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State GOP Again Tries To Court Black Vote

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By WILLIAM MARCH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 17, 2007

ORLANDO - The kickoff event Friday for a state Republican effort to attract black voters drew a crowd of close to 300 people, most of them committed Republicans.

Despite the boost from the Florida Classic football game being held in Orlando today, the numbers at the Black Republicans Conference were small compared with blacks in the Democratic Party. GOP leaders, though, said it's a start.

"It is a long journey, but today is the first step," said state Republican Chairman Jim Greer. He said it will show the party "walks the walk."

Friday's event included an appearance by Gov. Charlie Crist and a panel with football great Lynn Swann, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Pennsylvania last year; Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams; and political consultant and pundit Angela McGlowan.
GOP leaders acknowledged that few attendees were Democrats or independents who might switch parties.

"You've got to start with your base," said state Rep. Jennifer Carroll of Jacksonville, the only black Republican in the state Legislature and head of a new African-American Advisory Council set up by Greer. "You move out from there."

Many Democrats and even some black Republicans have scoffed at the effort, saying Republicans have tried often before and achieved little more than symbolic successes among black voters.

'New Leadership, New Approach'

Of the state's black voters, 66,000 are registered Republicans, outnumbered by the 151,000 no-party registrants and by the 1.01 million black Democrats.

Greer, chosen by Crist this year to lead the state party, said this time, it's different.

What could make it different, he acknowledged, is the reputation of Crist, the most successful Republican in modern state history at cultivating black support.

"New leadership, new approach," Greer said about Crist's role in the effort.

The attendees, he told them in a speech, are "the future of the Republican Party ... African-Americans, Hispanics and all the voters of the state."

Opinions of the panelists suggested Republicans could court black voters based on the socially conservative views of some in the black community, particularly black churches.

Wesley Leonard, pastor of Southside Church of Christ in Orlando, said he became a Republican because "I realized that the things I preached on Sunday did not match what I voted on Tuesday. On Sundays I preached that abortion was wrong. I preached against the gay agenda. I sure enough preached against same-sex marriages."

McGlowan, whose sharply partisan rhetoric has led some to call her "the black Ann Coulter," told the crowd, "Liberals are for killing our babies" through abortion.

But businessman Ken Anthony of Tampa, long active in Republican politics, said he thinks most black voters are moderates on social issues. He said the outreach effort is important at this time because the sharply conservative rhetoric coming from candidates in this year's GOP primary on issues including immigration and abortion could alienate some black voters.

"It's a good counterbalance," he said.

Several attendees gave different reasons for being Republicans:

•James McCoy of Clermont, regional manager for an automobile manufacturer, said he believes in "the principles of the party: liberty, self-reliance and promotion of opportunity."

•Bryan Hunt of Brandon, a 2000 University of South Florida graduate now in customer service for a telecom company, said he's a Republican because "I value my freedoms; I don't want the government telling me what I should do."

•Eric Mitchell of Tampa, a senior history and political science major at USF, said his father was a Democrat, but taught him to respect the Constitution, which he thinks Republicans do.

GOP strategists said if the party could peel off only a few percentage points of the state's 1.25 million black voters - about 13 percent of the state total - they could dominate state politics.

Crist May Be The Key

But the GOP also must hold the black voters it already has. Some in Friday's crowd were open to voting for Democrats - Kirkland voted for Al Gore in 2000, and Mitchell for Jim Davis against Crist in 2006.

Crist got an estimated 18 percent of the state's black vote in 2006, more than double former Gov. Jeb Bush's 2002 total. Crist's stated commitment to civil rights issues inspired state Rep. Terry Fields, a Democrat from Jacksonville, to call him Florida's "first black governor."

Some of Crist's most popular actions on issues important to blacks, including making it easier for former felons to have their voting rights restored, have angered people in his own party, however.

Democrats question whether Crist's popularity with black voters can translate to the Republican Party.

Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, a black Democrat attending a minority contracting workshop at the same hotel as the GOP event Friday, said Republicans could make inroads among black voters "if they follow the lead of Gov. Crist - but I predict they can't."

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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