In a vote that unfortunately went largely along racial lines, the Alabama Democratic Party's Executive Committee on Saturday ensured that the first openly gay legislator will be elected this fall.

Patricia Todd, a white lesbian who beat a black candidate for the party nomination in a black-majority House district, had been disqualified by a party subcommittee on Thursday for failing to file a form that no candidate has filed since 1988.

But Saturday, the state's executive committee reinstated her. There is no Republican running. They also gave the boot to Larry Darby, who has denied the Holocaust happened and wants troops to stop drivers on the interstate highways entering Alabama to check for illegal immigrants. The party told Darby, who won more than 40 percent of the vote in the primary for attorney general, that he is no longer welcome in the Democratic Party.

Patricia Todd is set to be the first openly lesbian member of the AL legislature after beating back a challenge to her win in the Democratic primary runoff (she has no Republican opponent in District 54 which is heavily Dem). She was challenged by her opponent Gaynell Hendricks' mother-in-law for filing her financial disclosure form late, even though no other candidate including her opponent did so and neither has any candidate since passage of the state's 1988 financial disclosure law.

Birmingham Blues has been following the race.

More....

The Birmingham News reports this morning:

A Democratic Party committee disqualified an openly gay candidate for  the Alabama Legislature and the woman she defeated because both violated a rule that no other candidate has obeyed since 1988.

After reading the headline, my first impression was that this move was motivated as an anti-gay decision, but the facts seem to point toward in-fighting and egos, and what has caused the Democrats to become less than significant in State politics since the early eighties.

A few days ago I wrote a diary about a white lesbian ( Patricia Todd http://www.electpatriciatodd.com/ ) winning a seat in Birmingham, Alabama, and how the Party bosses didn't seem to like that very much?

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Well, again, we have an issue with the Democratic Party in Alabama.  When I wrote the diary entry I thought that the issue was exclusive to her being gay.  It's worse than that though, they have an issue with her because she's gay AND white.

http://time.blogs.com/...

Some Democrats intent on blocking lesbian candidate's election

More than a month after Patricia Todd's historic primary victory that has her set to become Alabama's first openly gay legislator, her election has still not been certified--and her supporters are asking the state's Democratic Party to stop dragging its feet on the matter. Todd's 59-vote victory over opponent Gaynell Hendricks in the July 18 contest was challenged by Hendricks's mother-in-law, even though election officials reported no voting irregularities and held a recount that confirmed Todd had won, and now local Democratic officials are apparently meddling with the panel that will hear the challenge.

http://www.advocate.com/...

Patricia Todd (D) defeated Gaynell Hendricks (D) in the July primary runoff election by 59 votes.  The outcome was fair and honest, the people spoke, and it was time for the leadership of the Alabama Democratic Party to move on.     Or, maybe not!