{"id":16331,"date":"2012-08-23T14:39:56","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T18:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=16331"},"modified":"2012-08-23T14:44:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T18:44:05","slug":"former-black-republican-walks-away-from-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=16331","title":{"rendered":"Former Black Repub- lican Walks Away From Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong>
\nSentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

An African American who has represented the Republican Party for the past 12 years has resigned. Joseph W. J. Robinson<\/strong> renounced the Republican Party because of several reasons, including their lack of response to African American issues, businesses, and inclusion in the upcoming Republican National Convention slated for Tampa next week. Robinson<\/strong> officially changed parties on Friday, August 17, 2012.<\/p>\n

Robinson<\/strong> said, \u201cI have sought an elected office here in Tampa several times without the support of the Republican Party.\u00a0 I have been outspoken on their outreach to Blacks and Latinos to no avail.\u00a0 I am able to confirm what Jim Greer<\/strong> has said in his affidavit on how the Republican Party treats and it\u2019s outreach to the Black community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson<\/strong>, a Tampa native, further stated that since he became a Republican, his role has been to obtain inclusion for African Americans and other minorities in the events sponsored by the party. He stated that his appointment to the SWFMUD Board gave him an opportunity to open doors that had previously been closed to minority.<\/p>\n

He further stated that during the years, he has been able to witness the changes of the party from the time former Governor Jeb Bush<\/strong> took office and 2010 when the new Republican Tea Party, which he called \u201can evangelical political\u201d Republican Party.<\/p>\n

During the years after Bush<\/strong> left office, opportunities for African Americans disappeared. He stated that he attempted to develop business opportunities during the RNC, but all of his efforts were blocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have decided that they don\u2019t need the African American vote, so they are not awarding African Americans contracts. If any Blacks receive any business, it will be the trickle-down effect or the crumbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson<\/strong> said he was a staunch Democrat for the majority of his adult life. He is returning to his roots and said he does not plan to leave the Democratic Party again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the type of person who works regardless of what I\u2019m involved with. I worked for the Republican Party and I intend to do the same thing for the Democrats.<\/p>\n

During this last election, I received more support from African Americans than I ever have. I intend to work to help other Democrats get elected. But, we must vote, we cannot do it unless everyone who can, participates in the voting process,\u201d Robinson<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my observation during the last election, I know that the only way President Barack Obama<\/strong> is going to be re-elected is through Absentee or Votes By Mail.<\/p>\n

Anyone can request a ballot and all they have to do is complete it, sign it, and return it. The voters in Hillsborough County don\u2019t even have to purchase a stamp, the postage is paid,\u201d Robinson<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor An African American who has represented the Republican Party for the past 12 years has resigned. Joseph W. J. Robinson renounced the Republican Party because of several reasons, including their lack of response to African American issues, businesses, and inclusion in the upcoming Republican National Convention slated for […]<\/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-16331","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\/16331","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=16331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}