Politics and Government
The current mayor of Huntsville is Tommy Battle, who was elected in 2008. The Deputy Mayor/City Administrator is Rex Reynolds, who also serves as the city's Public Safety Director. The city has a five-member/district City Council. The current members are:
- District 1 (Northwest): Richard Showers, Sr.
- District 2 (East): Mark Russell (President)
- District 3 (Southeast): John Olshefski
- District 4 (Southwest): Bill Kling
- District 5 (West): Will Culver
Council elections are "staggered", meaning that Districts 2, 3, and 4 had elections in August 2010, while Districts 1 and 5 will have elections simultaneously with mayoral elections in 2012.
The city has boards and commissions which control everything from schools and planning to museums and downtown development.
In July 2007 then Senator Barack Obama held the first fund raiser in Alabama for his Presidential campaign in Huntsville. Obama ended up winning the Alabama Democratic Primary and Madison County by large margins in 2008. However, in the general election, John McCain carried Madison County with 57% of the vote.
See also: List of mayors of Huntsville, Alabama
Read more about this topic: History Of Huntsville, Alabama
Famous quotes containing the words politics and/or government:
“The newspaper reader says: this party is destroying itself through such mistakes. My higher politics says: a party that makes such mistakes is finished—it has lost its instinctive sureness.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, Government should not support the people.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)