Rod Smith, a Gainesville lawyer, former state senator and gubernatorial candidate may have the votes to become the next chair of the battered Florida Democratic Party, but the Florida Legislative Black Caucus is weighing in saying there must be diversity in the selection process.
Smith, who was Alex Sink’s running mate in her recent failed bid to become Florida’s next governor, has the backing of Miami-Dade County’s state committeeman and committeewoman for chairman, giving him well over 50 percent of the votes of executive committee members committed to him, reports the News Service of Florida. But, Smith is not taking anything for granted.
“You can’t be in politics and believe you have anything locked up,” Smith told the News Service. “I’m not presumptive at all. I’m not going to be presumptive. I’m working hard on reaching consensus with everybody.”
And so he shouldn’t see the chair as being “locked up”.
Today, Chair of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, Sen. Gary Siplin (D-Orlando) wrote to the highest ranking Democrat in Florida, Congressman Bill Nelson (D-Florida) urging him to use his influence to compel the State Democratic Party to incorporate African American elected officials and their constituency of traditionally Democratic voters in the selection process of the new Party chair.
“The Party, at this point, should be striving to ensure that our leadership is more ethnically diverse, which is essential to making us more appealing and viable to our Democratic constituency,” Siplin stated in the letter. “Our issues are the issues of most of the people in this country and State, [and] our political efforts should now reflect that.”
In the letter, Caucus members asked Senator Nelson to urge the Democratic Party to hire a consultant who is particularly skilled at outreach to communities of color.
“We lost a lot of votes during this past election – mostly in the African American and Hispanic communities because of ineffective outreach to them,” stated Rep. Alan Williams (D-Tallahassee).
Black lawmakers are also asking that they be consulted for input in the selection process. “Our constituency comprises a large segment of the Party’s traditional voting bloc, who are subject to abandon their Democratic loyalty if the Party is not reflective of them or their concerns.”
The Black Caucus would like to see an African American selected to chair the party, which would be a first. They share the view that such a selection could potentially increase African American voter turnout and fund-raising, as was the case in the 2008 primary elections when the nation’s first African American President was elected to office.
