FAIRHOPE — In the last week of the hotly contested runoff election for mayor, the tactics of both candidates’ campaigns have increased to a fever pitch.

A direct mail piece sent by incumbent Tim Kant’s campaign and received by Fairhope Single Tax Corp. leaseholders this week, of which challenger Dean Mosher is vice president, lists six questions to “Ask Mosher” about lease payments and the use of Single Tax funds.

“I feel that Tim is a desperate man trying to hold on to his position and is grasping at straws,” Mosher said Thursday. “He is saying some untrue things about the bedrock institution of this city.” Kant did not return phone calls seeking comments for this story by press time.

While those Kant mailers hit mailboxes this week, Mosher was lining up endorsements from former candidates in the seven-man general election for mayor.

On Wednesday, Mosher issued a news release stating Chris Warner was supporting him, and on Thursday, Jack Burrell announced his endorsement.

“I’m encouraging people to vote for him,” said Warner, who also mass e-mailed a letter of support for Mosher the same day. “It’s not really an endorsement. I don’t want to tell anyone how to vote. I don’t think endorsements are right.”

The news release sent by the Mosher campaign stated that Warner had been asked to play a significant role in Mosher’s administration regarding implementation of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

“We would both like to see integrity returned to the planning process,” Warner said. “The planning commission has been irresponsible. We’ve used the Comprehensive Plan to serve the development community when it should serve the people.”

Rick Gambino was seen with Burrell at a local restaurant for lunch Thursday and speculation was Gambino might also be endorsing Mosher, but Mosher said Thursday, that did not happen.

“I give my full-fledged support to Dean Mosher,” Burrell said Thursday afternoon. “I urge my supporters to do the same. I feel like Fairhope needs a change, and Dean Mosher represents that change.”

Burrell said Mosher had asked for his help in developing aerospace business for the city. Burrell said he had taken a new job this week and returned to the aerospace industry, leaving his current position as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company.

“He has not promised me any position nor have I requested a position,” Burrell said. “He’s only asked me to be an adviser to him.”

As for City Council President Bob Gentle, who had donated to Mosher’s campaign prior to his entry in the general election, he published a recent letter to the editor in local newspapers stating he was not making an endorsement in the mayoral runoff election.

In the general election, the seven candidates received the following votes of a total 5,437 cast: Burrell, 494; Gambino, 452; Gentle, 1,086; Kant, 1,252; Mosher, 1,284; Vincent Valentim, 33; and Warner, 836.

The city had 11,580 registered voters before the Aug. 26 general election, a city official said.

In the Place 2 City Council runoff between incumbent Dan Stankoski and Danny Corte, the three candidates received the following votes of a total 5,124 cast: Corte, 2,218; Stankoski, 2,422; and Douglas Taylor, 484.

And though elbows have been thrown in the final days of the campaign season in both runoff elections, at the last scheduled candidate forum Thursday night, it was a more civil occasion at the New Era Missionary Baptist Church. The evening included prayers and a history of the groups that organized the forum attended by about 50 people, the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee and the Fairhope-Point Clear Action Committee.

The audience submitted questions that were asked by the organizers, which ran the gamut from city finances to building new sidewalks to summer programs for youth to the candidates’ positions on the local Wal-Mart and Publix grocery story under construction on U.S. 98 and Parker Road.

Both Corte and Stankoski attended the forum, but Mosher was the only mayoral candidate there.

“We were informed this morning that Mayor Kant would not be able to join us tonight because he had a family situation,” said Valarie Chaney, the moderator of the event.

Three other organizers of the event, when they asked questions of the candidates, mentioned Kant’s absence in their questions.

As for the mailer sent by the Kant campaign to Single Tax Corp. leaseholders, it has resulted in some unhappy phone calls to the Single Tax office this week, said Larry Thomas, FSTC president.

Thomas said Mosher told him that he would be resigning from his position as vice president of FSTC if elected. Thomas also said that the FSTC board might be meeting and releasing a response prior to the Tuesday election, even though the organization has tried to stay out of the election thus far.

Kant outspent Mosher $36,070 to $6,930 during the runoff campaign period. For the latest campaign finance information, visit the Baldwin County Probate Court Web site.

The polls open at the Civic Center at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, and close at 7 p.m.

“We encourage everyone to vote,” Chaney said at the end of the Thursday night forum. “We do have a moral obligation to vote.”