After a 4-hour meeting on 10/12/19, the Alabama Democratic Party’s SDEC has voted to replace the bylaws approved by 78 members last Saturday with an amended version of the old one which the DNC has not approved, also defied the DNC by holding elections for new SDEC members, and finally “cancelled” the ADP meeting called by members for Nov. 2 in favor of Nov. 16.

Takeaways:

• This was a shitshow.
• The votes on the bylaws were close: out of 167 members attending, the split was usually 80-73. It was said to be on largely-racial lines, even though the House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels and his fellow legislators Chris England and Vivian Figures supported the Oct. 5 meeting and agitatedly strongly against the Worley-Reed faction throughout this meeting.
• This is a big middle finger to the DNC and Doug Jones. Say bye-bye to Milwaukee, to DNC party-building money ($10k a month withheld since September 2018) and perhaps to Doug Jones’ re-election bid.
• Lawyer Barry Ragsdale has threatened a lawsuit against the ADP after the Monday holiday.
• Dissenting members have stated they will attend the Nov. 2 meeting and hold leadership elections for a new executive board. Could be the start of a new (DNC-affiliated?) party for Alabama.
• Worley regularly overrode points of order, parliamentary inquiries, suggested amendments and points of personal privilege from the opposition. She repeatedly refused to recognize minutes, procedures and bylaws from last Saturday’s meeting, but somehow managed to recognize the called meeting for Nov 2 and vote to kill the call.
• DNC lawyer Harold Ickes noted to reporters in the back that Worley was violating the OLD BYLAWS, let alone the new ones. More fodder for the lawsuit.
• Meeting ended in massive screaming.
• This feels less like a racial split and more of a power play between the Alabama Democratic Conference and the Alabama Democratic Reform Caucus ADRC/ Alabama New South Coalition over how much/far affirmative action should be considered in SDEC representation.

Another thing I noticed is how so much of the drama which unfolded at the ADP’s SDEC meeting today is not as reflected in social media. Not much social media engagement from the Worley-Reed faction beyond a few individuals and the Alabama Democratic Conference.

You would expect something this consequential to have a social media campaign being waged on behalf of the status quo. But the tweets are barely there. The Facebook posts are overwhelmingly pro-reform.

Instead, the status quo pushback has largely happened through quotes to journalists from al.com (namely Kyle Whitmire) and Montgomery Advertiser (namely Brian Lyman).

This says a few things about media and statewide party politics in the South:

• Most of the Worley-Reed faction don’t use social media, or at least don’t use it to amplify their opinions. I’m currently assuming that their age group is above 50 on average.
• Local journalists and columnists have been as essential to coverage of in-party politics as much as members of the SDEC and Democratic activists.
• As the majority of those who voted against the DNC’s recommendations are Black, I see a startling lack of coverage of why they voted for the status quo, which is not a good look for a state with such a large Black Democratic presence. At most, the three biggest reasons offered by the few posting made online by anti-reform members are the following:
  • Doug Jones voting more for Trump appointees than other Senate Democrats;
  • The DNC’s perceived lack of diversity;
  • The perceived watering-down of African-American voting strength in the SDEC in the new bylaws compared to the African-American voting strength within the Alabama Democratic base in general elections.

Only one anti-reform voice has actually defended Nancy Worley’s leadership. But there is a distrust for the pro-reform side’s motives, deep-seated anger against Worley and Reed’s defenders for dragging the party into such a weakened state, and perhaps a lack of information to/from/about the anti-reform side’s proponents.