The Texas GOP refuses to help Arizona Hispanic Republicans because they attacked legislators who supported changes to the 14th Amendment.
By Arizona-Hispanic-Republicans, Under Secure Borders and Reasonable Immigration Solution
Publisher's Note: This letter first appeared in the Tucson Citizen on March 23, 2011.
TUCSON, AZ - As you may already know, SOMOS REPUBLICANS is based out of Arizona. We believe Arizona is ground zero with regard to immigration.
A few weeks ago, my Texas leader complained that he was not getting any response from the Texas Republican Party, so naturally, I decided to blog about it here and it prompted one of their outreach directors to call us because apparently the Texas GOP Chair (Steve Munisteri) receives Google alerts with regard to his name. You can read our initial concern here.
Today, we followed up via email with the Texas GOP because our Texas Director, Lauro Garza, wanted to work on a voter initiative, and we know that Hispanics need to be more dependable voters, especially during the Primary Election season. We wrote the Texas GOP to find out if they would be willing to incentivize our grassroots organizers to register new Latino Republican voters. The Texas GOP Chairman Steve Munisteri basically told us he didn't need help registering new Latino voters. They noted SOMOS REPUBLICANS have attacked legislators who attack American baby rights via the 14th amendment, immigrants, and our youth. In fact, we are notorious for attacking Representative Peck of Kansas for advocating the shooting of illegal immigrants.
In the below exchange of emails, you will see me draw a parallel behind what our organization is doing and what Elizabeth Rickey had to do with regard to neo-Nazi supporter, David Duke. Except we have a much tougher job as a national organization because we are fighting bigotry on a national scale and it appears Steve Ministeri wants us to turn a blind eye to that and not say anything as to avoid snags with their bylaws. Since when did we evolve to putting Party before People?
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:49:27 -0500 [07:49PM CDT]
From: DeeDee
To: Steve Munisteri
Subject: RE: Somos Republicans seeks to establish relations with RPT
Dear Steve,
Thank you for your quick response. You have answered our questions and it prevents us from writing you a letter next week. It is unfortunate that "attacking Republicans" after they attack American baby rights, immigrants and our youth via the DREAM Act is preventing a partnership. As you might already know, and according to the PEW [Hispanic Center], the large majority of Latinos are against harsh SB 1070 type of laws.
Please recall to your remembrance when Elizabeth Rickey, a GOP activist, denounced David Duke in Louisiana. She fought hard against bigotry and racism when David Duke was partnering with neo-Nazi and Klansmen. She looked for GOP colleagues on the Republicans State Central Committee to censure and disavow him to no avail - in fact some actually embraced him. We all know Rickey's story when several friends left her, but she persisted and was ultimately successful.
I see a similar parallel sweeping the nation that began with Russell Pearce, who has ties to a known neo-Nazi, J.T. Ready. Russell Pearce baptized J.T. Ready in his church. The architect and organizations behind these laws embrace zero population ideas, Planned Parenthood, and socialism. I will continue to sound the alarm to my Party leaders because it is my responsibility to "tell the King he is naked", and because it is the right thing to do to expose bigotry. I am persistent with this crusade because I believe the arc of justice bends on our side.
When the Party is wrong, I will side with the majority of the people, however, when the Party corrects itself I will bring the people back.
The ONLY way for the Republican Party to build trust with the majority of the Latino community is to denounce unconstitutional and anti-immigrant laws that have damaged our party. Several of your Latino auxiliaries are on record for embracing these horrendous laws and the Texas Republican legislators that introduce them. With this track record, the Republican Party is set to be on a course that will more than likely dwindle Hispanic Republican support down to 12-15%. Our goal is to increase that, and we cannot increase our Hispanic Republican voters by turning a blind eye to those who side legislators like David Duke, Tom Tancredo, J.D. Hayworth, Russell Pearce and Debbie Riddle.
Soon we will identify the groups you have affiliations with and who have been on the record for embracing unconstitutional and anti-immigrant laws such as SB 1070. We will remind everyone that the sponsor of SB 1070 is on the record for stating he "welcomed Operation Wetback." We will expose those groups on our websites and social networks soon, but we wanted to make sure we made an attempt to reach out to you first.
