The chairman of the Orange County party’s Central Committee, Scott Baugh, made a motion at last Monday’s Central Committee meeting to oust Deborah Pauly from her vice chairmanship.
The motion passed overwhelmingly, 47 to 16.
The GOP has frequently been criticized for its tolerance of anti-Islamic activists, but the Orange County party displayed a different attitude to Pauly.
Last year, Pauly, who is also a city council member in the city of Villa Park and a candidate for Orange County supervisor, attended an anti-Islamic rally in Yorba Linda that was called to respond to a Muslim charity event raising money for the homeless and for women’s shelters.
Pauly told the rally: “Those who are assembling are enemies of America. They are your enemy. They are my enemy, because they seek to destroy it…. I know quite a few Marines who will be happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) lauded the Orange County GOP for its action. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the LA chapter of CAIR, said, “It is healthy and perfectly democratic to have differing political views. But as Americans, we must not tolerate any divisive, bigoted politics in our midst.”
Pauly is currently running for Orange County supervisor in the elections being held June 5. She complained that the motion to oust her from the party post was just a plot to damage her campaign.
The immediate cause of the action against her was not the anti-Muslim speech months ago, but a campaign letter mailed days earlier to Orange County voters by a supporter who used stationery from his stint as campaign manager in 1967 for George Wallace, the staunch segregationist.
Speakers at the party meeting complained that Pauly often makes outrageous remarks that have embarrassed the party. Emily Sanford, a long time party activist, wrote that Pauly seems to “enjoy being unnecessarily provocative.” Party Chairman Baugh said, “She makes statements out there that I’m constantly having to defend.”