‘Way Out of Step in Orange County’
I was very disappointed, angered and shocked by the heavy-handed tactics that the Orange County Republican Party officials used in the hiring of security guards in heavily Latino precincts in Santa Ana to ensure that undocumented workers would not vote. Give me a break, are we naive enough to believe this?
Orange County Republican Party chairman Tom Fuentes and political consultant Carlos Rodriguez have enough political savvy between them to know that not only was this a slap in the face of Latinos, but also President-elect George Bush and other high ranking GOP officials who spent a lot of time and energy courting the Latino vote. Illegal? Un-American!
Just for the record I have been a long-time Democrat, but in the last six years I have developed some close ties with individuals like Gil Avila (former special assistant to Gov. George Deukmejian) Cathi Villapando (former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan) and Rudy Becerra (current special assistant to the President).
Their No. 1 priority and objective is to bring Latinos into the fold of the Republican Party and, I admit, they have made some inroads, but with tactics like the ones in Santa Ana, it’s obvious that the Republican Party has a big mountain to climb. Frank del Olmo was right on target when he stated that Latinos will not feel welcome until local Republicans change their attitudes about Hispanics (“Way Out of Step in Orange County,” Op-Ed Page, Nov. 17).
STEVEN A. SOTO
Los Angeles
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