Birmingham Blues

If you’re interested in the really down and dirty aspects of the political process, head to Montgomery on Tuesday (401 Adams Avenue, Room 770, 9:00 am) and see what happens when an election is contested.

Patricia Todd defeated Gaynell Hendricks by 59 votes in the Democratic runoff for State House District 54. Because there is no Republican candidate, Patricia is on her way to becoming the first openly gay legislator in Alabama. The close result, coupled with some voting machine problems and what appear to be healthy doses of racism and homophobia, led to a contest of the election filed by Ms. Hendricks’ mother-in-law, Mattie Childress. In a document filed on July 27, Ms. Childress accused Jefferson County election officials of “malconduct which occurred [that] was calculated to prevent a fair, free and full exercise of the elective franchise”. She claimed that Patricia received “illegal” votes and that vote totals were changed without notification to Ms. Hendricks. Kyle Whitmire of the Birmingham Weekly covered the runoff in depth:

Last Thursday, Gaynell Hendricks held a press conference in front of the Jefferson County Courthouse where her supporters in her plain sight accused white people of stealing the election for Todd.

I too was accused of fixing the election. This might stem from the fact that, in addition to being white, I, unlike nearly everyone on Hendricks’ campaign staff [emphasis added], showed up at the courthouse on election night to watch the returns being counted….(Click here to continue reading a detailed account of how the vote totals were first screwed up and then straightened out by election officials.)

Ms. Childress accused the Todd campaign of filing its most recent campaign disclosure forms late (that part’s true and not a big deal legally) to hide a contribution from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. I hate to break it to Ms. Childress, but Patricia has been out for years, and the Victory Fund solicited and matched contributions from her supporters (including me). We knew exactly where that money was going.

Ms. Childress was also upset that the Todd campaign paid Kamau Afrika and Charlie Williams, Jr., both of whom initially ran for the nomination but endorsed Patricia in the runoff, for consulting and polling work. This is an extension of accusations before the primary that Patricia had somehow convinced additional candidates to enter the race in order to split the black vote. I doubt there’s anything officially wrong with paying former candidates to work on your runoff campaign, and it certainly seems smart to use their neighborhood knowledge and contacts if they’re willing to share. Anyway, if they earned some money with their expertise, it probably wasn’t worth this:

Charlie Williams and Kamau Afrika woke up Tuesday morning to Patricia Todd campaign signs in their yards. No big deal, since both men supported Todd during the District 54 campaign for the Alabama House. Only, these signs had been spray painted with the words “Uncle Tom” and images of an eight-ball. It was the latest ugly act in a campaign that’s still running two weeks after the Democratic primary.

Ms. Childress asserts that the Todd campaign falsely claimed the endorsement of the Jefferson County Citizens Coalition. Patricia did receive the Coalition’s endorsement for the runoff, although some members improperly tried to rescind it later. Her name was on the Coalition’s sample ballot, and the Birmingham News reported the endorsement as well.

Patricia has filed a response to the contest, and she’ll be at the hearing Tuesday prepared to defend her victory. There should be a ruling by the end of the day.

She says, “I’m ready to go to work.” It’s time to let her.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 6:30 pm and is filed under District 54. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.