Prattville Chamber Hosts Candidate Forum for Sheriff, Judge, House Races

Sheriff Mark Harrell will make his case to Autauga County residents April 21 when the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce hosts a non-partisan candidate forum at Doster Community Center, 424 S. Northington St., sharing a stage with candidates for the 19th Circuit's Place 5 judgeship and State House District 69, with the May 19 Republican primary just 28 days away.

The sheriff's race may generate the sharpest exchanges. Harrell, who cites 28 years of law enforcement experience and is the only candidate in the field to claim military service in his qualifying announcement, enters the forum carrying the weight of his own record. That record includes presiding over a department that has faced jail facility disruptions and intergovernmental friction that drew public attention in prior months. Voters pressing the sheriff candidates should demand concrete numbers: current patrol staffing levels by shift, average response times to calls in rural Autauga versus the city limits, and what operational changes have actually been implemented at the jail since its evacuation problems surfaced.

The 19th Circuit Judge Place 5 contest puts local courtroom management to a direct public vote. Bradley Earl Ekdahl, who brings 20 years in the legal field, started his career as an intern in the Alabama Attorney General's Office Violent Crimes Division before moving through the Governor's Office Finance Legal Division. The Place 5 judge handles both criminal and civil dockets for the circuit, meaning this seat shapes how swiftly cases move, how sentencing patterns develop, and how procedural rights are applied to defendants and victims alike. Every voter in this race has one essential question to ask: what is the current case backlog in the 19th Circuit, and what specific procedural change will you make in your first 90 days to address it?

State House District 69 controls Autauga County's lever in Montgomery for road and bridge allocations, education appropriations, and the law enforcement grants that supplement the sheriff's department budget. The representative elected in 2026 will vote on funding formulas that determine which county infrastructure projects get state dollars and whether Autauga County schools see increased capital investment. Candidates in this race should be pressed to name a specific road project they would prioritize in the next legislative session, and to stake out a position on mental-health response funding, which directly affects both law enforcement call volume and the court system's diversion capacity.

The forum will be non-partisan in format, with the chamber moderating timing and questions. As of early April, no confirmed candidate roster, question-submission process, or precise start time had been posted to the chamber's public calendar. Residents planning to attend should contact the Prattville Area Chamber directly for those details before April 21.

With roughly 30,000 registered voters in Autauga County and historically thin turnout in off-cycle judicial and local law enforcement contests, the Doster Community Center forum is likely the only opportunity before early voting opens to hear all three races answer questions in the same room, on the record.