Orange County has given birth to and/or nurtured its share of people and organizations that have powerfully impacted the Republican Party — for good or ill.
Richard Nixon was born here, and Ronald Reagan’s political home base was here.
The state’s two leading GOP groups — the Lincoln Club of Orange County and the New Majority — also originated here.
**There is more – click the link**
June 27th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Retailers talk about “branding” a particular product, a capsule summary
that consumers will long remember.
The New Majority “branded” itself by trying to PURGE the much-respected
Tom Fuentes as Chairman of the Orange County Republican party. Matt
and other OC leaders know better than I (in San Diego) how much that man
meant, and means, to the Republican party. He always put his ego last,
and the good of the party first.
The New Majority tried in 2000 to dump Fuentes by electing new Central
Committee members, and spent some $300,000 to do so. Conservatives
rallied round Chairman Tom, and the attempt to purge him failed badly.
Is it out of the question for today’s TNM leaders to publicly acknwledge
this was a mistake, and to apologize to Tom Fuentes?
Failing that, many will view them as the “Purge Tom Fuentes” brand,
for a long time to come.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Jim,
And best of all, it wouldn’t cost them a nickel, but would buy a lot of goodwill. Like the U.S. government apologizing for the Japanese internment camps of WWII, it’d carry plenty of symbolic meaning and start a healing process – without actually costing anything (except perhaps a bit of pride in the hearts of a few high-rollers.) Preserving pride vs. winning supporters: to me at least, that seems like a pretty easy choice for a group whose brand is inclusiveness.