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Bedsole wants to be Mobile’s new mayor
Bedsole served in the Alabama House of Represent-atives and the Alabama Senate as a Republican before running unsuccessfully for governor in 1994. She lived in Jackson from the time she was 5-years-old until she became an adult, married Palmer Bedsole, also with Clarke County ties, and moved to Mobile. Bedsole, 75, credits her father, the late M. White Smith for her interest in politics as a youngster. White Smith owned a sawmill and timberland in the county and was an early Alabama Republican. "My father was very disturbed about the negative image George Wallace had put on politics in Alabama," Bedsole recalled recently. "He was also disheartened about the lack of progress in the south. That was his motivation for his involvement in helping start the Republican Party in Alabama." The mayoral race is non-partisan but Bedsole has a lot of Republican backers. She has long been friends with former Congressman Sonny Callahan and he serves as her campaign chairman. Four candidates are seeking to succeed longtime Mayor Mike Dow who is retiring. The most recent Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll shows Bedsole garnering 12 percent of the vote, nearly the same as city councilman John Peavy’s 13 percent and ahead of former councilwoman Bess Rich’s 9 percent. Mobile County Commissioner Sam Jones leads the three with 33 percent of the vote. Still, a runoff seems likely and Bedsole hopes she can make the number two spot at least for the chance to go head-to-head with Jones. Bedsole is president and CEO of White Smith Land Company, headquartered in Jackson, and owner of Bedsole Farms, located along the Clarke-Monroe counties line near Gosport. She has long been active in volunteer organizations and was cited last year for her volunteer work. She was chairman of the city’s Tricentennial Committee recently, is a board member for the Center for Living Arts, was a founder of the Alabama School of Math and Science, and has worked to develop Mobile’s waterfront and downtown area. In an interview published in the Register Monday, Bedsole said she favors annexing areas of west Mobile, reducing the sales tax by one-cent if annexation succeeds, continuing to revitalize the downtown area and improving Mobile County’s schools. "The reason I am running is because I love this city, and I don’t want to see the momentum that we have going even slacking for a moment," she told the Register. "I want it to keep building and building, and I felt I was more capable of continuing that momentum than any of the other candidates…." Peavy and Jones are sparring now over a "push poll" that Peavy said unfairly paints him. Peavy responded with an ad that dredged up an old dispute from a previous Mobile city council race. Sunday, the Register took an unusual endorsement stand, saying Bedsole and Jones were best qualified for the job and suggesting that readers should both for either candidate
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