Ryan Ray
Republican Rep. Mike Hill is hosting a reception after a “rally for unity” Friday night in his home district. The conservative “All Lives Matter” mantra is the theme of the event.
The Herman Cain train is in town for the occasion, which coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend. The 2012 GOP presidential candidate will headline the event. Former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll will also be on hand.
The event is formally named in honor of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. It is set to take place at 6 p.m. Central Time in Pensacola, the center of gravity of Hill’s Northwest Florida House District 2.
Niger Innis and Thuy Lowe of the Congress for Racial Equality, author K. Carl Smith, president and founder of the Frederick Douglass Republicans, and Rabbi Eric Tokajer will also speak at the New World Landing venue.
Hill is the Legislature’s sole African-American Republican member. He rankled some by opting not to join the legislative Black Caucus after winning a special election to replace the late Clay Ford in 2013.
A decorated veteran of the Air Force, Hill is vice chairman of the House Civil Justice Subcommittee. He is an insurance salesman by trade.
Hill wrote a fiery op-ed against perceived intrusion of the judiciary into the legislative branch in July, after the state Supreme Court struck down Legislature-drawn Congressional maps.
“Through exception after exception, justified almost always by the same 5-2 majority, the Florida Supreme Court continues to chip away at this Legislature’s laws under the Florida Constitution and under common law,” Hill wrote.
“The Court has held that the Legislature is no longer entitled to the presumption that its enactments are valid; its members are no longer entitled to the protection of legislative privilege, and must report to interrogations concerning their legislative actions; its members can no longer conduct legislative business consistent with the Legislature’s own internal operating procedures; and the Legislature must draw Florida’s Congressional Districts as specifically directed by the Court,” wrote Hill, criticizing what he characterized as heavy-handed tactics by the high court.
