Petulent Florida Democratic Party leaders still haven't recognized the new Democratic African-American Women's Caucus (DAAWC). But you know what? On Sunday they're at least going to notice it.
Leslie Wimes -- on the outs with party leadership and virtually by herself -- has cobbled together a major Sunday get-out-the-vote event to celebrate the DAAWC, the organization Wimes founded and black women by the hundreds discovered on Wimes' website before the August Democratic Primary.
I asked Leslie why I hadn't seen much action on her Women on the Movepage since the primary. She told me she's been too busy since August, putting this first DAAWC event together.
She calls it "Power in Unity." It happens 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Lou Rawls Center for the Performing Arts at Florida Memorial University in Miami. I don't know about the unity part, but Leslie certainly has strung together a powerful presence for the organization's inaugural event.
Eat your heart out, FDP: Look at some of the names on the attendee list who get a place on the Lou Rawls stage. They include the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Virgie M. Rollins, chair of the Democratic National Committee Black Caucus; Wisconsin Sen. Lena G. Taylor, D-Milwaukee; U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, chair, Congressional Black Caucus; U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., dean of the Congressional Black Caucus; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Florida Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami; international Christian celebrityProphetess Tera Carissa Hodges; Pastor Jamal Bryant of Baltimore, arrested in Ferguson, Mo. in October for protesting police brutality;Val Demings, the first female police chief of Orlando, who some Democrats hoped earlier in the year Charlie Crist would choose as his running mate.
Add to those names the DAAWC's honorary trustees, U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, Corrine Brown and Frederica Wilson. And probably many more I've overlooked.
I understand Sen. Nan Rich will attend, though I wasn't able to confirm it. I hope she gets a standing "o." FDP leadership is still shunning her -- first it was because she wouldn't drop out of the primary on command, then it was because she made front-runner Charlie Crist look bad by insisting on a debate he wasn't prepared to engage in, and now it's because she isn't out there every day promoting Crist to the party base.
Leslie told me party leadership wasn't exactly handed engraved invitations, but neither would they be denied entry if they wanted to attend. "This is a get-out-the-vote rally as much as anything," she told me. "But we're not going to stand up in front of everybody and tell them who they have to vote for. Charlie Crist's name may not come up at all."
Oh, I doubt the Republicans will get that lucky. The impressive slate of speakers Leslie mustered didn't come to Florida to spend Sunday getting out the vote for Adrian Wyllie or Rick Scott.
But I look at all this Leslie has done and I'm thinking, how stupid and petty can Allison Tant and the rest of the leaders at Democratic headquarters be?
The "unity day" they had after the primary -- without Leslie Wimes and other Charlie Crist dissenters -- wasn't unifying at all. Before the primary theparty tried, but couldn't bring her to heel. Leaders and surrogates went toe to toe with her, belittled her in blogs and in comments on stories and accused her of secretly working for Gov. Rick Scott -- all because she didn't trust "Chain Gang Charlie," an ideological eunuch, to represent traditional Democratic values.
And now look. Look what Leslie is capable of.
What did Maureen McKenna'sDemocratic Womens Club of Florida do to muster the base and catch attention like Sunday's "Power in Unity"? Unless I missed it, nothing. How about the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida? Anybody see anything?
The governor's race is a tossup. The Charlie Crist campaign team has acknowledgedCrist needs 93 percentof the African-American vote to win on Nov. 4, and by all accounts, African-American women make up nearly 70 percent of that 93. So how wise is it to leave a playmaker like Leslie, an activist with principles and energy that won't quit, disconnected and out in the cold? Why would you do that?
As Leslie says, by not sanctioning the DAAWC, the Democratic Party isn't punishing her, it's telling black women -- women who vote, who stay involved, who have their own businesses, their own health issues, their own need for party attention and support -- that they're incapable of leadership, they're unimportant and in the end, there's no place for them under the big blue tent.
I'm thinking if Scott wins by a handful, the dysfunctional Florida Democratic Party should answer to someone for the sheer waste of Leslie Wimes.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
