Survey shows diversity is an issue for Florida's GOP delegation

ST. PAUL -- The national Republican Party was poised to make history Wednesday by nominating a folksy, straight-talking, working mother of five for vice president, a move party officials said will drive home the message that they are the party of the people.

But the demographics of the Florida delegation paint a different picture.

A party survey of the 225-member delegation turned up six blacks and 18 Hispanics. Sixty-three members did not specify a race on the party questionnaire.

The same survey showed 67 women.

Blacks make up 15.9 percent of Florida's population but 2.7 percent of the delegation. Florida is 19.6 percent Hispanic, but the delegation is 8 percent Hispanic.

The delegation's gender gap is also pronounced. Florida is 51 percent female, the delegation is 70.2 percent male.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer acknowledged the party's historic struggle to attract minorities, but he argued that Florida Republicans have made tremendous strides. He was quick to mention Brevard County delegate John Anderson, the first black Republican in Florida to serve as a county chairman.

"At the end of the day, we have great delegates to the convention that are black and that are Hispanic," Greer said.

Women make up 29.8 percent of the delegation, but it won't look that way on television when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin accepts her vice presidential nomination Wednesday. Delegates and alternates are sharing Florida's 114 floor seats at the Xcel Energy Center, but Geer asked the men Wednesday to give up their seats to women when Palin makes her much-anticipated speech.

Greer argued that the Democrats' approach to building the delegation it sent to Denver last week, using a quota system, puts quantity above "quality."

"I don't agree with that concept," Greer said. "If you have major outreach like we have, why do you have to have percentages?"

The Florida Democratic delegation was 51 percent female, 23 percent black and 9 percent Hispanic.

Anderson, an 81-year-old member of the Tuskegee Airmen, said the percentages ignore the significant progress that the party has made.

"I try to make sure when I'm doing my outreach that people understand that this was not a black thing, that I was elected by whites," he said. "John Anderson was in the trenches, serving on committees, doing the things that he needed to do not because he was black, but because he was a Republican."

Clarence McKee, a black Republican and a communications coordinator for the Broward County Republicans, acknowledged that there are more black Democrats in Hillsborough County than the 65,000 black Republicans in all of Florida.

He blames tradition. Most black elected officials are Democrats, and that perpetuates the black tendency to identify exclusively with that party, McKee said. But much of the Republican platform, being tough on crime, anti-abortion and supporting school vouchers, are issues that naturally appeal to blacks, McKee said.

"Unlike Hispanics and Jews, who understand the importance of having a stake in being represented by both parties, blacks continue to be tied to the umbilical cord of the Democratic Party," McKee said.

Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff sees it another way.

"I think Floridians recognize that Republicans represent special interests, not the people," he said.

By By Jim Ash
Tallahassee Democrat