Vermont elects a Muslim as its Democratic Party chair [View all]

WASHINGTON -- The most remarkable fact about Faisal Gill isn’t that he might be the first Muslim to ever be elected chair of a state party.

It’s that he now runs the Democratic Party in Vermont, perhaps the most liberal state in the union, only 10 years after running as a Republican candidate in Virginia – and serving as a lawyer in the administration of President George W. Bush.

“It is a clearly a remarkable journey,” said the 44-year-old, who on Saturday was elected chairman of the Vermont Democratic Party. “People would say, ‘Wait a minute, you used to be what?’ ”

Gill said he served as a lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Tom Ridge before narrowly losing a race for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2007.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article136820748.html