Charlie and Carole Crist's scheduler emailed the couple's regrets to the Democratic Women's Club of Florida during the weekend. Neither will attend the club's annual convention Sept. 18-21 in St. Augustine, even though Charlie Crist had been asked to appear at the Saturday dinner.
Leslie Wimes looks at it this way: If the Democratic candidate for governor, who attends most major party functions, can blow off the club's biggest event of the year, then why would the new Democratic African-American Women's Caucus be better off working from within the Women's Club?
"It seems to me this club is invisible, even to our party's leading candidate," said Wimes,outspoken progressive columnist, president of Women on the Move and founder of the DAAWC."Maureen McKenna has more important things to worry about than trying to force us out of existence."
Wimes is convincedMcKenna, president of the Democratic Women's Club of Florida, feels threatened by the new DAAWC, a group that pulled in more than 1,500 supporters in three weeks.
McKenna distributedan email Saturday announcing she was advised by two Democratic National Committee leaders "that if anyone has any questions about the structure of the DNC and how it relates to an additional women's caucus, I should recommend they call them (the two leaders). ..."
Said Wimes on Sunday, "Maureen is suggesting that blackballing the African-American Women's Caucus has nothing to do with her, it comes from these black leaders at national headquarters. But, you know what? It doesn't. It has nothing to do with them."
Leaders named in McKenna's email were Virgie Rollins, chair of the DNC's Black Caucus; and Lottie Shackleford, chair of the DNC's Democratic Women's Caucus.
Reached at home Sunday, Rollins told Sunshine State News, "I'm not about to tell anyone in Florida what they should do. I don't want to get in the middle of it. You need to talk to (Florida Democratic Party Chair) Allison Tant about it."
Tant did not return a call to her cellphone on Sunday.
Wimes, meanwhile, wrote on her Facebook page, "So, ladies, I must inform you that Maureen ... is so insistent on keeping black women under her thumb that she went to the DNC regarding our organization, and had them contact the Florida Democratic Party to tell them not to certify us.
"I truly thought that the organizations could work together," she wrote, "but we cannot. This is an example of how certain people insist on trying to keep black women down. ... Maureen McKenna is afraid that black women will become more relevant than her ... Democratic Women's Club of Florida."
Wimes said she will not give up: "The struggle is worth it."
She saidthe new African-American Women's Caucus doesn't need certification to exist, but black women she's talked with want as large a podium as possible, want to be part of all conversations within the Democratic Party, want to be truly included, listened to, have their issues addressed by party leaders and officeholders.
She told Sunshine State News last week that she believes the Democratic Party is 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.
"They want our vote but they don't want to hear what we have to say," she said. "...I think some in the party are afraid to let black women come any closer. I don't think they understand," she said. "We don't want power. We want toempower."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
