Patricia Todd can finally buy a dryer.

Hers has been busted for six months, the Alabama State Representative, D-Birmingham, says, yet she couldn't afford a new one.

She couldn't afford it because she'd been unemployed for six months and the state's complex ethics laws regarding interactions between legislators and non-profits made it difficult--if not impossible--for her to get a job, she says, in her profession as an advocate in the non-profit sector.

On Monday, Todd, who was first elected to the state office in 2006, announced she will not run for re-election.

Soon thereafter, she received an offer from the Consumer Financial Education Foundation of America (CFEFA), which she accepted.

In a statement announcing her decisions not to run, Todd said: "The current ethics laws and the time to serve as a legislator create a barrier for me to secure full-time employment and it has created a financial burden on my family."

"I blew through my savings," she told me later that evening.

Todd said potential employers were skittish about regulations that consider anyone whose job entails speaking with a legislator a lobbyist, and rules around interactions between legislators and lobbyists are strict.

"They'd say they didn't know the ethics laws enough to know if hiring me would be legit or not," she said. "The ethics office needs to clarify where we can work."

"When you get to a high level of visibility in the legislature, you're just going to interact with people who hire lobbyists," she said, noting that lobbyists don't always reveal themselves.

"I think they should wear racing jackets with emblems of everyone they represent," she said with a laugh. "That way we can see them coming."

She says she was able to accept the CFEFA position because until she leaves office in November, her job will only entail "planning and needs assessment," not fund-raising.

Todd had long contemplated whether to run for re-election, as the financial constraints of being a legislator tightened. The proverbial back-breaking "last straw", she said, came earlier this week when she was one of numerous current and former Alabama lawmakers to be subpoenaed by the state Attorney General's office asking for documentation ensuring campaign finance reports are accurate.

Candidates must report all expenditures, in accordance with Alabama law, itemizing and expenditures above $100. In reviewing the state's campaign finance database, however, al.com colleague and columnist Kyle Whitmire learned that many officials don't itemize all $100+ expenses and that some show credit-card payments without revealing what was purchased.

Todd said her subpoena covered a "Visa" entry listed in a 2013 campaign finance report.

'I'm not afraid of it because I know I did nothing wrong," she said.

Todd said her campaign director "didn't know" to itemize the entry and she looks forward to clearing it with the attorney general's office--although she says she wishes the officials would have simply called for clarity rather than issues subpoenas.

"I'm not saying there isn't any corruption," she said, "But most of these could have been cleared up with a telephone call."

As she prepares to exit public service in November, Todd said she is also concerned that the state's ethics regulations and other factors are creating a legislature that does not reflect us today.

"The legislature's demographics don't match Alabama's demographics," she said. "Overall, it's not young, overwhelmingly white and mostly rich."

"And that won't change until some of the old fogies die off."

Roy S. Johnson's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. He may be reached at rjohnson@al.com or twitter.com/roysj