On Tuesday morning Alex Sink called up Miami broadcasting and religious figure Bishop Victor T. Curry, after blowing off the influential head of the Miami-Dade County chapter of the NAACP last week.
She apologized for failing to make an appearance on WMBM-AM last Tuesday, saying her duties as the state’s CFO kept her away. However, as the Palm Beach Post's Jane Musgrave blogs, that wasn't exactly the reason she gave last week about her no-show. Then it was that she and her running mate Rod Smith had to attend a “big, huge rally in North Florida."
In the short time that CL was able to listen in on the broadcast via the Internet, Bishop Curry didn't seem to hold a grudge.
But not everybody in the African-American community feels the same way, at least in Tampa.
Jarvis El-Amin is a community activist in the black community throughout Hillsborough County. He was at last Saturday's early voting rally in East Tampa, an event with a less than stellar turnout.
He says Alex Sink has ignored that important voting bloc. "I'm not impressed by her," El-Amin said this morning. "She's taken us for granted," he said, certainly not the first time members of the black community have felt that way about a white Democrat.
El-Amin also said that he and some other "key African-American leaders" in the area had tried to have a sit-down discussion with her, but couldn't pull it off. "She should be reaching out to us," he bemoaned. "I think she's in a tough fight," he added.
This article appears in Oct 21-27, 2010.
