Former Tuskegee mayor to run for Alabama Senate

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Former Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford says
he’s getting back into politics to run for the state Senate as a
Democrat.
    Ford says he plans to run next year for the Senate District 28
seat currently held by Democrat Myron Penn of Union Springs.
    Ford was elected Tuskegee’s first black mayor in 1972. He was
defeated in 1996. But two years later, he was elected to the
Alabama House as a Democrat. He eventually switched parties and
became Alabama’s first black Republican legislator since
Reconstruction.
    Ford left the House in 2004 to become mayor of Tuskegee, but he
lost his re-election bid last year. Ford says he’s pleased to be
back in the Democratic Party. He’s planning a campaign kickoff
Tuesday at the Statehouse in Montgomery.