Republicans Want More Minority Involvement

By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 9, 2007

TAMPA - The Florida Republican Party is set to begin what Chairman Jim Greer describes as a major effort to reach out to minority voters, including a planned conference next month in Tallahassee for thousands of black Republicans and independents.

The effort "will show that the Republican Party walks the walk," Greer said.

"I and Gov. Crist want to leave office showing that what we said we meant, and there was never any question of our recognition of the importance of the minority voter," he said.

Some black Floridians - even black Republicans - say they've heard before about GOP attempts to become a viable political force in their community, and haven't been impressed.

But Greer said he means it.

"At the end of the day, we will not only demonstrate to minority voters that the party is serious about engaging them, but also that we have a step-by-step plan to reach out to them."

Greer said the outreach will include a new department within the state party dedicated to minority outreach, and two new advisory councils for blacks and Hispanics. The party already had a minority outreach effort as part of its field operation. Greer said he's elevating it to a separate department whose head will report directly to him.

State Rep. Jennifer Carroll of Jacksonville will head the black council, and Cuban-American lawyer Marcos Marchena of Orlando will head the Hispanic council.

Mixed Prospects With Minorities

The effort comes at a time when the Florida Republican Party faces mixed prospects with minority voters.

On the plus side:

•Crist, a Republican who chose Greer for the chairman's position, has had unprecedented success with minority voters. Exit polls showed Crist with 18 percent of black votes in last year's election.

By comparison, Republican Jeb Bush got 14 percent in his 1998 election - considered a record at the time - but dropped to an estimated 8 percent in his 2002 re-election.

•There has been a slow trend in Florida and nationally of black voters gravitating toward the GOP, said University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus, who studies demographic trends in politics.

MacManus said blacks remain "the most solidly Democratic vote out there." But some are changing because of increasing black economic prosperity, a corresponding rise in black entrepreneurship and the sizeable number of black voters who favor private school tuition vouchers.

•Republicans still benefit from the highly organized, active Cuban-American community in South Florida - the reason the GOP has long dominated among Florida Hispanics - while Democrats win among Hispanics nationwide.

On the negative side:

•Large numbers of Democratic-oriented immigrants from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Latin America are beginning to overshadow the Florida Cuban community. In 2006, exit polls showed Crist and Democrat Jim Davis tied among Hispanics.

•Fervent hatred of Fidel Castro, which motivates South Florida Cubans toward the GOP, is declining among younger generations. The climate could change further after Castro dies.

•The recent controversy over immigration, in which Republicans have taken hard-line, anti-immigration stands to please the party's conservative base, has alienated Hispanic voters. Democrats hope for a bumper crop of Hispanic votes as result.

Republican presidential candidates have made headlines this year by declining to attend two Hispanic candidate forums - one held by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Orlando, and one by the Hispanic television network Univision.

Asked whether that could harm his outreach effort, Greer didn't answer directly but left the impression that he wasn't pleased.

'Future Of Our Party Is Inclusion'

"I'm not going to talk about specific candidates, but the future of our party is inclusion," he said.

Greer said the party will send about 50,000 invitations to black Republican and independent voters for the Nov. 16 Black Republican Conference in Tallahassee with former football star Lynn Swann as keynote speaker.

Reactions to the plans varied.

Adora Obi Nweze of Miami, state president of the NAACP, emphasized her organization's nonpartisan status, but said it's a mistake for any political party to ignore any group of voters.

She cited Crist as an example of a Republican who obtained black support because he "opens up his doors to people to come in and dialogue."

Democrats scoffed at the initiative.

"It's another desperate attempt to save an election they're going to lose … thinking they should engage people they've left out in the past," said Janet Gonzalez Rifkin, a longtime Democratic Party activist and former chairwoman of the county Democratic Hispanic caucus.

"I would challenge them to tell the minorities what they really have to offer. Can they change the funding cuts for the working poor that don't have health insurance?"

Even Curtis Stokes, a Tampa banker active in both the NAACP and the Republican Party, and a Crist backer, expressed skepticism.

"I'm all for what Greer's trying to do, but it can't just die out after November," he said. "Every election season this starts, but after the election season it wanes away. As an African-American Republican, it doesn't seem genuine to me."

MacManus said Republicans may never dominate the black vote, but they can make inroads with the right candidate and the right issue.

"What they can go after is a few percentage points that could make a difference in a close election," she said.

Even if the returns are small, she said, the Republican Party must make convincing attempts - if for no other reason, to please white voters.

"You always have to be perceived as seeking black votes," she said. "Republicans in Florida tend to be more moderate here than in the Deep South; they don't want to be perceived as uninterested in diversity in the party."

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