Birmingham Blues

Kyle Whitmire of the Birmingham Weekly has been following the District 54 saga for quite a while.  I’d love to see him in print every day (or maybe he could start a blog), but writing one article or editorial a week does give one the opportunity to do background research and gain the perspective that comes with time and distance.  He’s done an excellent job.  Check out his latest article here and past columns here. 

Danny at Doc’s Political Parlor was kind enough to talk to Frank Matthews about this, so the rest of us wouldn’t have to.  Frank’s the Birmingham talk radio host and perennial candidate who came out of Saturday’s State Democratic Executive Committee meeting hollering about “n*ggers and gays” because the committee actually voted to give the District 54 nomination to Patricia Todd, the person who won the runoff election (and received the majority of votes in the primary).

From Danny’s post:

…”We are absolutely going to have a write-in candidate,” [Matthews] said. He was “85% sure” that Gaynelle Hendricks would be the candidate. She hasn’t agreed to it, but he thinks she will. “That’s the great part about a write-in candidate. They don’t have to agree to it.” But if she is not the candidate, “we will have another strong candidate.”

They are “going to do it right” and are “talking to some people in New Jersey who have won a write-in campaign.” He said he knew they would have to lean on some Republican support. He also knows that only one candidate has ever won a seat in the Alabama legislature as a write-in candidate: Sen. Lowell Barron in 1983.

“I knew that letter [from Joe Reed] was a bad idea because it polarized the district racially. I saw a first draft and knew it was a bad idea.” It allowed Todd to “hide the gay issue in the race issue.”

So then I may say that there will definitely be a write-in campaign?

“Definitely. Absolutely. Get the word out.”

A couple of observations are in order.  One, Frank doesn’t sound completely sure that Gaynell will participate in a write-in campaign.  If she doesn’t, who is he planning to strong-arm, I mean recruit, to run?  I feel quite sure he’d do it himself if he lived in the district.  Two, he’s clearly planning to play the homophobia card, which may further polarize a district that doesn’t need to be divided further.  Third, he says he’ll have to draw on Republican support, but I can’t see much coming from inside District 54.  If Republicans were strong there, they’d have fielded a candidate for the seat.

Now a question: what does Frank Matthews hope to achieve by doing this?

Dan’s also covering the story at Between the Links.

Robin DeMonia of the Birmingham News has a good column today about Rep. Alvin Holmes and his impassioned defense of Patricia Todd and the voters who elected her to the state house.  Here are some excerpts, but be sure to read the whole thing.

Alvin Holmes has fought as hard as anyone to open doors for blacks in Alabama.

As the longest-serving black legislator in the state, and one of the most outspoken representatives of any color, Holmes marches headlong into battle more often than most people walk to the mailbox….

…Yet Saturday, Holmes fought just as passionately on behalf of a white candidate.

Holmes urged the Democratic Party to reinstate Patricia Todd, who defeated Gaynell Hendricks in a Jefferson County legislative race but was disqualified (as was Hendricks) for violating a long-ignored party rule.

The problem, Holmes said, wasn’t that Todd didn’t file her campaign finance reports with the party. That rule hasn’t been enforced since 1988. The real problem was Todd is white, and House District 54 is predominantly black….

…”I’ve been arrested 27 times for standing up for people’s rights,” Holmes said. “It’s too late in the evening for me to start standing up and taking people’s rights from them.”…

…Some dismiss Holmes’ antics as good theater. But more often than not, there’s substance and integrity in what Holmes says. As he showed again Saturday, there’s a difference between grandstanding and taking a grand stand.

Rep. Holmes has no problem standing up to the power structure in the state and the party.  He deserves lots of credit for his courage.  “It’s too late in the evening for me to start standing up and taking people’s rights from them.”  Words to live by.

Once again, WE WON!!! 

We’ve been celebrating and rehashing a bit (no alcohol involved — at least not yet — I still have to drive back to Birmingham).  Most of the meeting was just as exciting as you might expect when a bunch of people get together and use parliamentary procedure to communicate.

Of course, Patricia’s dispute was last on the agenda.  Amy Burks, chair of the subcommittee that recommended disqualifying both Patricia and Gaynell Hendricks, read the recommendation.  Chair Joe Turnham explained that a vote to uphold the recommendation would result in the disqualification of both candidates and a vacancy in District 54, while a vote to overturn it would end the contest and make Patricia the nominee.

