Ken Boyd

Huntsville engineer Ken Boyd is running for mayor against two-time incumbent Tommy Battle and perennial candidate Jackie Reed. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

As Ken Boyd challenges Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle in August's municipal election, he's doing it with a measure of perspective.

"When we first started, my wife asked me, 'Do you think you can win?'" Boyd said. "And I said, 'No, of course not.' But for $200 (the election entrance fee), I can be on stage at a debate. Then we started looking at the numbers. Last time, there were only 28,000 votes cast for mayor.

"But 28,000, suddenly you only have to get 14,000 or so to win. So that's where the dangerous thinking comes in - 'We can pull this off.'"

Boyd is Battle's second challenger in the race. Self-appointed city watchdog Jackie Reed - a perennial mayoral and city council candidate - is planning to run for mayor an eighth time as well. Battle kicked off his re-election campaign last week.

Boyd, who grew up in Montgomery, acknowledged it will be a daunting task for anyone to mount a successful challenge to defeat Battle - a two-term mayor who won re-election in 2012 by receiving a record 81 percent of the vote.

Boyd, however, is coming to the campaign armed with some issues about how Battle has run the city. An engineer who works for the Department of Defense on Redstone Arsenal, Boyd's chief concern is over the 1-cent sales tax Battle pushed and the city council approved in 2013.

The tax increase was passed to help pay for major road improvement projects throughout Huntsville. The tax also has no expiration date.

Boyd said the tax increase is what motivated him to run for public office for the first time.

"I think by and large, (Battle) does a good job," Boyd said. "It's just the development of taxes I would like to do something about. I don't pretend to believe that I could roll in there as the mayor and get rid of that sales tax. I don't even really pretend to believe I could get in there and magically - with five members of the city council who voted for that tax - get a sunset on it.

"But what I do want to do is make sure the next tax either has a sunset so that it is used for what it is used for and goes away or make it go to the people (for approval). The school board does that. We go back to the polls on a regular basis because they get an extra mil. And if they can sell the people on it, they get it. And if they can't sell the people on it, they have to do without. If it's good enough for the school board, why don't we do that?"

Boyd also took issue with the city's recruitment of Whole Foods Market that is anchoring a shopping center on Bob Wallace Avenue that opened last year. The city approved an $8 million incentive package for the shopping center in 2014.

"I don't agree with subsidizing retail - particularly when you're subsidizing someone who is competing with an existing business," Boyd said. "I like to look at Whole Foods. How would you feel if you were Earth Fare or Fresh Market and you came into town on your own dime and the Walmart of the hoity-toity grocery industry comes into town and gets subsidized - your biggest competition?

"I look at the Remington deal and the Polaris deal and I think those are great. I think that's an excellent way to spend development dollars because it brings in jobs that people can live on and people can support a family on. There's nothing wrong with a grocery store job but you can't support a family on it."

Even if winning might appear to be a longshot - Boyd's Go Fund Me account to raise campaign funds has received just $640 of a $5,000 goal - he wants to bring these issues into the forefront to perhaps effect change.

"At a minimum, we want to change the behavior," he said. "I want to win but if we can change the behavior, they I think we will have done well. but that's going to take getting enough votes to scare somebody. I am proceeding as if we can win."