Name That Party: Democratic Birmingham Mayor Arrested

December 1st, 2008 12:44 PM

LarryLangfordBirminghamAL1208Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Larry Langford has been arrested.

His party is not mentioned in the story at AL.com.

Langford is Democrat (even Wikipedia took a while before naming his party).

Here are key paragraphs from the story:

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested this morning on federal charges and is being held at the federal courthouse, the FBI and other federal officials confirm.

.... A special grand jury for several months has been investigating county bond deals and Langford's financial dealings. Langford was Jefferson County Commission president 2002-06.

..... The Langford, LaPierre and Blount indictments are under seal, so details of the charges are not available.

Langford, LaPierre and Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount are accused in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit of not disclosing $156,000 in payments to Langford. The SEC has accused Blount of paying Langford through LaPierre as part of a plan to secure Jefferson County financial business when Langford was Jefferson County Commission president. (Read the May 2008 story)

The SEC lawsuit against Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford fails to show how friends' personal payments to Langford led to $6.7 million in government business, their lawyers said in a filing seeking dismissal of the suit this summer.

The point that Democrats seldom have their party identification mentioned in stories about them when they are in trouble has made been made often. It will continue to be made until the treatment of Dems and Repulbicans in stories of this nature is equivalent.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.