EchoBooming in Birmingham

The highly contested State House of Representatives seat for District 54 (the district I live in) was won by only 59 votes (unofficial count).

Patricia Todd edged out Gaynell Hendrix in the Democratic primary runoff which will make her the winner in the general election since there is no Republican candidate.

District 54 is quite possibly the most diverse district in the state. The War on Dumb said it best:

But one district, among the others, has given me some hope — District 54. Running roughly from Irondale (through Forest Park to parts of Southside through Downtown and all the way) to Fountain Heights (just north of the 20/59/65 interchange), the district includes all kinds of residents and voters. It has working-class people, yuppies, loft-dwellers, single-family neighborhoods, blacks, whites, rich, poor — in short, it looks a lot more like Jefferson County than any other legislative district. In recent years, the demographics of District 54 have shifted almost into a complete balance. With this year’s election, it seemed, we would finally get to have a sort of experiment. What would happen if all these different people had to decide on one person to represent them? It’s the stuff of reality TV shows, only it’s important.

The election of Patricia Todd is remarkable for 2 things.
1) She’s openly gay.
2) She’s white in a (slightly) majority black district.

Patricia will become the first openly gay elected official in Alabama’s history.

In my opinion, she won this election because she ran this election like EVERY candidate should. For the past two weeks I got a mailer from Patricia Todd’s campaign nearly every day. Each one described in detail what she wanted to do in Montgomery to make our district better. She wants a new State Constitution, she wants more home rule, she pledges to hold regular meetings with her constituents, etc.

I got messages on my home answering machine inviting me out to meet Patricia in Crestwood park last Sunday. Her campaign volunteers were outgoing and quickly arranged for my wife and I to meet Patricia and ask her some questions. I overheard some of her campaign volunteers talking about how they knocked on nearly every door in the district to get the word out. She fought hard to win the campaign and I’m sure she’ll fight hard for us in Montgomery.

Congratulations Representative Todd!