lucius_gantt_1.jpgGov. Rick Scott has not been a good friend of black voters, black workers, black businesses, black schools, black communities or black Floridians. To some African-American residents of the Sunshine State, therefore, it is “Anybody would be better than Rick Scott.”

Well, former Gov. Charlie Crist has announced plans to enter the 2014 governor’s race and it is certainly a political contest that black voters should be concerned about. Let’s see. Crist has been a Republican, then an Independent and now he is running as a Democrat in his attempt to defeat Scott, who will be seeking re-election.

Hmmm.

Is Crist a Democratic wolf or a Republican fox? You know the fox and the wolf are both canines and, according to Malcolm X’s Ballot or the Bullet, either political canine we choose we’ll still end up in the dog house, the jail house and the poor house.

Now, I’m not trying to throw shade or salt on the Crist campaign. I’ll be happy to meet with him and talk with him about any subject, personal or  political. But my advice is to be careful with Crist. I didn’t say don’t vote for him. I said be careful.

What I remember about Crist is how he led the destruction of black business opportunities in state government. The “One Florida” plan that then Gov. Jeb Bush set up to utilize minority businesses and which worked so well was not championed by Crist, it was not endorsed by Crist, it was not adequately funded by Crist and it was Crist’s policy to ignore black business efforts and to subsequently cause black businesses doing state work to lose huge sums of money.

In order for any Democratic candidate to win a political race against a Republican, the Democrat must get an extraordinary number of black votes. Most blacks do vote for Democratic candidates and it doesn’t matter how angelic or how evil and wicked they are. You only have to ask the Democrats who lost in the last election to know that getting 90 percent of votes cast by 30 percent of the eligible black voters is not enough.

The tea party voters will turn out. The Christian Fundamentalists will turn out. The gun lovers will turn out. Wall Street workers will turn out. And some blacks will turn out to support local black candidates and the inevitable black who will run for a statewide office.

Yes, it’s election time again. It is the time when every politician loves Martin Luther King Jr., every politician loves Florida A&M University and Bethune Cookman University, every politician attends a black church and almost every politician will invite black people to an event to eat fried chicken or fried mullet.

I know you can’t wait to jump on some politician’s bandwagon but can’t you just ask candidates a question before you proclaim him a white Barack Obama?

Ask them what is their plan to increase business for black-owned companies, increase job opportunities for black workers and increase benefits for black seniors and black youth. Political candidates who look good from afar are usually far from being good.

Lucius Gantt is a political consultant based in Tallahasse and author of the book Beast Too: Dead Man Writing which is available at Amazon.com. You can like The Gantt Report page on Facebook and contact Gantt at www.allworldconsultants.net