There is life within the Alabama Democratic Party — albeit at the county level.
On Saturday, Democratic county chairmen from across the state gathered in Birmingham to form the state’s first Alabama Democratic County Chair Association. The group said it plans to build off the work that county committees and county chairs are already performing and hopefully use it to build the party from the ground up.
“On Election Day in Alabama, there are actually 67 elections that take place, not one,” Marshall County Democratic Chair Susan McKenney said in a statement released by the group. “Where there is a Democratic County Chair there is a Democratic County Committee that is organizing, recruiting, training, canvassing, and protecting our elections.”
McKenney was the primary organizer of the gathering and was elected as its first chairman. Lawrence County Chair Marcus Echols will serve as vice-chair, Fayette County Chair Richard White Jr. will serve as secretary, and Houston County Chair Linda Turner is the group’s first treasurer.
McKenney said that county chair organizations are common in other states, and she said this will finally give county chairs a means to organize with each other. McKenney stressed that the organization is not operating independently from the much maligned Alabama Democratic Party, but will instead work collaboratively with the state party.
The new organization was undoubtedly well received by county committee members who have long complained that their issues and ideas were not being addressed in a timely manner by ADP.
