This is an opinion column.

If this is how the Alabama Democratic Party functions, perhaps it’s better that Republicans control Alabama.

And with this level of dysfunction within the Alabama Democratic Party, Republicans always will.

On Saturday, the state party’s executive committee met, in a manner of speaking. It’s not clear a quorum was present, and at least a couple of dozen committee members were turned away,

Next, the party voted to abolish several caucuses by a vote count that appears to have been made up and doesn’t come close to pictures of the standing vote taken by a reporter.

Youth caucus — gone.

LGBTQ caucus — gone.

Disable caucus— gone.

Until today, those caucuses had the power to nominate at-large members to ensure representation proportionate to Alabama Democratic voters.

But not anymore. The party’s Black caucus, controlled by the Alabama Democratic Conference and led by state party boss Joe Reed, had opposed the other caucuses, which dilute ADC’s influence on the executive committee.

“What happened today — what the leadership of the Alabama Democratic Party did — was to essentially say that we don’t represent the Democratic electorate in Alabama anymore,” former U.S. Senator Doug Jones said after the meeting.

In a state where Republicans pass tougher and tougher voting restrictions every legislative session, the Alabama Democratic Party has responded by enacting its own sort of poll tax. At least two dozen executive committee members were turned away, having been told they had not paid a $50 qualifying fee they say they were not warned about.

One of those folks who was turned away, Youth Caucus member Haley Czarnek, told me she offered to pay $50 cash on the spot but was told she couldn’t. Then she was told she couldn’t vote as an executive committee member — a committee she has sat on three times in the last year — because she hadn’t paid.

On the other side of this power struggle within the Alabama Democratic Party are party boss Joe Reed and his ally, party chairman Randy Kelley.

“I walked up to the podium and gave the chair my $50 directly and asked him if I would be allowed to vote, and Joe Reed told me that I would not,” Czarnek said. “And he told the entire party that you cannot buy your way into the meeting, which is the same meeting at which I was told the reason why I wasn’t going to be seated was because I hadn’t paid.”

In 2019, the Democratic National Committee ordered the state to pass new bylaws, which created new caucuses for party constituent groups, including youth, LGBTQ and Latinos, among others.

“We never should’ve even changed the bylaws,” Reed said Saturday.

Ever since Reed’s faction won back control of the party last August, the executive committee has attempted to repeal the bylaws the Reed faction doesn’t like.

Those new caucuses initially brought enough new faces into the party’s executive committee that Reed’s group, which controls a majority (but not all) of the Black caucus, lost control.

But last year, Reed eked out a narrow victory in party elections, and since then he and his allies have been trying to chip away at their opposition. In previous party meetings, Reed has flirted with changing the bylaws but stopped short.

On Saturday, they went the full distance.

Supposedly, the executive committee repealed the DNC-mandated bylaws on a 63-49 vote, but photos taken by Alabama Reflector reporter Alander Rocha cast doubt.

In those photos, about 20 committee members can be seen standing in support of the motion. More than 30 stood to vote against the measure.

When committee members asked the chairman for a roll-call vote, Kelley refused.

By repealing the bylaws, the party will no longer ensure that minority groups, other than the Black caucus, are proportionately represented on the executive committee.

“If you look at the numbers, I don’t even think they had a quorum for the committee,” Jones said. “This was the action of the same small cabal that has essentially destroyed the party for a long time, and now they’re hellbent on continuing to do it.”

Intra-party power struggles aside, Alabama Democrats have shown few signs of life in recent months as simple party functions like messaging have ceased. The party’s social media accounts have been dormant since Kelley became party chair last August and the party has not capitalized on unforced Republican errors, like when the GOP party chairman admitted last year to having voted with an ID he made himself.

When vice-chair Tabitha Isner offered to run the social media accounts for the party last year, Kelley accused her of trying to usurp control.

Jones said the decisions made today wouldn’t go unchallenged, but he declined to say what form a challenge would take.

“I think it effectively kills the Democratic Party in Alabama if it stands,” Jones said.

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