Republican outreach to blacks getting results in Florida
Washington Times:
Washington Times:
One current and one recent Florida county director for the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization have switched party designations from Democrat to Republican, showing some of the first signs that the Republican Party's efforts to reach out to blacks are working.
Darryl E. Rouson, recent past president of St. Petersburg chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Derrick Wallace, Orange County chapter president, both have registered Republican in the past two months.
The announcements were seen as a boon for state and national Republicans eagerly seeking allies in efforts to reach out to the black community, but the two men said their decisions to switch party affiliation were based on the local political and business landscape.
Mr. Rouson, a lifelong Democrat, worked on the 1998 re-election campaign of Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Illinois Democrat, before returning to private practice in 1999 and registering as an independent.
He said he made his decision after examining the Democratic Party's recent history in the state.
"I saw that the mayor for eight years here in Pinellas County, who was a Democrat, had given only lip service to inner-city economic development," he said.
The current Republican mayor, Rick Baker who was re-elected two weeks ago with 90 percent of the black vote, gave immediate attention to development and worked closely with black businessmen, Mr. Rouson said.
Mr. Rouson, who stepped down as chapter president in September just weeks before joining the party, said he also learned that not one black person had been appointed to the circuit court bench in 24 years under Democratic governors.
"[Gov. Jeb] Bush nominated two of the three serving now out of 55 judicial seats," he said.
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