Somos Republicans’ Leader Steps Down

The founder of Somos Republicans, Dee Dee Garcia-Blase, stepped down from her post as president of the group so that she can focus on her Latino voter registration project, The Tequila Party, according to a press release from Somos Republicans. The release notes:

DeeDee Garcia Blase, will be stepping down and taking a leave of absence as President of SOMOS REPUBLICANS one year before the 2012 Presidential elections, in order to focus exclusively on the National Tequila Party Movement.  The National Tequila Party Movement is the Latin counter-movement to the Tea Party and a national Latino Get-Out-the-Vote effort.  It is a goal for the Tequila Party to provide political grassroots covering to the most immigrant-friendly politicians in the country.  Blase recently changed her affiliation from the Republican Party to the Independent Party due to the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

We wrote a story earlier this week about Somos Republicans’ Executive Vice President Bob Quasius resigning to form his own conservative Latino movement, the Cafe Con Leche Republicans. When we spoke to Garcia-Blase, she did not mention that she would be stepping down for any period of time, but did say that her appointment of Republican Adam Bustos to First Vice President of the group would allow her to take a leave of absence, as he could take over for her if necessary.

While this may not necessarily change anything, it appears that all these parties are set to continue organizing as they have been, I think it’s interesting to see how the conservative Latino movement is growing and changing. In some ways the formal structure of the GOP was not amenable to organizing conservative Latinos, thus the creation of the Tequila Party. In any case, we’ll continue to keep you in the loop as there are updates.