August 25, 2006

A Would Be Groundbreaker Is Off the Ballot in Alabama

A Democratic Party committee Thursday night disqualified an openly gay candidate for the Alabama Legislature and the woman she defeated in the primary runoff because both women violated a party rule that party officials said no other candidate has obeyed since 1988.

And that of course includes other candidates who are running this year too.

Attorney Bobby Segall told the committee earlier Thursday that if the party disqualified Todd for not filing a financial disclosure form with the party chairman it would also have to disqualify the party's nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, and for lieutenant governor, former Gov. Jim Folsom Jr.

Silly attorney, "would also have to" assumes that the Alabama Democrats have to act consistently. It doesn't appear to me from this that consistency on their part is actually required (or at least likely to be enforced).

For whatever it's worth, the winning candidate (you know, the one that Alabama voters, not party officials, chose) doesn't think she's being ousted because she's gay - she thinks she's being ousted because she's white. Todd would have been the first openly gay member of the Alabama legislature.

UPDATE: Hmmm - will this stand given this?

UPDATE 2: Whoo-hoo. The ruling's been reversed - score one for democracy.

Posted by armand at August 25, 2006 01:26 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics


Comments

For my friends, leniency, for my enemies, the rules?

Posted by: binky at August 25, 2006 01:35 PM | PERMALINK
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