Retired USAF Colonel Penny Huggins Bailey Files As a Democrat in AL-06

by: mooncat

Thu Jan 12, 2012 at 14:55:47 PM CST

Here's the first Democrat to qualify in Alabama's 6th congressional district since 2000: Retired USAF Colonel Penny Huggins Bailey. 

Colonel Bailey announced her candidacy today, bringing 24 years of leadership in the United States Air Force to the race against the eventual Republican nominee.
 
Penny Huggins Bailey is a longtime Leeds resident and graduate of Leeds High School and Samford University. She served in the US Air Force and retired at the rank of Colonel after 24 years of duty.  Her last assignment was as Vice Wing Commander at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. She was responsible for 4,000 people and a budget of $4 billion.

Her husband, an Air Force Colonel and still on active duty as a Flight Surgeon, will serve his third deployment overseas this year. The Baileys have been married for more than 30 years and have three children.  Both were in the Pentagon when it was struck by a hijacked airliner on 9/11.
 
“For twenty-four years I had the honor to serve in the US Air Force where service before self, excellence in all you do, and integrity were our core values,” Colonel Bailey said. “I want to work to embody these values in Congress on behalf of the people of Alabama’s 6th Congressional District. Alabamians deserve a true public servant who puts professionalism before partisan politics, and I know I have the background to do Alabama proud in Washington.”