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Woodmonkey · 09-30-2005, 01:17

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Voters prove colorblind

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Darden Rice won the District 6 primary Tuesday.

A local activist group is going to court to try to make it easier to elect black candidates.

As voters in a St. Petersburg City Council race proved on Tuesday, many of them are colorblind.

The lawsuit was filed last month in federal court by members of the Uhuru movement. It claims the election process in St. Petersburg makes it too difficult to get black candidates elected because after they nominate them in primary elections, they can still be voted down in the general election when the whole city can vote.

But that way of seeing District 6 seemed to take a hit Tuesday when a white woman, Darden Rice, gathered the most votes in the district's city council primary election.

Dwight 'Chimurenga' Waller, a black candidate and president of the
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Uhuru group, said he was not surprised a white candidate won.

"This lawsuit was a part of an effort to stop this takeover of the black community," Waller said. "It's a takeover by a power elite that happens to be white people."

Waller said Rice was helped by a redrawing of district lines several years ago that added white voters to the district. Ironically, Rice said she was helped by Waller's assertions.

Turnout was very low in District 6, less than 15 percent. But Rice said she could not have led her field without the support of all voters, of all races.

"I think the results speak for themselves," Rice said. "What we saw from the results of the election was that the people rejected Waller's line of argument. And my fear is that the divisiveness may have turned some people away from the polls altogether."

The incumbent city council member in District 6 is a black man, Earnest Williams. He finished second in Tuesday's primary. But Waller said he will do nothing to help him get reelected.

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