Issue #71: Gadsden County Politics & Ron DeSantis' Appointment

DeSantis picked a white Republican to a majority-black county

Early last week, days before Hurricane Ian would slam into southwest Florida, a political scandal began to erupt in North Florida. In Gadsden County, the lone majority-black county in the state, a Ron DeSantis appointee, Jeffrey Moore, was forced to resign after a photo emerged of him in a KKK costume at what appears to be a Halloween party many years ago. Moore, a white Republican, had been appointed to Gadsden’s county commission after Anthony Viegbesie, a black Democrat, resigned from his post. Moore was scheduled to run for his own term for the District 2 seat in November, however, he has pulled out of that race.

In light of this, I wanted to take a look at Gadsden’s politics. The appointment of Moore itself was a questionable move, photo or not.

Gadsden’s Politics and History

As stated, Gadsden, which is a rural county on the western border of Leon/Tallahassee, is the only black-majority county in the state. Like much of the North Florida region, the black population traces its history to the old plantations of North Florida. Many counties in the area have a sizable black population; ranging from 30-40%. Gadsden’s current registration figures come out to 56% black, 36% white. The county also has six cities/towns in its border.

As the map above shows, Gadsden is divided into five commission districts. The current district layout results in three of the seats being majority-black. District 2, the seat Moore had been appointed to, is majority-white.

Gadsden is the most democratic county in the state; giving Biden 68% in the Presidential election. The last time the county voted GOP for a top office was its vote for Connie Mack in the 1994 US Senate Election. It was the lone county to back Dukakis against George H.W. Bush in 1988.

For much of the 1990s and 2000s, the battle in Gadsden was between white and black democrats; not Republicans. However, white democratic strength has greatly shrunk as time goes on. As of now, all five commission districts have solidly black majorities among registered democrats.

This is pretty critical, since the democratic nominee is almost a lock to win any county commission seat. It should be no surprise to learn that before Moore’s appointment, all five commissioners were black.

This current dynamic took many decades to culminate, however. Gadsden suffered under the Jim Crow tactics of pre-1960s Florida. In 1956, less than 50 black voters were registered. It was not until the early 1960s that Gadsden started to see efforts to mobilize black voters. Local tricks were often used to keep black voter from registering; with the Gadsden clerk keeping narrow office hours that required travel to white areas. Major efforts by the NAACP in 1964 led to a spike in registration, which was continued afterward with the aid of the 1965 voting rights act.

In 1972, black Democrats outpaced white democrats. The two groups would trade the lead, but from 1980 to Present black voters have maintained a registration advantage.

Registration boons led to an increased participation and hence led to a gradual increase in the number of black elected officials in Gadsden County. This was a slow process, and saw plenty of white resentment in the county as their power fell. As late as the mid 2000s, elections had nasty racial dynamics. This was seen in the 2004 Sheriff Election; which resulted in the first black Sheriff for Gadsden since reconstruction.

In the 2004 Sheriff race, longtime Sheriff W. A. Woodham was a retiring. His preferred successor was Ed Spooner, the deputy sheriff and a white democrat. Morris Young, a former Quincy police officer and school resource officer, had challenged Sheriff Woodham in the 2000 Democratic primary, but came up short. Young, knowing he needed maximized black turnout to have a shot in a racially-polarized county, opted to run as an independent in the November contest. After a nasty campaign filled with racial insults thrown at Young’s supports and dog-whistle questions about a Sheriff office run by a black man, Young narrowly pulled off a victory.

The margin was just 70 votes, which required a recount. Young promised to work to unite the county. His win, historic as it was, revealed the level of racialized voting happening in the county. The results map was essentially a race map from the time. This race, while critical, was not the end of racial-voting in Gadsden.

