Alabama Dems Reverse Decision To Oust Lesbian Candidate

The Alabama Democratic state executive committee reversed a local party committee's decision to oust Patricia Todd as the party's candidate for state representative in a Birmingham district. Todd, an openly white, lesbian candidate, angered the district's African-American Democrats who controlled the local committee when she defeated an African-American candidate in a runoff election. Because the Republicans have fielded no candidate for the November election, today's decision ensures that Todd will become the first openly lesbian member of the Alabama legislature. If the state committee had not acted, the rule applied by the local committee to remove Todd from the ballot would have no doubt run afoul of the federal Voting Rights Act.