More than a week after resigning, Florida’s former Secretary of State Michael Ertel apologized Sunday over photos from 2005 that show him in blackface, the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported.
“I’m a better man than I was 14 years ago,” Ertel wrote. “Yet, over the past week, I have been rightfully apologizing for something I did Halloween night, 2005.”
The statement on his personal Facebook profile, which also called the pictures “an opportunity for revenge,” comes as Democrats and Republicans call for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign over a racist photo on Northam’s medical school yearbook page.
In the photos of Ertel, he wore blackface with red lipstick and a New Orleans Saints bandana. He also donned a shirt that read “Katrina Victim,” according to the newspaper.
The photos were reportedly taken at a party two months after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf Coast.
At the time the photos were taken, Ertel was the supervisor of elections in Seminole County.
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