A campaign flyer circulating in Spanish Fort accuses Democratic lawmakers in Montgomery of redrawing legislative districts to shift portions of a fast-growing, Republican-leaning city on the Eastern Shore of Baldwin County into a Democratic district.

The flyer in question promotes the candidacy of Republican Pete Riehm, who is looking to unseat longtime Democratic Senator Vivian Figures in the Senate District 33 race.

Related: ‘The race of the state’: A rare competitive battle for an Alabama senate seat

“In the dark of the night the Democrats zoned our great city into their liberal district to take your voice away in Montgomery,” the flyer reads. “Pete Riehm’s conservative agenda is why Democrats are fighting him.”

Riehm, when reached by AL.com on Wednesday, admitted that the flyer was a “poor choice” of wording. Republicans, for years, have had a supermajority in the Alabama Legislature and Democratic lawmakers do not have enough votes to influence the state’s redistricting process.

Republicans voted overwhelmingly in support of the new state legislative maps.

In the Alabama Senate, Figures was one of only five lawmakers – all Democrats – to vote against the redistricting plan.

“I do think the issue is that no one really got to see this redistricting until it was done,” said Riehm, a conservative talk radio show host and commercial Realtor in Mobile.

“(The flyer) would be more accurate if it was (saying) Republicans and Democrats,” Riehm said about its wording that solely accuses Democrats of drafting the legislative boundaries. “Everyone in the Senate saw that map and they all knew about it and had input on it. It was done by everyone in the Senate without the people really knowing what those changes were until it was done.”

Figures, who has served in the Alabama Senate for more than 25 years, said Riehm is “lying” to the voters.

“What can we do when there are only eight of us?” Figures said, referring to the number of Democrats who are in the Senate. There are 27 Republicans in the upper chamber.

Spanish Fort

Indeed, the inclusion of portions of Spanish Fort into District 33 was part of a final redistricting map supported by the Republicans including GOP lawmakers in South Alabama.

After the proposed redistricting was introduced, it generated outrage in Spanish Fort. The growing city has a sizable chunk of newer subdivisions north of U.S. 31 that are now included within a Senate district that also includes Prichard, and mostly Black neighborhoods in the northern parts of Mobile.

The district’s voting age population is 61% Black, 33.3% white.

“The point we were trying to make to the Republican base is ‘Hey, your voice is diluted into a democratic district,’” Riehm said. “That’s what we’re fighting against.”

‘Division’

Riehm said his campaign is trying to “represent everyone.” He said he is trying to campaign in Prichard, which is 91% Black, as well as Spanish Fort, which is 81% white.

Figures said Riehm — who traveled with a group of about 30 coastal Alabama residents to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to protest the presidential election – is running a divisive campaign.

“Our state has suffered too much division just as my opponent continues to do with the flyer he just sent out,” Figures said. “My opponent was also at the insurrection on January 6.”

Figures then quoted local media articles in which Riehm suggested that if members of Congress “feel threatened now, wait until we come back.”

Said Figures, “We do not need that representation in the Alabama State Senate. I have always worked to bring people together, to find common ground and I have a great reputation of working with members across the aisle in finding common ground on issues.”

January 6, 2021

Riehm said while he was at the Capitol on January 6, “I was not there for an insurrection, and I did not see an insurrection.”

Riehm’s group left the Capitol building’s grounds after the large crowd of Trump supporters breached the building and began rioting, he said.

“Anything that happened there, I was not a part of,” he said.

Riehm, a commercial Realtor with NAI Mobile LLC, was terminated by NAI Global after reports surfaced that he was in Washington, D.C. NAI Global is an international commercial real estate firm that served as NAI Mobile – now rebranded as CRE Mobile – parent company.

Federal court records said that Riehm was interviewed by the FBI at the NAI Mobile office. After NAI Mobile refused to terminate Riehm, NAI Global terminated its agreement with the firm on January 15, 2021.

NAI Mobile then filed a federal lawsuit against NAI Global for a breach of contract that was signed in 2017. The case made its way to a jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. A jury, in April, ruled in favor of NAI Mobile and rewarded the company $1.25 million in lost profits and rebranding expenses.

NAI Mobile was rebranded CRE Mobile in 2021, and Riehm remains with the company.

He said his campaign for the Senate district is unrelated to the 2020 presidential election or his trip to the U.S. Capitol to protest its outcome.

“This has nothing to do with the campaign, and I’m not trying to get anyone’s endorsement,” he said. “I’m talking about the things we want to do for South Alabama in Montgomery. The things we want to do in the state of Alabama, there is no overlap with the national issues and there is no overlap with January 6.”

Riehm added, “(The public) knows I’m a worker and that I will show up on the scene … if it’s Washington or Prichard or Spanish Fort. I’ll show up. I just go where we need to go. There is no division on anything. It’s about meeting the people and getting the message out and the message is we’ll listen and work.”