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County GOP Gets Apology

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By WILLIAM MARCH

wmarch@tampatrib.com

Published: February 18, 2009

TAMPA - Former Hillsborough County Republican Party official Carol Carter apologized to the party in a brief speech Tuesday night for sending an e-mail some considered racist.

Carter also said she has had second thoughts about running for re-election to the party post she resigned from after the incident last week.

At the local party meeting Tuesday night, Chairman Debbie Cox-Roush defended her own handling of the incident and said she wants a colorblind party devoid of "identity politics."

Carter resigned as state committeewoman, a representative from the county to the state party's governing board, after an e-mail joke she forwarded became public.

The e-mail asks why blacks were able to travel to Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration but unable to evacuate New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

She later sought unsuccessfully to rescind her resignation, then said she would run in the election set for March to pick her replacement.
Five women have said they will seek the position.

Asked Tuesday night whether she will run, Carter said, "I haven't really firmed up a decision."

Even as she apologized, Carter put part of the blame for the incident on local Republicans who forwarded the e-mail to reporters.

"Please accept my deep and sincere apologies," Carter said at the first meeting of the local GOP to be held since the incident occurred. "I was wrong to have shared any such materials even with a few."

She said she resigned her post because "the media frenzy that happened was beyond my comprehension, and in the heat of the moment I e-mailed a resignation."

She added, "To those of you who leaked to the media, I'm ashamed of you."

The incident continues to create something of a stir in the local party.

E-mails among some local Republicans, some of them anonymous, have called for Cox-Roush to resign the chairwoman's post she won in a December election, saying she didn't react strongly enough to the incident.

Others defend Carter, a veteran party worker and donor, saying she should not leave her post over what they call a minor matter.

Cox-Roush told the meeting of about 200 local Republicans, "I'm tired of dwelling on things in 2009 that should have been handled years before." Calling for "a colorblind vision" for the party, she said, "We want you because you're a Republican, and nothing else."

At the same meeting, some 200 party members heard a presentation by John Davis, director of minority outreach for the state Republican Party, who said his job is to help the party "become more diverse, get more minorities involved."

Davis and Cox-Roush said he has been appearing regularly before county party groups and his appearance Tuesday was not related to the incident involving Carter.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.

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