Then Raymond Johnson spoke, supposedly on behalf of Gaynell, but primarily to insist that the committee hold Patricia to a standard no one else had to meet.

Bobby Segall was just as eloquent and impassioned on Patricia’s behalf today as he was on Thursday, and he dropped a minor bombshell — he had an affidavit from a former Democratic party chair stating that the portion of the bylaws used against both candidates had been repealed and replaced with a rule in line with the 1988 Fair Campaign Practices Act.  He also continued to point out that no Democratic candidate had filed financial disclosure forms with the party this year, and that disqualifying Patricia on that basis would open the entire slate to challenge.  In fact, he said that Gerald Dial (D-not really) was already planning to sue if the subcommittee decision was upheld.  He said that real Democrats don’t discriminate against each other, they don’t selectively apply the rules, and they don’t consider elections to be preference polls for leaders to approve or disapprove.

Then we endured quite a few “points of order” that were primarily opportunities for individual committee members to express their opinions.

Finally, the chair called for a vote.  He asked those who supported upholding the subcommittee’s recommendation to stand.  They did, and at that point, I began to hope.  Joe Reed prowled the aisles, glaring at those who remained seated, and succeeded in coercing a few more votes.  Joe Turnham had to ask everyone to stand again because Reed’s machinations had screwed up the count.  Then those opposed to the resolution stood.  The counters counted, we sweated, my hands started shaking, and finally Joe Turnham announced the count:

87 votes to uphold the recommendation, 95 to overturn it.  Those of us in the back of the room started cheering, and I ran for the lobby — and a wireless signal — so I could spread the word.

The meeting adjourned right after the vote, and I’m afraid there were some unhappy people leaving the room.  One very angry black man came out yelling, “N*ggers and gays, n*ggers and gays, that’s all this party has.”  He kept ranting about the Republicans winning in November until someone reminded him that Patricia is unopposed.  Then he started carrying on about a write-in race.  Unfortunately, the TV cameras were right there, and the reporters gave him a format to spew.  Then he walked out, telling the Todd supporters that they’d better not touch him.  I guess he was assuming that all her supporters are gay and that he might catch it.  I could have reassured him that no one there had any desire to touch him.

Patricia was all smiles, and her supporters were ecstatic.  I walked out with party Executive Director Jim Spearman, who told me that Howard Dean had called eight times during the meeting to find out what happened.  He said he’d been on the phone with Dean all week, and that the DNC was frantic because of all the negative feedback.  People were ticked off, and no funds were coming in.

So thanks to all of you who contacted the DNC, the Alabama Democratic Party, your local committee members, and anyone else who would listen to insist that justice be done.

Democracy prevailed today, folks.  We have reason to be proud.

UPDATE:  Here’s the Victory Fund statement.  And the angry black man was apparently local radio talk show host and perennial candidate Frank Matthews.  What a kook.

UPDATE 2:  As Lisa pointed out in the comments, Rep. Alvin Holmes deserves thanks for standing up to defend Patricia against the kind of tactics that have been used against black candidates in the past.  I also heard Glenn Allen, one of the subcommittee members, telling Patricia that he was very glad to have been overruled. 

WE WON!!!!!

The wireless signal works in the lobby but not in the meeting room, which is packed with Todd supporters.  We’re just about ready for the appeal of Patricia’s disqualification.  I think it will be 30 to 45 minutes.  They have to finish the Greene County sheriff’s race appeal first.

I had a tip from Kyle Whitmire of the Birmingham Weekly that the committee is “throwing Gaynell [Hendricks] under the bus”.  It appears they are planning to nominate George Perdue, who currently holds the District 54 seat but was planning to retire at the end of his term.  If that happens, I guess the next stop is court.

Joe Reed managed to get Gaynell’s attorney elected to the SDEC this morning, so that’s one more vote in her favor.  Chris Englund was elected to be the nominee in District 70 (?) Tuscaloosa, a loss for Joe Reed who doesn’t like Chris’s dad.

More as it happens.

I’m beginning to feel like a boomerang.  Nephew Zach and I are heading out early tomorrow morning to attend the State Democratic Executive Committee meeting.  It starts at 10 am and will likely last all day.  Once again, I’ll live blog if I can get a wireless connection.  Otherwise, I’ll post ASAP.

Pam has a good piece on the roots of the dispute in District 54.  She has major connections to Birmingham — her spouse’s family is here.

And if you’d like a little off-topic schadenfreude, take note that the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that Richard Scrushy has to repay around $48 million in bonuses to HealthSouth.