Another Florida Hispanic Politician Switches to Democrat

You will recall last year that RNC's Florida Hispanic Director, Pablo Pantoja, switched to become a Democrat over his party's "culture of intolerance" and hate.

Today, he's joined by former State Representative and Republican activist Ana Rivas Logan--who ripped up her Republican voter registration card at a press conference.

She has had it with the Florida's GOP:

"It's a party that has been radicalized and held hostage by a group of extremists. It's a party that attacks women and minorities -- and one that asked me, and my former Hispanic Republican colleagues in the Florida legislature, to turn on their own people by supporting extreme anti-immigrant policies. It's a party I was no longer proud to be a part of."

What she's talking about is Rick Scott's obsession with bringing the Arizona-style anti-brown people law here to Florida. Because of her ethnicity, Mz. Rivas had continuously been pressured to support it--most recently by the new lieutenant governor.

The original bill, that Scott really wanted and promised to sign if it made it to his desk, was even worse that Arizona's. It explicitly exempted white people. (It was written that Canadians and Western Europeans were "presumed" to be here legally.)

To ask her to support such an atrocity must have been a punch to the gut. What is even more insulting is Rick Scott's backpedaling in an election year to seem less hateful. Recently, a FL GOP House aide was trotted out to say Rick Scott was actually very pro-Hispanic, but he's just "not flashy, he's quiet about it".

He's so superstealth about it, in fact, that it almost appears to the layperson that he is actually anti-Hispanic. If Rick Scott is really so pro-Hispanic, he has a funny way of showing it:

• Vetoed a bill that passed overwhelmingly in both houses that would allow children of undocumented immigrants to obtain a temporary dr. license
• Tried to illegally purge thousands of Hispanic voters from the rolls
• Signed 2011 voter suppression law that vigorously targeted Hispanic voters; Hispanics stood in line the longest, were more likely to have to use a provisional ballot and almost twice as likely to have those ballots rejected
• Still trying to bring AZ anti-brown law to Florida
• Spent tax money to fight Latino resident citizens from claiming in-state tuition

Scott's pollster, Tony Fabrizo, determined that Scott can't win without some minority outreach. So Scott is in full pander mode. He recently said he would "consider" at some point letting DREAMers pay in-state tuition. His Lt. Gov. followed up by saying he couldn't even remember how he voted on it. (One guess as to how he did.)

So that should help.

Rep. Rivas is simply realizing what most Hispanics already know. Out of the two major parties in America, there is one party that is constantly apologizing for bigoted slurs, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and tolerance of think tanks that promote that Hispanics are permanently intellectually inferior--and another party that isn't.

For those two options, the choice is pretty clear. Welcome, Ana.