Republican politician refuses to apologize for blackface photo

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A Republican candidate for a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives is refusing to apologize after a picture of him wearing blackface as part of a Tiger Woods costume surfaced online.

Robbie Gatti is the slight favorite to win the seat, but the recently surfaced picture may change the state of affairs in the race. The picture was taken 15 years ago, during which time Gatti was associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Bossier City, Louisiana.

But rather than apologize when the photo surfaced, Gatti took to Facebook to explain himself. He writes:

15 years ago, my church held a fall festival, where all the volunteers were told to dress as a famous person. Tiger Woods was at the height of his popularity, as a world champion, and that was who I was dressed as. Shortly after this event, I was ordained into the church. As a medical professional, ordained minister and military officer, I live my life seeing only character and I stand by that. I’m sad that my opponents have taken a good night at church and turned it into negative, political mud, but I’m confident the voters of Bossier will not fall for their desperate attacks.

Still, Gatti’s constituents seem to be sticking by him despite the controversy, so we suppose time will only tell what this means for his candidacy.