This week the Orlando Sentinel contacted leaders from across the community for comment on racial issues that surfaced in the Orlando mayor’s race. Among the questions: Did you believe the allegations by City Council member Patty Sheehan and others that candidate Pete Barr Sr. used racial slurs? Did the nature of those allegations change your perception of Barr? What did you think of the community’s response to the allegations? What about your own response — or silence — and the response or silence of other local leaders? What do all of these reactions, taken together, say about Orlando?
Here are some of the responses:
LINDA CHAPIN, former Orange County chairman
“I believed Commissioner Sheehan. . . . I never spoke out about this because I never heard Pete Barr say such things. It would be terribly unfair to weigh in on something that I have no personal knowledge of.
“It’s very difficult for people to speak out about someone they know and someone they work with and someone they interact with. In that way, we still may be more like a small town than a big city.
“I think we need community discussion about this election. . . . But we need to do this thoughtfully and carefully. It’s too soon to make meaningful observations about the election.”
JANE HAMES, president, Florida Citrus Sports and Embassy Consultants
“I know Pete Barr really well. I worked with him as a colleague in the advertising business, and he is a friend of our family’s. I have never heard him say anything along those lines, and he would never deliberately hurt anybody.
“The allegations have made me embarrassed about Orlando. Too many people were too quick to judge. It’s a sad comment about our community.
“This has been painful for everybody, and it didn’t serve any purpose. All it did was inflame and resurrect emotions on both sides of the issue. It has been embarrassing all they way around because it was so divisive. I never thought we lived in a divided community before, and I’ve been here a long time.”
DICK BATCHELOR, political consultant
“The race issue is so incendiary that most politicians, even if they were offended, did not want to be party to the debate. I didn’t get involved. I had several friends in the race [candidates Tico Perez, Wayne Rich, Bill Sublette and Buddy Dyer]. I would rather have them as friends than get involved. When the whole race debate started, I think a lot of people thought they could be tarnished by just engaging in it.
“I think white voters were shocked and offended by the allegations. But even though Buddy won, I think a lot of wounds have been reopened. He needs to make an extraordinary and unprecedented commitment to reach out to minority communities in every possible way he can. You can’t just say, ‘I’m the new mayor; my attitude is different from my opponent’ and think we can all move ahead.”
MABLE BUTLER, former Orlando City Council member and former Orange County commissioner
“Yes, I believe the allegations were true, and I think the community spoke at the polls.
“I don’t know the purpose of the Sentinel doing this follow-up. Let’s get on with it. I just don’t feel we really need to continue the stirring up of feelings.
“Many elected officials didn’t speak out, and I’m surprised about that. Because speaking out is what leadership is. Daisy Lynum was the only one who said anything.”
MARILYN GORDON, executive director, Homeless Services Network
“The allegations clouded the real issues facing Orlando, which is disappointing and sad.
“It was so easy to focus on racial slurs and other petty kinds of things. I think it’s petty because there are real issues facing this community, and it diverted public dialogue.”
RITA BORNSTEIN, president, Rollins College
“I think the questions are too uncomfortable. I’d just as soon not comment because whomever wins this election will have to be supported by everyone so that we can move forward, and I think these questions tend to be divisive.” (Bornstein was interviewed Tuesday before polls closed.)
MARYTZA SANZ, president, Latino Leadership
“A lot of people wondered if the allegations were just a political move. Everyone was observing what was going to happen. In my case, it was not fair for me to get involved in something not directed to the Hispanic community. Maybe the African-American community would have seen us as ‘why are you getting involved?’
“I am a minority, and I am a woman. If the allegations were true, I would have been hurt twice. I think we were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But we were also ready to ask him, if he were elected, ‘what will you do for our community?’ The whole idea of ‘Old Orlando’ really scared many Latinos. We are not Old Orlando. We are newcomers, and we were left out. And I think that people got that message and voted accordingly. Every community wants to move forward. We don’t want to be left behind.”
AUBREY JEWETT, political scientist, University of Central Florida
“I don’t really know if I believe the accusations. The original charge seemed to be political because of the timing of the release and no substantiation of it.
“To be honest, it seems like there hasn’t been a big outrage even though it has been such a dominant issue in the campaign. That might say two different things about the community. First, they may simply be writing the whole episode off to politics. It’s a political campaign, not real life. But it also may be that our community, generally racially, seems to get along pretty well. People just don’t want to rock the boat.”
FRAN PIGNONE, former Orange County commissioner
“People within his social circle may have perhaps found his language offensive, but wouldn’t confirm it on the record. Instead, they put a courageous, but innocent woman on the defensive about her very integrity.
“It still alarms me that there are social segments in this community that have old and improper attitudes, who would remain silent rather than offend people in their social circle. It’s almost a locked-down fortress, and that’s tragic.”
DEBBIE SIMMONS, president, Metropolitan Business Association, a group of gay merchants, and co-owner, Shelbie Press
“I think it says something that Barr lost by 5,000 votes. I think people said, ‘You are not going to fool us. We know what you are.’ We haven’t seen an election this racially charged because I think many of those bigoted people like Barr have been able to cloak themselves with code words. Maybe 20 years ago Pete Barr would have been able to spin his way out of these allegations. The good thing about this election is that it didn’t work this time.”
JESSIE ALLEN, general manager, Orange County Convention Center
“I do not feel comfortable talking about this. I feel it would be inappropriate.”
JACOB STUART, president, Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce
“I was very suspicious of both the allegations’ timing and content. For sure, the only thing which I know to be true is that these allegations were meant to be hurtful and harmful to Pete Barr.
“Pete Barr is a good friend of mine, a better friend to the chamber and a great friend to our ‘family of communities.’ . . . I continue to be honored by and most appreciative of his extraordinary record of service to the city of Orlando.”
TIM SHEA, Orange County School Board member
“The allegations came from too many different places for me to completely dismiss them.
“I think the community’s response says the same thing as it would in any community — that racism is alive and well and is a serious urban issue.”
RICO BROWN, teacher, Oak Ridge High School and former candidate for Orange County commissioner
“The community’s response has been mixed. Some have taken it as if it were gospel and have hung him out to dry. Others consider it a character attack and have dismissed it.
“All of this shows that some are easily misled, while others will try to find the truth. Negative comments can get people out to the polls.”
HOMER HARTAGE, Orange County commissioner
“These allegations were a poison pill for the campaign, but I don’t think they had any impact on who black people were going to support.
“Why should the black community picket or protest? The tactics of 2003 are different than the tactics of 1960.”
RICH CROTTY, Orange County chairman
“I had to work with the ultimate winner. So I did not get involved, and I stuck to that no matter how the campaign evolved — to the chagrin of some, and the joy of others.
“I really do believe a lot of people who didn’t have much to say about this in public probably expressed their opinion when they went to vote. There was a silent majority who really were concerned but didn’t say anything.
“The community is really uncomfortable with divisiveness. It was somewhere people didn’t want to go. People didn’t want to comment on speculation, and toward the end, they did the talking at the polling place.”
MARGOT KNIGHT, president and chief executive officer, United Arts of Central Florida
“The community’s response was conflicted, as I am. Conflicted about what it means and how we have yet to come to terms with race in this country.
“I see generations more of conversation before we are able to put this behind us. As painful as they are, we must continue to talk about how we communicate and understand one another, and to never forget that race is still critical to understanding each other as human beings.”
