It can be the conundrum of a longtime election official: To have past achievements worth celebrating and a vision of the future worth embracing.

It’s at such crossroads Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle perhaps finds himself as he formally announced a bid for a fifth term as the chief executive of what’s now Alabama’s largest city. The election is Aug. 27, 2024.

History alone suggests he will be successful, having been reelected three times by overwhelming margins at the polls. Still, does the past pave a path to the future?

After shaking hands while supporters lunched on hot dogs and apple pie, Battle sought to bridge the past to a continued future of prosperity in addressing his applauding audience.

“When I first ran for this office, I made promises,” Battle said. “Through teamwork and your support, we have kept these promises. We’ve gone above and beyond in the years since that first term.”

Since Battle was first elected mayor in 2004, he’s aimed to diversity the workforce that will forever lean heavily on Redstone Arsenal and related contractors that make up the nation’s second largest research park as well as the burgeoning Redstone Gateway. Roads are another priority as Battle frequently speaks of preserving the city’s average commute time of 18 to 20 minutes — a line in his speech Wednesday that received applause — and more projects are on the way.

From an economic standpoint, the city weathered the COVID-19 pandemic as little more than a blip and the city has maintained its perfect Triple-A bond rating for the past 14 years.

A new $80 million city hall is under construction downtown to replace the 1960s-era building that has been so outgrown that municipal government offices are scattered across the city. And he talked about working with Huntsville City Schools, a partnership that’s been a common thread through Battle’s first four terms.

In sum, maybe, U.S. News & World Report declared in 2022 that Huntsville is the best place to live in America. And in 2023, Huntsville was No. 2 on that list.

“It verifies what we’ve been doing,” Battle said of Huntsville’s inclusion on what he said was more than 60 “Best Of” lists since 2020. “It validates what we’ve been doing.”

But then, of course, a longtime politician needs a future to point to as well.

“In the next nine months, we’ll continue doing what we’ve been doing — building a great community,” Battle said. “A great community – a great community for generations to come. I’m running for reelection for our future; we have more to do.”

If nothing else, though, Battle has been consistent in citing the need for measured growth and not growth for the sake of growth. And while he made sure to mention the accolades the city has received from “Best Of” lists, Battle repeated that his standard is even higher.

“Just since I was reelected in 2020, we have been ranked on more than 60 lists,” Battle said. “Best Place to Live, No. 1 Tech Market, Best Place to Raise a Family, Most Affordable Place to Live, Top Job Market in the U.S. I could go on and on – and that’s just in the last four years. Those rankings confirm that we’re on the right track. But it’s not about being the biggest, it’s about making our city the best it can be.”