GOP Official Removed for Racial Remarks

The spokeswoman for the Republican Party in Nevada’s most populous county was removed from her post Saturday, after she said the Democratic Party made black people “dependent on the government.”

Didi Lima, the Clark County GOP communications director, also was removed from her volunteer role as a Hispanic community liaison for Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign over the remarks made earlier in the day while working at a McCain campaign booth.

“We don’t want (Hispanics) to become the new African-American community,” Lima told The Associated Press. “And that’s what the Democratic Party is going to do to them, create more programs and give them handouts, food stamps and checks for this and checks for that. We don’t want that.”

“I’m very much afraid that the Democratic Party is going to do the same thing that they did with the African-American culture and make them all dependent on the government and we don’t want that,” she said.

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“Didi Lima is no longer a part of this campaign, her comments don’t reflect Senator McCain’s beliefs and are not tolerated on his campaign,” McCain spokesman Rick Gorka said after learning about her remarks.

Lima is the second Republican Party official to land in hot water this week over comments perceived as inflaming tensions between blacks and Hispanics.

The chairman of the Republican Party in New Mexico’s most populous county resigned Thursday, nearly a week after saying “Hispanics consider themselves above blacks” and won’t vote for Obama.

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