{"id":14954,"date":"2012-06-04T16:26:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T20:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=14954"},"modified":"2012-06-04T16:31:01","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T20:31:01","slug":"7-blacks-picked-as-delegates-to-democratic-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=14954","title":{"rendered":"7 Blacks Picked As Delegates To Demo- cratic Con- vention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This past weekend, the Florida Democratic Party held its Annual Convention in downtown Tampa. The event took place at the Tampa Waterside Marriott.<\/p>\n<p>During the convention, representatives are chosen as Delegates to attend the upcoming National Democratic Convention. This year, seven African American delegates from Tampa were chosen.<\/p>\n<p>The delegates who will be representing this Congressional District of Florida are: <strong>Senator Arthenia Joyner<\/strong>, State <strong>Rep. Betty Reed<\/strong>, County <strong>Commissioner Les Miller, Jr.<\/strong>, <strong>Sean Shaw<\/strong>, <strong>Ms. Dianne Hart<\/strong>, President of the Hillsborough County Black Caucus, and <strong>Ms. Ella Coffee<\/strong>. <strong>Ms. Coffee<\/strong> is the only African American from Tampa to serve on the Credentials Committee.<\/p>\n<p>The national event will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, in September.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday evening, <strong>Rod Smith<\/strong>, Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, presented Outstanding Leadership Awards to three individuals. During the presentation, a video was shown about each recipient and the award was presented.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Gwendolyn Miller<\/strong> presented a fitting tribute to her husband, County <strong>Commissioner Leslie Miller, Jr.<\/strong>, on his recognition of being an Outstanding Leader. During remarks, <strong>Commissioner Miller<\/strong> closed out his comments with the lyrics of a popular song, \u201cLet\u2019s Do It Again\u201d like we did in 2008 and re-elect <strong>President Obama<\/strong>,\u201d <strong>Miller<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Congresswoman Kathy Castor<\/strong> and <strong>Kathy Betencourt<\/strong> introduced<strong> Mrs. Betty Castor<\/strong> as the recipient of the Outstanding Leadership Award.<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Castor<\/strong> stressed the need for continued progress in the areas of women\u2019s rights, human rights, and civil rights. However, she cautioned that there is still much further to go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Castor<\/strong> encouraged those in attendance to not only support <strong>President Barack Obama<\/strong> for re-election, but to support all Democrats on the ballot seeking an elected office.<\/p>\n<p>Former <strong>Governor Bob Graham<\/strong> also received the Outstanding Leadership Award. <strong>Graham<\/strong> stressed the importance of civility and deliberately as members of the Legislative bodies. He further said that those in attendance should work tirelessly to keep <strong>President Obama<\/strong> in the White House. He also advised that they stand united and work diligently to make sure that the President and all Democrats are elected or re-elected.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Senator Arthenia Joyner<\/strong> has served as a Delegate more than once. She said that the hotels are chosen through a drawing and the drawing was held this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe drew a favorable location this year because we are in downtown where the convention will take place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Senator Joyner<\/strong> said in the past, transportation has been the responsibility of the delegate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor This past weekend, the Florida Democratic Party held its Annual Convention in downtown Tampa. The event took place at the Tampa Waterside Marriott. During the convention, representatives are chosen as Delegates to attend the upcoming National Democratic Convention. This year, seven African American delegates from Tampa were chosen. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}