Huntsville and the Tennessee Valley area will lose a legislative legend next year when State Sen. Tom Butler, who recently announced his decision to forego reelection, ends his current term in office and closes the final chapter of his public service career.
A pharmacist by profession, which allowed him to maintain daily interactions with the constituents he served so effectively, Butler devoted a total of 35 years of his life to the Alabama House of Representatives and State Senate.
And though he was a Democrat for much of his time in public office, the senator always aligned himself with the more conservative members of the Legislature and switched his allegiance to the Republican Party almost 15 years ago.
Butler’s retirement comes at a critical time in Huntsville history as Alabama’s newly crowned largest city will soon experience even more explosive growth with the arrival of U.S. Space Command Headquarters and the continuing expansion of the Federal Bureau of Investigation presence at Redstone Arsenal.
These new investments join our already flourishing technology, aerospace, and research industries that have provided the Rocket City an economic foundation for decades.
Senate District 2 includes portions of Alabama’s fastest-growing county, Limestone, and the third-fastest-growing, Madison. Together, they anchor a metro area poised for its most significant period of growth since Dr. Wernher von Braun and NASA first designed, built, and tested the Mercury-Redstone and Saturn rockets here.
For all of these reasons, the already important task of electing the right successor for Sen. Butler becomes even more critical.
I am convinced beyond measure that conservative Republican candidate John Roberts is the best choice to assume Sen. Butler’s seat in the State Senate.
A former director of Business Retention & Expansion for the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber, he has expert knowledge of the needs of the community and the businesses located here, which will be invaluable in navigating the growth issues our area will continue to experience for the foreseeable future.
As Real Estate & Development Manager for Freedom Real Estate & Capital, LLC and former executive with the Huntsville Madison Home Builders Association, he knows firsthand the challenges impacting both commercial and residential markets. In the Senate, he will make sure North Alabama continues its momentum while growing in a smart, balanced way that protects our quality of life.
Because he is a Republican in a state that is assured a GOP legislative supermajority in both chambers for at least the next several decades to come, Roberts will be an effective advocate for the road and bridge construction and improvement funding we must capture to keep pace with our population boom as 57% more people currently move here than move away.
Likewise, he will bring the Huntsville/Madison area more education funding, school construction dollars, and other infrastructure that will be essential to accommodating the new families and students that arrive here by the day.
On social issues that many of us find so vitally important, I know that Roberts shares the same commonsense conservative beliefs that most Alabamians embrace, and he will fight for the core values and foundational principles that make our state and the Tennessee Valley, in particular, so special.
And, finally, he will prioritize replacement of the Saturn 1-B rocket at the Ardmore welcome center and push that project to completion as fast as possible so a beloved local landmark can finally be restored, and interstate travelers may once again instantly know that they are visiting a one-of-a-kind place in the nation.
Every so often, voters are offered the right man at the right time for the right job, and I know in my heart that John Roberts is the perfect candidate for State Senate because he is committed to making an already great place to live, work, worship, and raise our families an even better one.
Lewis McDonald is the Director of Commercial Division at Jacob Title in Huntsville and served as campaign chairman for Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth. He is the son of conservative Republican activist Stan McDonald and the grandson of former State Senator Albert McDonald, who also served as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries.
