By Dustin Gardiner | The Arizona Republic
A week after a Phoenix City Council candidate was the apparent target of a newspaper column that used a racially charged epithet, debate over the role of race in the contest continued to boil at a Wednesday candidate event and on social media.
Former state lawmaker Cloves Campbell Jr., publisher of the Arizona Informant, wrote the column that labeled Lawrence Robinson a “house Negro.”
Campbell has endorsed one of Robinson’s opponents, Warren Stewart, in the race for City Council in District 8, which is home to more than 182,000 people and encompasses much of southeast and downtown Phoenix.
On Wednesday, an Informant worker posing as a reporter disrupted Robinson’s news conference. Meanwhile, Robinson’s campaign encouraged supporters to post pictures on Facebook and Twitter with one hand in the air, showing they will “rise above” divisive politics.
