Deborah Cox-Roush was always a Herman Cain fan. She even brought the former businessman to town two and a half years ago when he was barely on anyone's radar, so it's not a shock to hear that she is stepping down from her role as Hillsborough County Republican Party Chair to work with the insurgent presidential candidate.
She announced in a letter (see below) this morning that she will leave her role as chair of the local party on November 15, the same night that the party will vote for her successor.
Her official title is director of county chairs. When asked what that would actually entail, Cox-Roush told CL that we should wait for the details in a soon to be released statement from the campaign.
"We're all new at this so, I'm energized and excited to lead the troops across Florida for Herman Cain."
The Cain campaign was going nowhere slowly until a little over a month ago, when he shocked the political establishment by easily defeating Rick Perry and Mitt Romney to win the Florida Straw Poll in Orlando. Perry competed to win the non-binding vote; Romney did not.
Since then he has become a full fledged celebrity, but with the new stardom has come increased scrutiny, and Cain at times has shown himself not fully prepared, walking back several statements in just the past few weeks regarding abortion, illegal immigration and even his signature tax plan.
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2011.