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Florida GOP Delegation Sends Few Black Delegates

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By WILLIAM MARCH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2008

Updated: 09/03/2008 02:08 pm

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Despite a push for increased minority involvement in the Florida Republican Party, the Florida delegation to this year's Republican Convention has seen a sharp drop in black participation, as has the convention as a whole.

The author of a study on black participation in the parties' conventions says that's partly because GOP nominee John McCain comes from a state with few black residents and has fewer black political allies and associates than outgoing President George Bush.

Combined with Democrat Barack Obama's popularity among black voters, that could spell a setback in GOP efforts to recruit blacks away from their longstanding Democratic orientation, said the author, David Bositis, a veteran researcher on race in politics.

The low number of blacks at the Minneapolis-St. Paul GOP convention this year follows a record year at the 2004 convention in New York, when both the state and national Republican parties recruited more black delegates.

It also follows a high-profile attempt by Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer to increase minority outreach, and the election of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who ran on civil rights issues and got unprecedented black support.

Finally, it follows a Democratic convention in Denver last week that included a record high percentage of black delegates, 24 percent.

The numbers for this convention, according to party figures and the study by Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies:

•Of Florida's 225 delegates and alternates, seven are black, or 3.1 percent. Counting delegates only – three out of 114 -- the percentage is lower.

•For the convention as a whole – omitting New York and Virginia, which didn't provide figures – 36 of the 2,216 delegates are black, or 1.6 percent.

National and state Republican Party spokesmen didn't dispute Bositis's figures. Numbers from the state party partially confirmed them, and a national party spokeswoman, Maury Donahue, said the party doesn't know how many blacks are participating in the full convention.

One of Florida's three black delegates, public relations consultant Clarence McKee of Coral Springs, said the small number of black delegates is simply because there are so few black Republicans in Florida – 63,676 as of the end of July.

Black people, he said, could benefit from being swing voters recruited by both parties.

"We'd better learn how to keep a foot in both camps so we'll be in play," said McKee, a former Tampa broadcast executive who was a prominent supporter and transition team member for Crist.

Party Attempts 'Erratic'

The recent history of black GOP convention participants has been one of ups and downs.

At the 2000 Philadelphia convention that first nominated George Bush, the party was embarrassed by news stories saying there seemed at times to be more black faces on the stage than in the crowd -- when a gospel choir performed, or a class of mostly minority schoolchildren stood behind Laura Bush.

In 2004, they tried to change that.

Florida party leaders used their power of appointing at-large delegates to pick blacks who didn't win delegate slots in the local caucus elections. Nationwide, Bositis said, "party bigwigs gave up their seats to create openings for African-Americans."

As result, 6.7 percent of all delegates and 12 percent of Floridians were black.

This year, Greer said, no such effort was made. "I'd rather achieve a cross-section through honest outreach and hard work than being required to fill seats," he said.

He noted the Democratic Party has rules requiring racial diversity – although Democratic leaders said they have diversity goals, not absolute requirements, and they were exceeded.

Since taking office as chairman, Greer has set up a minority outreach program, held statewide conferences for black and Hispanic Republicans, and taken small steps such as visiting the editorial board of Tampa's black community newspaper, the Florida Sentinel Bulletin.

Crist, who favored Greer for party chairman, won 18 percent of Florida's black vote in 2006 – a record for a Republican, according to Florida political experts.

Greer said it's not a setback for efforts to increase diversity.

"Is there a lot more to do? Yes," he said.

But he noted that for the first time, one Florida alternate delegate is a county party chairman, John Anderson of Brevard, and that other black delegation members are state Republican Executive Committee members.

"We have a cross-section, black, white, Hispanic, male, female, young and old," he said.

But Bositis said this is a major setback for the party's "erratic and episodic attempts" to woo blacks.

Because of the candidacy of Obama, he said, "Young African-Americans, the ones most likely to switch to the Republican Party, are now less Republican than they were five years ago."

He said part of the difference between 2008 and 2004 is that McCain "has no black connections, unlike George Bush."

Bush's home state, Texas, has close to 2 million black people, and a significant number of black Republicans, while Arizona has few black residents, he said.

Bositis said even the Virgin Islands, 76 percent black, has only one black GOP convention delegate out of nine, and the District of Columbia, which is 60 percent black, has none.

McKee, one of the black Florida delegates, agreed with Bositis that McCain's lack of black support stems in part from the small black constituency in his home state, but said he doesn't think the overwhelming black support for Obama will be enough to elect him president.

"I don't think there are enough guilty white liberals and blacks for Obama to win," he said.

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

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