The Birmingham News has a fairly long article this morning highlighting the District 54 election contest. It finally mentions something I’ve been pointing out for some time: the Victory Fund contribution that Ms. Hendricks is so worked up about came primarily from local sources. This was no stealth contribution from the “outside agitators” that we love to hate here.
The Victory Fund said that 63 percent of the money it gave to Todd came from Alabama-based sources. It offered a 2-to-1 matching program, where it promised to double every dollar donated for Todd, who had become a high priority for the organization. The fund works to elect lesbian and gay candidates in every state.
I think my favorite part, though, is Jerome Gray’s twisted logic for the attempt to overturn Patricia’s election.
In 2000, the district was drawn with a 63 percent black majority. In the years since, gentrification has shrunk that proportion, and some estimate the current black population at about 50 percent. In his letter endorsing Hendricks, [Joe] Reed warned black community leaders that if they elected a white candidate, the district could be redrawn without a black majority.
“If a district became a Republican district, Republicans would fight like the dickens to keep the district Republican,” said Jerome Gray, field Director for the ADC. “The same is true if a district is majority black. Black activists and black leaders are going to fight for the dickens to keep it majority black.”
While some have attacked the ADC’s stance as reverse racism, Gray said that white Democrats simply will not spearhead the same issues as their black counterparts. He gave the restoration of felony voting rights as an example.
Interestingly, Republicans are frequently suspected these days (rightly or wrongly) of trying to suppress voting and steal elections. Does that make it okay for the ADC to do it? Anyway, given Gray’s reasoning, it seems the ADC should have pushed a biracial candidate. And why does he think that a wealthy businesswoman who until recently lived in Mountain Brook is going to represent the interests of the people of District 54 better than a woman who has lived in the district for years and is known for her work on social justice issues? It doesn’t make sense to me.
Interestingly, the chairman of the board at the Victory Fund is an African American man.
Kathy,
It wouldn’t make sense to you. You are neither a racist nor a homophobe.
Thanks for covering this story so thoroughly Kathy. Your neighbors in Georgia are following this and wishing Patricia well.
Jerome Gray is now on my list of “People with ideas so stupid you have to have a PhD to come up with them.”
And the question is again, where is the DNC? Shouldn;t they be trying to uphold a valid election?
There is no such thing as “reverse racism”. Racism is racism no matter which direction the hate is flowing.
The DNC has already made its decision based on a simple set of calculations.
Blacks constitute over 10% of the population and vote Democrat around 90% of the time.
Gays constitute less than 10% of the population and vote Democrat around 75% of the time.
Black voters have a history of opposing and publicly berating Democrats who don’t do what the black community tells them to do; failure to comply leads to a noticeable drop in public support and donations.
Gay voters have a history of supporting Democrats whether they do what gays want or not; failure to comply causes no appreciable decrease in public support or donations.
In short, blacks are more important, both in terms of numbers and the danger of losing their support, than are gays.