Lastly, SOMOS REPUBLICANS was instrumental in promoting several Latino Republicans Candidates not only in Texas, but all over the United States. We cannot support any candidate who wishes to demonize American born babies and the immigrant community. And we most certainly cannot side with any legislator who supports the views of Russell Pearce who has ties with known neo-Nazis. Since you are actively working with "numerous" Latino groups, then there is no need for us to register new Latino Republican voters in Texas. Your confidence calms my worry. Your Latino auxiliaries who are on the record for embracing SB 1070 type of laws should be sufficient for the State of Texas and the message is clear that you need no more help.
Thanks.
Regards,
DeeDee Garcia Blase
President/Founder
Quoting Steve Munisteri <smunisteri@texasgop.org>:
FYI-The bylaws of the RPT [Republican Party of Texas] prohibit the allocation of resources or Staff which indirectly or directly can influence intraparty contests. Therefore we will NOT be providing assistance to groups with a history of attacking Republican elected officials. The RPT works through our official auxiliary Hispanic Republican outreach groups who went through a screening process to become to affiliated with the RPT. I am happy to report that we are actively already working with numerous effective, well established Latino groups. In fact, I just attended a conference with these groups yesterday. This outreach is one reason the RPT just elected 6 new Latino state Reps and 2 new Latino Congressman. I trust this answers the inquiry-Steve
From: DeeDee
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 4:15 PM
To: Chris Elam
Subject: RE: Somos Republicans seeks to establish relations with RPT
Chris,
Please give us Steve's email, too. We will send a hard copy via snail mail, too.
We don't have a "hit list" as you are calling it. We react fast when GOP legislators refer to precious gifts from God as "anchor babies". It is demeaning and we are staunch pro lifers here. Furthermore, we do not believe in anti-immigrant laws that are contrary to Capitalism and Free Market Thinking.
Republicans who hold restrictionist, isolationist, and protectionist views do not belong in the party that claims to embrace Capitalism. We are restoring our damaged image, and we do it by disassociating ourselves from Dixiecrat individuals.
We will continue to produce a Hispanic friendly voting guide that was published in several, several Spanish media outlets during the 2010 midterm elections. The Hispanic friendly guide consists of people who do not demonize immigrants. Our Hispanic friendly guide is only a guide on immigration related issues....it is not a full blown endorsement. Our PAC endorses non-Democratic candidates.
Warmest regards,
DeeDee Garcia Blase
Founder/President
SOMOS REPUBLICANS
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:48:12 -0500 [03/23/2011 02:48PM CDT]
From: DeeDee
To: Lauro Garza, Chris Elam
Subject: Re: Somos Republicans seeks to establish relations with RPT
Mr. Elam,
Allow this to be a follow up to our verbal conversation we had a couple of weeks ago.
As discussed, we are interested in a bounty so that we can incentivize our grassroots organizers to register new Latino Republican voters over Independents.
We have a good rapport with the community because of our vocal opposition of SB 1070. Many of your Latino affiliations cannot say that about themselves....and we put people before party which is an important key element to gain back Latino trust and interest. As you already know, W. Bush received approximately 44% of Latino vote, and we have the numbers dwindle to 31% who voted for McCain. Several GOPers who have introduced anti-immigrant laws have hurt us tremendously with regard to the "big tent". We have developed trust and are coalition building with Latino leaders solely because of our opposition to SB 1070, and in fact we hear things like "I hate the racist Republican Party, but we love SOMOS REPUBLICANS." We believe they respect us because we don't agree with anti-immigrant/enforcement only laws.
Please let us know if you are interested in working with us. We do not want to be affiliated, but we do want to know if you will pay us a bounty for registering new Republican voters for the upcoming 2012 elections. If you pay us for registering new Republican voters, it will give us an incentive to try to convince Latinos to register as Republican.
If you get a moment, please review our 12 steps to securing our borders and legal immigration. Lionel Sosa (Hispanic Advisor to Reagan, Bush I and II) helped us polish it.
Thanks for your interest.
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