Wilson Upsets Kant For Fairhope Mayor

Fairhope, Alabama

CITY'S FIRST FEMALE MAYOR

Mayor-elect Karin Wilson

MUELLER DEFEATED; BREWER IN RUNOFF FOR COUNCIL

Local business owner Karin Wilson has defeated four term incumbent mayor Tim Kant by a 53-47% margin (see her comments below), place two council incumbent Rich Mueller was defeated by Jay Robinson,  and place three council member Diana Brewer will most likely have to face challenger Jimmy Conyers in a runoff election because neither gained a 50% majority (after absentee/provisional ballots are counted).

Place one incumbent Jack Burrell was re-elected as was place five incumbent Kevin Boone.

The open place four seat being vacated by Mike Ford went to Robert Brown over James Nix Jr.

The new government will take office in early November.

(There were 867 more votes cast in the mayor's race than in 2012; Wilson won by 451)



Wilson 3407  53%
Kant    2974   47%

Jay Robinson

Burrell 5887
Smith  1287

Mueller   1979
Robinson 4287

Brewer    2918    46%
Conyers  2774    44%
Lawrence 660    10%

Robert Brown

Brown  4382  67%
Nix      2119   33%

Boone  3504  56%
Gover  2746   44%







Wilson's remarks posted to Facebook:

"Tonight history was made in Fairhope.

Here's our new mayor's message to you:

Nothing makes me happier than to report that my acceptance speech and concession speech are the same speech. I won. You won.

When I first announced my campaign, people were fearful. Fearful to speak out. Fearful their friends or family or employer would be upset. I thought, “Is this where I live? Is this really Fairhope?” As we started talking about my platform, going door to door, those doors started opening, and people would whisper, “I support what you are doing.”

More and more people starting coming out into the open. As it turned out, the community as a whole had a lot on their mind. We said “it’s ok”. We weren’t afraid. We began putting up more and more signs. More people joined this conversation and the chorus became louder. People began picking up their own signs. They began asking for me to come to talk to them and their friends in their homes. This long overdue community conversation became more and more open, honest, and truthful.

YOU started a conversation that has only just begun. This conversation will keep pushing our lawmakers to actually involve the community in their very important decisions – not just give the optics of involvement. This conversation will require leaders to communicate with the public on different terms, improving transparency and accountability. This conversation will necessitate a new approach to planning – one that is proactive instead of reactive and one that doesn’t saturate our community with over-development. This conversation will result in real changes that will make sense and benefit this community. This conversation will keep going.

Leadership will no longer be able to shrug their shoulders and say they aren’t sure how something impactful to the community happened. Leadership will no longer be able to say we can’t. They will be looked at by YOU to say “here are some ways we can.”

And let me make this very clear. Being Mayor is a position of leadership. The REAL people who do this amazing work, lead these city departments, run community organizations and extend nothing short of heroic efforts in Fairhope -- THEY will keep doing their work, and our town will continue to be an incredible place to live because of them.

Thank you to the many volunteers who made my campaign a success. Thank you to each person who took the time out of their day to be part of a fun, energized election in downtown Fairhope today. Thank you also to our Secretary of State, who responded to our requests and sent his General Counsel to personally provide election oversight support at the Civic Center today.

I am so proud to have been part of this experience. I WILL continue the conversation and the hard work we have just started to do. We will do this.

Here’s to a new chapter in Fairhope!"