Democrats Tear Into Fuentes for ‘German,’ ‘Holocaust’ Remarks

The Orange County Democratic Party denounced county Republican Party Chairman Tom Fuentes Wednesday for comparing Democratic politics to the Holocaust and likening Democratic voters to “good Germans.”

The Democratic Central Committee adopted a resolution attacking Fuentes “for his unwarranted and insulting attack on the Democratic voters of Orange County” and urged the county Republican Party to repudiate “efforts to misuse the analogy of the Holocaust for partisan political purposes.”

County Democratic Chairman Bruce W. Sumner said he was sending a letter repeating Fuentes’ remarks to “a variety of politically interested organizations” and individuals, urging them to join the Democratic Party if they are not members or to increase their support if they are.

Fuentes’ Quote

In an Aug. 5 Times story, Fuentes was quoted as saying: “I simply cannot fathom how even well-intentioned Democrats can remain naive about the evils their party has wrought across the great American political landscape. It’s a little like good Germans denying the existence of the Holocaust.”

Fuentes said Wednesday that the use of the quotation was “very much out of context.”

Fuentes, also a public relations consultant to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, said that the remark came when “I was speaking in a long conversation on the subject of the holocaust of the unborn . . . abortion in America today.”

“I’m not trying to get out by any means or deny that I ever said it,” Fuentes said. But, he added, it was “such an old interview and such a tiny piece out of a long conversation” that he remembered only the general conversation and not the specifics.

According to the reporter’s notes from a lengthy interview in mid-June, Fuentes’ remarks on abortion came long after the Holocaust remark.

Democratic Mailing List

Sumner said he was mailing the letter and resolution to members of county Democratic groups, city council members and about 200 “politically active” individuals

The letter said Fuentes’ “tasteless, insensitive and absurd comparison is illustrative of the mentality, leadership and attitudes of the Republican Party in Orange County today. We are not out to change them, but we do urge that you consider the Democratic alternative.”

The resolution also criticized Fuentes for what it claimed was his support of an attempt to replace every Democrat who holds a nonpartisan office in the county. The Aug. 5 story quoted one GOP city official as saying that Fuentes told her that the party’s goal is to have every office in the county “filled by a Republican.”

Fuentes denies that the county Republican Party has targeted all Democrats holding nonpartisan posts.