SOUTH UNION STREET

Tensions spill over at Alabama Democratic Party meeting

Brian Lyman
Montgomery Advertiser

Say this for the Alabama Democrats: Everyone knows where they stand.

Nancy Worley speaks as the State Democratic Executive Committee meets in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday February 4, 2017.

The dividing line at Saturday's State Democratic Executive Committee was the table where the Democrats’ executive committee sat, facing about 150 people in the Embassy Suites ballroom.

At many points during the three-hour meeting, the executive committee suggested the party's county chairs held Democrats back. Alabama Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Worley at one point suggested during a speech that county organizations allowed “the strangest and most unusual people” to run for elected office and leadership positions.

Joe Reed, the chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference whose allies largely control the party structure, went further, saying the state couldn't take complete responsibility for you "at your local county chapters.”

“You asked what the state party has done,” he said. “What has the local party done?”

Those comments provoked anger for many people in attendance, a number of whom blame Reed and Worley's leadership for Democratic reverses around Alabama. Ann Green, the chairwoman of the Etowah County Democratic Party, stormed out of the meeting during Worley’s speech.

“We’re the Democratic Party, we’re inclusive,” she said outside the ballroom. “We don’t need to be told by the state chair we’re recruiting weird people to our committee.”

The gathering – called to fill vacancies on the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) and vote on by-laws – was the first meeting since Democrats nationwide suffered reverses in November. It was also the first time since that election that Reed, Worley and the Alabama Democratic Reform Caucus (ADRC) confronted one another about the direction of the party.

Once Alabama's dominant party, Democrats are trying to get their light to emerge after a decades-long eclipse. The Alabama party hasn't elected a U.S. senator since 1992 or a governor since 1998. The party lost control of the state Legislature in 2010, and hold 33 of 105 seats in the House and eight seats in the 35-member Senate.

The last Democrat to hold statewide office, former lieutenant governor and Public Service Commission President Lucy Baxley, lost her re-election bid in 2012.

Members line up to take part in discussion as the State Democratic Executive Committee meets in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday February 4, 2017.

Both sides broadly agree about the need to build the party on the local level. But the ADRC says the state party isn't providing effective messaging or leadership for county organizations.

“People don’t know what the Democratic Party represents in Alabama,” said Sheila Degan Gilbert, the chairwoman of the Calhoun County Democratic Party and a leader of the ADRC.

The ADRC accuses party leadership of neglecting candidate recruitment. The party’s silence as scandals enveloped Republican officials – including Gov. Robert Bentley and former House Speaker Mike Hubbard – frustrated many Democrats.

Worley and Reed, whose supporters dominate the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC), have dismissed those calls, and both made it clear Saturday they would resist efforts to oust them. Reed, often raising his voice in a speech to those in attendance, said the party needed to attract more white voters, and that a recent ADC victory in a redistricting lawsuit might help that.

At the same time, he also said he was happy to lose voters who “didn’t want to get on the progressive bandwagon,” and that Democrats were still reckoning with the loss of white voters from the party’s embrace of civil rights.

“The party doesn’t need reforming,” he said. “The people need reforming.”

The sniping between the factions reached a handful of flashpoints, especially after Worley and Reed’s speeches. Some county chairs said they considered their remarks insulting.

“Every time we come here, it’s what the county chairs didn’t do or don’t do,” said Mike Smith, the chairman of the Limestone County Democratic Party. “It’s on us.”

Shortly before a vote on a by-law change that would have added the chairs of all 67 counties to the SDEC – which county chairs said would help them coordinate better with the state party --  Smith tried to raise a point of order that Worley denied. Smith heatedly criticized Worley’s decision from the floor. Worley suggested she would call a police officer to escort him out.

The SDEC members defeated the by-law change. Opponents suggested it would make the SDEC – which has over 200 members – too unwieldy.

“We don’t need more people on the committee,” said Fred Gray, Jr., an SDEC member from Macon County. “We just need those who are here and the ones in the counties to just work.”

There were a few bright spots during the meeting. Democrats said the election of President Donald Trump fired up base voters and generated more interest in party activities. Carol Marks, the chairwoman of the Shelby County Democratic Party – located in a deep red county – said she had met many “closet Democrats” in her area.

Joe Reed speaks as the State Democratic Executive Committee meets in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday February 4, 2017.

“They got out of the closet when Trump threw the beehive in it,” she said.

ADRC managed to elect about six of its members to the SDEC Saturday, which could be a test run for elections for the entire SDEC membership next year. Beth Clayton, the president of the Alabama Young Democrats, said her organization was trying to visit all 67 counties in the state to building the party.

“We are working hard to build a bench, but we can’t build a bench if there’s nowhere to sit,” she said.

Reed said after the meeting that it was good for people to have a debate, within limits.

“People are free to disagree, but they’re not free to disobey,” he said.