Republican Party

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

Deborah Pauly, the outspoken Villa Park councilwoman who drew community ire when she protested outside an Islamic charity event, was removed this week from a leadership position with the Orange County Republican Party's central committee. Party officials said Pauly, who is running for county supervisor, has been a divisive figure. Her removal comes a month after Orange businessman Bob Walters mailed out letters supporting Pauly's candidacy on a "George Wallace for President" letterhead.

Tom Fuentes, whose forceful leadership of the Orange County Republican Party confirmed it as an epicenter of GOP fundraising and political clout, has died. He was 63. Fuentes died late Friday at his home in Lake Forest, family spokeswoman Kathy Tavoularis said. He had liver cancer that had spread to his lungs and lymph system. Fuentes, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County from 1985 to 2004, helped the party maintain its powerhouse status while boosting several candidates to victory.

Tom Fuentes, whose forceful leadership of the Orange County Republican Party confirmed it as an epicenter of GOP fundraising and political clout, has died. He was 63. Fuentes died late Friday at his home in Lake Forest, family spokeswoman Kathy Tavoularis said. He had liver cancer that had spread to his lungs and lymph system. Fuentes, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County from 1985 to 2004, helped the party maintain its powerhouse status while boosting several candidates to victory.

A plan to keep dozens of domestic-violence shelters from closing sailed out of the state Assembly late Friday night with nary a no vote. Yet hours later, the bill lay in the legislative trash heap, one of many lost to politics as lawmakers reached the deadline for completing their work this year. Republicans in the Senate blocked more than 20 bills -- all needing GOP votes to pass, many approved by the lower house with bipartisan or near-unanimous support -- to leverage a trio of unrelated demands.

DES MOINES - Returning to the state that launched Barack Obama's path to the presidency, Mitt Romney went on offense Tuesday, accusing his rival of carelessly driving the country into "a financial crisis of both debt and spending that threaten what it means to be an American. " After a week in which the president's position shift on the divisive topic of gay marriage consumed the debate, Romney tried to steer the conversation back to the economy - never mentioning that Iowa's 5.2% unemployment rate is far lower than in many other states.

Mark Barabak (The Washington Connection, Nov. 24) indicated that to win, the GOP needs to be more "moderate." Wrong. To win, the GOP and Democrats, also, need to be liberal on civil liberties and conservative on economics. Polls show this. Jesse Ventura's Minnesota win illustrates this. This position is known as libertarian. DEVON SHOWLEY Cypress

Talk show host Glenn Beck poked and prodded the Republican hierarchy Saturday night in a raucous address to fellow conservatives, comparing the party to an alcoholic who hasn't hit bottom and to golfer Tiger Woods before his public repentance. Calling himself a recovering alcoholic in that context, Beck said he believes in the concept of redemption but that he doesn't think the GOP has taken the first step toward achieving it. "I have not yet heard people in the Republican Party admit they have a problem," Beck told a packed ballroom in Washington.

If the Republican Party thinks it has problems now, just wait. The party's incredibly poor performance among young voters in the 2008 election raises questions about the long-term competitiveness of the GOP. The "millennials" -- the generation of Americans born between 1982 and 2003 -- now identify as Democrats by a ratio of 2 to 1. They are the first in four generations to contain more self-perceived liberals than conservatives.

The Republican Party is walking away from Dan Maes, a small-time businessman and political novice with "tea party" backing who captured Colorado's GOP gubernatorial nomination, scrambling the race less than seven weeks before election day. Maes has been disavowed by pillars of the Republican establishment — including former Sen. Hank Brown and current U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck. The chairman of the state Republican Party flatly said Maes is not running a professional campaign and called on him to drop out before ballots were printed Sept.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

DES MOINES - Returning to the state that launched Barack Obama's path to the presidency, Mitt Romney went on offense Tuesday, accusing his rival of carelessly driving the country into "a financial crisis of both debt and spending that threaten what it means to be an American. " After a week in which the president's position shift on the divisive topic of gay marriage consumed the debate, Romney tried to steer the conversation back to the economy - never mentioning that Iowa's 5.2% unemployment rate is far lower than in many other states.

The defeat of Sen. Richard G. Lugar in his bid for a seventh term in Indiana has given Democrats new hope of holding on to their narrow majority in the Senate. The result could also play out in the race for president, fueling the narrative of an Obama campaign running as much against the "tea party"-infused Republican Congress as it is against Mitt Romney. Within an hour of Richard Mourdock being declared the winner in Indiana's GOP primary, the White House released a statement from President Obama hailing Lugar's "distinguished service.

After more than 35 years in the Senate, Richard G. Lugarof Indiana was ousted Tuesday by a tea party challenger in a Republican primary that showed how hard it is for a veteran lawmaker known for his ability to compromise to win reelection in the current political environment. The 80-year-old senator, a leading voice for his party on foreign policy, was pummeled for weeks by Republican rival Richard Mourdock for his breaches with conservative orthodoxy. Among them: Lugar's support of citizenship for some illegal immigrants and his votes to confirm President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

WASHINGTON -- A top staffer for the Republican National Committee got the party's election-year outreach to Latino voters off to a disastrous public start Monday when she told a roomful of reporters that likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a hard-liner on immigration, was still formulating his position on the issue. “As a candidate, to my understanding, that he's still deciding what his position on immigration is,” said Bettina Inclàn, who became the RNC's director of Hispanic Outreach in January.

It was Richard Nixon who brought me into the Republican fold. He was running for president, and I had recently arrived in California from Austria, which I'd left because the European socialist mentality wasn't big enough for my dreams. Growing up, I was surrounded by kids whose greatest ambition was to one day collect a pension. I didn't intend to spend my whole life dreaming about floating on a government safety net. One day, when Nixon was talking on the television, my liberal friend Artie translated bits of what he was saying.

At a Tea Party Express rally last week, Christine O'Donnell bounded onto the stage and lit up the crowd with the same fiery style that has turned Tuesday's Senate primary into another battle for the future of the Republican Party. O'Donnell, a longtime activist who has made a career of crusading for abstinence-based sex education and other conservative issues, is now within striking distance of beating one of Delaware's best-known public figures: Rep. Michael N. Castle, the tiny state's sole representative in the House for nearly 20 years and before that its governor for two terms.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The tea party upstart who is trying to dislodge one of the U.S. Senate's most respected Republicans is about to cry. Minutes into his stump speech at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner here, as hundreds of Republicans poke at chicken and mini-potatoes, Richard Mourdock chokes up, his voice cracking over the sound system, all the way to the bar at the back of the room. "Honestly, as I look at our nation's capital, I feel more frustrated with Republicans than Democrats," says Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer.

Re "Patt Morrison Asks: Nathan Fletcher," Opinion, April 28 The out-of-town infatuation with San Diego mayoral candidate and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher is hard to fathom. Of course, the "story" is that Fletcher recently broke ranks with the Republican Party and is now running as an independent. Shades of former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and how did that turn out? Following a stint working for the disgraced (and now convicted felon) former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Fletcher got elected to the Assembly as a Republican and later declared his candidacy for mayor as a Republican.