Outrage

National, Politics 3 Minutes

The Democratic Party is supposed to be the big tent party. All are welcome, we say. Or maybe not.

Election of Alabama lesbian overturned by committee

by PageOneQ

The Democratic primary victory of Alabama lesbian Patricia Todd for a seat in the statehouse was overturned by a party committee tonight. The committee vote was 5-0. Had the committee not reversed the election, which Todd won by 59 votes, she would have become the first openly gay elected official in the state’s history. No Republican has entered the race in the overwhelmingly Democratic district. Todd’s race was to determine who would represent District 54 in Birmingham in the statehouse.

The hearing was held following the filing of a complaint by Mattie Childress, the mother-in-law of Todd’s opponent. In the complaint, Childress claimed that Todd purposefully turned her form in late to hide from voters the fact that she had received a contribution from a gay political group based in Washington DC. Todd did turn in the finance report prior to the election. In a previous election, the state’s highest court ruled that an election could not be overturned if the forms were turned in prior to election day, even if they were late.

[…]

Tonight’s committee vote does not mark the end of the matter. The Alabama state party chairman, Joe Turnham, told the AP he was “very surprised” at the committee’s decision and a party spokesperson said the vote may be reversed by the executive committee when it meets Saturday to pick a new candidate for the seat.

The “gay political group” referred to in the story is the Victory Fund, whose President and CEO Chuck Wolfe issued this statement:

“Patricia got the most votes in two separate elections—the primary and the runoff—but party bosses didn’t like the results, so now they plan to handpick their own candidate. What happened today in Montgomery was unfair, undemocratic, un-American and unwise. Democrats in Alabama have been through this before, and they have suffered for it. When party power brokers insist they know better than the voters, the voters stay home. Alabamians who care about democracy should be outraged, and Democrats everywhere should tell party leaders to reject the tired politics of yesterday and listen to the will of the people, especially those who have already spoken—twice. We will continue to stand with Patricia as she fights to ensure that Alabama voters will be able to choose their own representatives.”

From the National Stonewall Democrats executive director we get this statement:

“The voters of District 54 have made it clear that Patricia Todd is the best choice, indeed she is their choice, to represent them in the Alabama House of Representatives. The Alabama Democratic Party should honor the choice of the people and heed their voice in this matter. We cannot call ourselves Democrats if we do not honor the Democratic process.”

The state party chair, Joe Turnham, sent the following letter to the attorney for the complainant:

August 7, 2006

Mr. Raymond L. Johnson, Jr.
800 Shades Creek Parkway, Suite 500
Birmingham, Alabama 35209

Dear Mr. Johnson,
I am in receipt of the supplemental verified election contest statement filed by you and received in our office on August 1, 2006 on behalf of your client, Mattie Childress. According to the Code of Alabama Section 17-16-70, the deadline for filing a contest, is 24 hours after the result of the election being declared.

The results of the July 18, 2006 primary runoff election for House District 54 were declared on Friday, July 28, 2006 at 12:00 p.m. Therefore, the deadline to file a contest, amend or supplement a contest filing would fall to the next business day, that being July 31, 2006 at 12:00 p.m.

Your supplemental election contest filing is not timely and cannot be considered by the sub-committee on the August 15, 2006 hearing.

Sincerely,

Joe Turnham
Chair

Let me get this straight: the state party chair says the complaint is late and the local committee still considers it?

Are we the big tent party or is that just window dressing? How, exactly, does sexual orientation affect a individual’s ability to do the job?

I’m mad that the party bosses in Alabama are ignoring the wishes of the voters. I’m mad that another Democrat is being denied her due because of small-minded individuals.

This thing isn’t over. According to this statement issued by Turnham, the state party executive committee will be meeting Saturday to discuss this. Give them a call (800)995-3386 or send them an email and let them know that Democrats believe in democracy. I just did.

Published

6 thoughts on “Outrage”

  1. I agree Vivian….this is utterly outrageous! These people who did this ought to be ashamed, and the Alabama Democratic Party had better put these renegades in their place.

    If not, we ALL ought to be letting Alabama Democrats know that this subversion by attempting to unseat a democratically elected nominee, simply because of her sexual orientation, cannot be tolerated.

    This one really make me angry. My agency is moving to Alabama in 3-4 years. This is just more confirmation for me of why I will ABSOLUTELY not consider moving there….even some DEMOCRATS in Alabama are bigots.

    I know, maybe Virginia isn’t much better? Actually in my experience, despite the archane laws and amendments we face, it is much better. And the Democratic Party of Virginia, by and large, would not stand for this kind of subversion of democracy.

  4. This is what bothers me about the two major parties in the usa…Both the Republicans and the Dems have too many party bosses….One reason I would like to see our country end up with a multi-party system. (It would also make it more difficult for the corporations to buy off multi parties.)

    Currently there’s a revolution going on in the Dem party with the grassroots flexing their money to out the established dem party bosses. We aren’t going to stop until we have thoroughly cleaned house.

    I hope the Alabama Dem grassroots will be able to quickly “OUT” some party bosses and boot them on out of any power positions.

    I also hope the Republicans will be successful in taking their party back from the control by a minority of rightwing extremists. They have successfully screwed up the GOP (now, the Grand Oil Party) and our country.

    I’m so thankful a number of Republicans are voting Dem this fall in order to restore a power balance in Congress and hopefully stop the march to another quagmire in Iran. You’d think the Iraq disaster would have taught some folks a lesson. I wonder what makes extremists so illogical?.

    Buzz…Buzz…

  5. This is an embarrassment and an outrage. And it certainly is not representative of the Democratic Party. It seems, from the little I know of the facts, that a group of party insiders were sore losers – the complaint came from the loser’s mother-in-law – and so they sought to overturn the results of a legal election based on a minor technicality.

    Hopefully, that will not stand. Obviously the rank and file Democrats of that district weren’t that bigoted if they elected Patricia Todd in the first place.

    They have real Democratic core values, which includes inclusiveness and welcoming all people.

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