Crist reaches out to state NAACP

Bringing a personal touch as a speaker, the Republican governor upstages the rival party.

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
Published September 23, 2007

GAINESVILLE - Gov. Charlie Crist spoke of his African-American "heroes" Saturday night and got a warm welcome as the keynote speaker at the annual dinner of the Florida Conference of the NAACP.

Crist's attendance was yet another step in the Republican governor's efforts to build a bridge with blacks, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic. His emphasis was highly personal -- not about partisanship or his party but about himself.

In a 15-minute talk, Crist said his principal at St. Petersburg High School, Vyrle Davis, was a role model, and Martin Lee Anderson, the boy who died in a Panama City boot camp, was "a hero to me."

He recalled sitting on the bench while his father, Dr. Charles Crist, served as a team doctor to an all-black Gibbs High football squad in the 1960s. He reminded the crowd of his action as attorney general to reopen the 1951 firebombing murder case of civil rights leader Harry T. Moore of Mims.

"I don't get mad. I really don't," Crist said, except for "injustice. That makes me mad," as the crowd at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church Family Life Center broke into applause.

Crist was introduced by Florida's top NAACP leader, Adora Obi Nweze, as "a governor for all the people."

Crist's presence before the crowd of 500 people was all the more visible because of the dearth of big-name Democrats there. Four black state legislators attended, but no party leaders.

Republican Party chairman Jim Greer was there with John Davis, the party's African-American outreach coordinator. Greer said the GOP's 2008 efforts would include adding to its 66,000 registered black Republicans in Florida.

"This is monumental," said Cynthia Chestnut, an Alachua County commissioner and former state legislator, as Crist posed for pictures with dinner guests.Chestnut disagrees with Crist's insistence on cutting property taxes. But she and others believed it was the first time in the state conference's 64 years that a sitting governor had addressed the annual dinner.

Crist's efforts to forge ties with black voters could complicate Democrats' efforts to regain the office in 2010. Exit polls said he won 18 percent of the black vote in 2006.

The first-year governor's appearance at the event came at about the same point in his term as Jeb Bush's efforts to replace affirmative action in 1999. Bush's One Florida initiative led to protests and helped spark a sit-in by two black legislators.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.

[Last modified September 22, 2007, 23:56:07]