WASHINGTON — The Republican Party's highest-ranking Latino official abruptly resigned Friday, marking the latest casualty in the GOP's bitter internal fight over immigration and dealing another setback to President Bush's years-long effort to court Latino voters.
The announcement by Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida that he was quitting as general chairman of the Republican National Committee came after he had expressed frustration over the tenor of the immigration debate within his party. Martinez will remain in his Senate post.
"Mel Martinez was a symbol of the party's outreach to Latinos, and that seems to be disappearing," said Lionel Sosa, a longtime Republican strategist and advisor to GOP presidents since Ronald Reagan. "It is not a good day for Latino Republicans, that's for sure."
The White House had engineered the ascent of the Cuban-born Martinez over the objections of many conservatives as part of an effort to repair the GOP's image among Latinos. That image suffered when Republican congressional leaders and conservative activists stymied administration-backed measures that would have created a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
Some GOP strategists say the party's poor performance among Latino voters in 2006 helped ensure Democratic victories across the country. Now, some worry that Martinez's early exit from the RNC foreshadows more trouble in 2008.
Robert de Posada, president of the Republican-leaning Latino Coalition, said Martinez's departure is especially disheartening because it follows the resignation of another high-profile Latino in the GOP: former U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.
"The message that it sends is Latinos are not welcome," De Posada said. "The radical conservative base has a temporary victory right now."
The RNC will be run by Mike Duncan, who shared the title of chairman and was responsible for the party's day-to-day operations.
A statement by Martinez released by the RNC did not mention the immigration issue or the courtship of Latino voters, topics that dominated Martinez's inauguration as chairman in January. Instead, the senator lauded himself for his efforts to "articulate the party's core values on vital national issues ranging from funding our troops to winning the war on terror to the promotion of fiscally conservative policies."
Bush issued a brief statement saying that Martinez "represented the best of the Republican Party and its core values."