County Commission Controversies

In 2011, a major scandal exploded in Gadsden County. It appeared that two white commissioners; District 2’s Doug Croley and District 3’s Gene Morgan, had united with District 1’s Eugene Lamb, who is black, to form a working majority on the commission. The three men went about pressuring black civil servants to resign, or fire them. According to people on the ground, Croley, who has been heard referring to black employees as members of “the tribe”, wanted to rid the county of as many black employees as possible; opening up posts for white residents. Croley represented the lone majority-white district and was a perfect personification of the bitterness of some white residents in losing their long-held political power. The scandal led to lawsuits and investigations, and put all three men in the cross-hairs of activists.

The scheme had been orchestrated in 2008. At the time, Croley was the lone white commissioner. He and Lamb conspired to help steer resources to Gene Morgan as he challenged incumbent black commissioner Derrick Price in the democratic primary. In the end, Morgan narrowly won.

The map from 2008 shows clear racially-polarized voting; with Morgan very strong in white communities.

Morgan’s 2008 win began the process of purging employees, which eventually exploded into the news in 2011. Before the stories broke, Croley won re-election in his 2010 primary; which was open to all voters. Croley came under 50%, but was still well ahead of his closest opponent. He dominated in white-heavy western Havana (the eastern black portion of the city is in district 1) and won Northern-White Quincy.

The scandals of 2011 put everyone on notice. Several employees targeted filed whistleblower complaints and won. Lamb opted to retire in 2012, while Morgan had a target on his back. Morgan managed to narrowly win re-election, winning by just 1% in another racially-divided primary.

In 2014, Croley was not as lucky as Morgan. He faced a primary from Anthony Viegbesie, also known as “Dr V.” Viegbesie was a longtime leader in the black community. He’d been head of the Tallahassee NAACP and made past runs for Tallahassee commission and State House. He challenged Croley in 2014 and ousted the incumbent by 5% in the Democratic primary. The primary, like so many others, saw very racially polarized margins. However, turnout was strong for Dr V and Croley had come off looking terrible in the scandal.

Morgan remained in crosshairs. Sensing his primary defeat in 2016, he opted to run as an independent; avoiding a democratic primary. The goal here was to try and consolidate white non-democrats to aid re-election. In what I think was a tactical mistake, his opponents all opted to run as independents as well. Morgan managed to secure a 39% plurality in re-election (no runoffs). However, he’d face a rematch from Kimblin NeSmith, a black democrat, in 2020.

Two years later, back over in district 2, Doug Croley made one more effort for the county commission. Knowing his chances in a Democratic primary were nill, he opted to run as an independent; hoping to consolidate white democrats and Republicans. However, it was not enough, and he lost by 5 points again.

Croley managed to consolidate his Havana-area base well, but couldn’t keep the white democrats of Quincy solidly in his camp. Since then, Croley has left the Democratic party. He is now Gadsden’s Republican Committeeman.

Finally, in 2020, Morgan finally met his end. While Morgan ran as an independent, NeSmith opted to go through the Democratic primary that time. As the official democratic nominee, NeSmith easily bested Morgan.

Croley and Morgan’s losses reveal a critical fact in Gadsden politics. By 2020, you cannot win, in a primary or otherwise, while being antagonistic toward the black population. White candidates can win, but they cannot do so while relying on getting white voters and disregarding the black majority. The Croley-Morgan saga were possibly the last gasp of white resentment having any electoral success in the county.

Looking at 2022

Jeffrey Moore’s appointment to the Gadsden commission was always likely to be short-lived. If the photo had not emerged, Moore still would have likely lost the District 2 seat to Democratic nominee Alonzetta Johnson-Simpkins in November; considering the seat gave Biden 60% in 2020. Moore’s appointment made him the first Republican commissioner in Gadsden County’s modern political history. With Moore not running, the Gadsden GOP had the right to name a replacement for the ballot. They nominated Larry Clayton. This is actually historic in one regard - its the first time a Republican has filed to run for Gadsden Commission since at least 2000; which to be clear is just as far back as I have records. However, the outcome is a virtual certainty. Johnson-Simpkins is a near lock to be Gadsden commissioner by the end of the year, and the commission will be back to five black democrats.