Huntsville-area voters to choose state representative in rare competitive race

Next Tuesday will feature something rare in Alabama: a competitive legislative election.

The contest will take place in House District 10, covering south Huntsville, southern Madison County and parts of Madison. Madison City Councilman Teddy Powell, the Republican nominee, will face Democratic nominee Marilyn Lands, who ran in 2022.

The seat opened after former Rep. David Cole, R-Madison, resigned in August after pleading guilty to voter fraud charges. In 2022, Cole got 52% of the vote to Lands’ 45%. Libertarian nominee Elijah Boyd got 3%.

Powell, formerly a budget analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense, was the only Republican candidate to qualify to run in the special election. Lands, a licensed professional counselor, was the only Democratic candidate to qualify.

Powell is focused on infrastructure and making sure that north Alabama continues to develop economically, while Lands is focused on protecting and expanding reproductive rights across the state.

Both candidates have areas of agreement. In separate interviews, Lands and Powell each said they saw a need to expand child care. Powell and Lands both support a vote to legalize gambling in the state, saying that gaming is already occurring and the state needs to regulate it.

Libertarian Boyd said he will not be on the ballot this year.

“The state party wasn’t informed of major party status until after the deadline closed to certify primary candidates,” he said in a statement. The deadline was Oct. 10, 2023.

The election is scheduled for Tuesday, March 26.

Marilyn Lands

Age: 65

Residence: Huntsville

Occupation: Licensed professional counselor

Education: B.S., Business Administration, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 1981; M.S., Business Administration and Management, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 1987; M.S., Counseling Psychology, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, 1995.

Party: Democratic

Previous political experience/campaign: Democratic candidate, Alabama House of Representatives, 2022.

Fundraising: Through Sunday, Lands had raised $184,703 and spent $156,856. She had $24,247 on hand as of Friday.

Lands, like other Democratic candidates this election cycle, is focused on access to  reproductive rights. Lands said the issue was a priority in 2022, but said in an interview that “they’ve become the heart of the campaign” this year.

“The issues changed a bit when Roe vs. Wade got overturned and then we passed our no exceptions abortion ban,” she said. “So then reproductive health care and women’s freedoms became a higher priority in the campaign.”

Lands said she wants to prioritize overturning Alabama’s near-total abortion ban. That is unlikely with a Republican supermajority in the House. Lands said that it would have to be done in pieces, starting with providing exceptions to the ban, such as for rape and incest.

Lands said she had to have an abortion 20 years ago because of a nonviable pregnancy. She said the contrast between the care available in Alabama 20 years and today is “stark.”

“There are women who truly are becoming critically ill because they won’t do the procedure. They are becoming septic, their organs are shutting down. This is not something anyone should be in favor of. This is not pro-life,” she said.

She said that aside from funding child care, the state needs to look at creative approaches to providing care, including incentivizing business to provide company-run daycare programs.

Public education is also a priority for Lands. She said that the CHOOSE Act recently enacted into law “does not meet the criteria to preserve the existing funding we have for public education,” she said.

“I know there are problems that need fixing, but I don’t believe that this legislation that was passed earlier this month does that and I’m very, very concerned that it’s going to erode the funding we currently have for our public schools,” Lands said.

Teddy Powell

Age: 50

Residence: Madison

Occupation: Former budget analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense

Education: Associate of Applied Science, Business and General Studies, Bevill State Community College, 1996; B.S., Finance and Business Administration, Birmingham-Southern College, 1998; Master’s of Business Administration, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 2010.

Party: Republican

Previous political experience/campaign: Madison City Councilman, District 3, 2016-present.

Fundraising: Through March 4, Powell had raised $125,395 and spent $41,851. Powell had $82,983 on hand as of March 8.

Powell said his focus is on economic development and infrastructure and not “the political angst between the two parties.”

He said that aside from lowering the cost of goods and services, such as cutting tax on groceries, are things they can agree on, as well as bringing dollars into the state.

“Anytime we can do things that are business friendly and help bring in dollars to our state that we didn’t have — I think those are things that I’d like to focus on, and I think it’s something that we can all agree on,” Powell said.

With north Alabama being one of the fastest growing areas in the state, Powell said they need to be able to fund services for the growing population.

“We’re bringing in more tax dollars, therefore, some of those dollars should come back and help us to do some of the infrastructure things that we need to do, so we can continue to grow the state coffers to be able to fund those things,” Powell said.

He said that his district is split on providing an Education Savings Account (ESA). He said that there are areas of the district he feels the CHOOSE Act will benefit residents, while in other parts, it wasn’t as well received because residents say they already have good schools. But he said ESAs will benefit students who don’t have access to schools like in Madison.

He said he is concerned about high achieving students leaving priority public schools, formerly known as failing schools, and that it doesn’t benefit the school itself.

“If [a student] were the brightest kid in that school, and you take that child out of that school, well, that doesn’t mean that test grades are going to go up. You haven’t helped that school. So, I think there’s a very delicate balance there,” he said.