Fuentes Faction: Can It Deliver?
* The Fuentes faction of Orange County Republicans, having beaten back challenges from the center in both the presidential primary and the Republican Central Committee contests, now has no one to blame but itself if things go wrong in November.
The only thing they know how to win is low-turnout primary contests, in which that 30% of the electorate that agrees with them can carry the day.
They’ve forgotten that you also need independents and moderate Republicans to win in November, and seem to have lost the ability to attract them.
Many of us believe the Fuentes faction would rather lose with Bush than win with McCain. Let them now be motivated by this certainty: The long knives will be out in November if, for the fifth consecutive election cycle, they once again lose state and congressional legislative seats to Democrats, or if they again fail to deliver the requisite large plurality in Orange County that is needed for statewide victory.
DAN EMORY
Huntington Beach
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