The depths to which Republicans will go to hold on to power in 2006 appears to know no bounds.
The congressional campaign of Orange County Republican Tan D. Nguyen, himself an immigrant to this country, has sent a letter targeting Hispanic voters in his district that threatens "immigrants" with prison if they attempt to vote.
Of course, naturalized adult immigrants to this country have every right to vote...even if they're Hispanic, or (shudder to think) Democrats.
The campaign is in full denial mode - of course. This smells exactly like what we knew was coming, and will be coming over the next two and a half weeks: desperate GOP candidates let slimy RNC hit men swoop in, armed with corporate cash, and smear everything in sight (John McCain's black baby, anyone? how 'bout Max Cleland's love of Osama?), and then feign ignorance when their tactics are exposed.
The AP has the whole sordid tale - hopefully this story will add to the rising tide of poisonous bad shit about to rain down on the heads of these clueless, pathetic fools:
(10-19) 18:14 PDT Garden Grove, Calif. (AP) --
Orange County Republican leaders on Thursday called for the withdrawal of a GOP congressional candidate who has acknowledged that his campaign sent a letter threatening Hispanic immigrant voters.
County Republican Chairman Scott Baugh told The Associated Press that the party's executive committee voted unanimously to ask candidate Tan D. Nguyen to pull out.
Nguyen's attorney said Thursday night his client has no intention of quitting. Earlier Thursday, Nguyen told The Associated Press he has fired a campaign staffer who may have been the source of the letter that falsely told Hispanics immigrants can go to jail if they try to vote.
"I did not do this. I did not approve of any letter," said Nguyen, the challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Nguyen is a Vietnamese immigrant whose opposition to illegal immigration figures heavily in his underdog campaign.
State and federal officials are investigating the mailing for possible violations of election law.
Baugh said that after speaking with the state attorney general's office and the private company that distributed the mailer, he believes Nguyen had direct knowledge of the letter.
"I learned information that allows me to draw the conclusion that not only was Mr. Nguyen's campaign involved in this, but that Mr. Nguyen was personally involved in expediting the mailer," Baugh said in a telephone interview. He called the letter "obnoxious and reprehensible."
Nguyen was not immediately available to react to the committee's vote, but his attorney, David Wiechert, said Thursday night that his client does not plan to quit.
"Mr. Nguyen has no intention of dropping out of the race. He would do the public a disservice if he dropped out," Wiechert said.
<snip>
The letter was written in Spanish and mailed to an estimated 14,000 Democratic voters in central Orange County. It warns, "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
Immigrants who are adult naturalized citizens are eligible to vote.
<snip>
Complaints about the letters this week prompted a state probe, and a spokesman for California's attorney general said investigators had been questioning people in Orange County. U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said the department's civil rights division was investigating in coordination with the state attorney general's office.
<snip>
In an interview Thursday morning, Sanchez said she had never spoken to Nguyen because her campaign didn't see him as a threat to her re-election.
"If it is in fact this guy (who sent the letter), the most disgusting and saddest thing about it is that it comes from another immigrant," said Sanchez, a congresswoman born in the U.S. to Mexican parents whose 1996 election signaled Orange County's increasing diversification. "These communities have spent years trying to get naturalized immigrants to vote."
Nguyen's campaign Web site says he was born in 1973 in Vietnam, where his family fled the communist regime.
In 2004, he unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary to challenge GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in a heavily Republican coastal district. He later changed his party affiliation and declared his bid to upset Sanchez.
State attorney general spokesman Nathan Barankin said he did not know how long the investigation would take, but did say that investigators "have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained."
The owner of Huntington Beach-based Mailing Pros, Christopher West, said he did not know any laws were being broken when his company sent the mailer. "It was in Spanish, and I don't read Spanish," he said.
West said he gave investigators the name of the person who hired him, but declined to provide that name in an interview.
The letterhead of the mailing resembles that of an anti-illegal immigration group, the Huntington Beach-based California Coalition for Immigration Reform. The group's leader, Barbara Coe, said she told investigators Wednesday that her group didn't authorize the letter and that she didn't know who sent it.
"The letterhead was altered, and I've never head of any Sergio Ramirez," the name signed to the letter, Coe said.
This is not the county's first dispute over alleged intimidation of Hispanic voters. In 1988, Republican Assembly candidate Curt Pringle posted uniformed "security guards" at 20 predominantly Hispanic voting places in Orange County.
Republicans said the guards were stationed to prevent noncitizens from casting ballots. The FBI investigated the incident and no criminal charges were filed, but Pringle and nine other defendants paid $400,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter intimidation.
At the time, the chairman of the Orange County Republican Party was Thomas Fuentes, who according to a 1988 Los Angeles Times story approved use of more than $4,000 in party funds for the guards.
Fuentes was paid $5,000 for his work for Nguyen's campaign earlier this year. Through his wife, Fuentes on Thursday denied knowledge of or involvement in the immigration letters. The wife said he hasn't talked to Nguyen for months.