澳彩开奖

Every election season brings a new crop of political hopefuls from the radical right. So far this year, their win-loss record is a respectable 1-1.

Black voters in Lake Wales, Fla., are claiming they were 鈥渟nookered鈥� into voting for John Paul Rogers, the former Florida grand dragon, or state leader, of the United Klans of America (UKA), who was sworn in as Lake Wales city commissioner May 6. 鈥淲e were caught asleep at the switch on this thing,鈥� black civic leader Clinton Horne The Ledger, a regional daily paper.

Though he refused to answer any questions from The Ledger concerning his past Klan activities, Rogers pledged to treat blacks fairly. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 let my personal views interfere with the basics,鈥� he said.

Rogers, 66, told Florida law enforcement investigators in 2005 that he joined the Klan in 1963 or 1964, rising to become the Florida state leader of the UKA, a post he occupied until 1988. That year, the 澳彩开奖 the group by winning a $7 million judgment for the family of Michael Donald, a 19-year-old black man who was murdered by Klansmen in 1981. The UKA disbanded as a result.

It鈥檚 not clear what Rogers鈥� current racial attitudes are. A few years ago, the former Klan chieftain served as the campaign manager for Booker Young 鈥� a black civic activist 鈥� in Young鈥檚 unsuccessful bid for city commissioner. This year, Young returned the favor by campaigning door-to-door with Rogers in northwest Lake Wales, which is predominantly black.

Less surprising were the results of the May 6 Republican primary in Indiana鈥檚 2nd Congressional District, in which Crown Point, Ind., lawyer Tony Zirkle (right,speaking) finished a distant third with 16% of the vote after openly pandering to uniformed neo-Nazis.

Zirkle was a special guest speaker at an April 20 birthday party for Adolf Hitler hosted in Chicago by the (ANSWP), a particularly guttural hate group led by neo-Nazi threatmaker . Despite the presence of large swastika banners, a looming portrait of Hitler, and uniformed neo-Nazis with swastika armbands at the the small table from which he delivered his speech, Zirkle the Michigan City (Ind.) News-Dispatch that he didn鈥檛 know the party was necessarily a neo-Nazi gathering. Swastika flags and brown shirts notwithstanding, the Indiana lawyer claimed with a straight face that he didn鈥檛 鈥渒now enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it.鈥�

Zirkle, who pledged to slay what he calls 鈥淭he Great Porn Dragon鈥� if elected, also claimed he鈥檇 been invited to talk to the audience of uniformed neo-Nazis about the effects of pornography and prostitution on young white women and girls. ANSWP, he explained, 鈥渨as interested in the targeting of white people for prostitution鈥� and agreed with him that trafficking of 鈥測oung white women should be stopped.鈥� Speaking to ANSWP, he added, was 鈥渏ust a great opportunity for me to witness,鈥� a reference to what he described as his 鈥淐hristian鈥� beliefs. Added the eager-to-please Zirkle not long before his loss: 鈥淚f the Black Panthers or the Jewish Zionists want me to speak about these issues, I鈥檒l do it.鈥� His offer was left on the table.