.”
In 2018, Battle earned Tuberville’s endorsement in his failed bid for Alabama’s GOP gubernatorial nomination.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
