Bernalillo County Republican Party Chairman Fernando C de Baca resigned Thursday morning amid public outrage over comments he made during an interview with BBC Radio last week.
In the interview with BBC reporter Ross Atkins, C de Baca, 70, said Hispanics of his generation would not support Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the presidency.
"The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors," C de Baca told Atkins. "African-Americans came here as slaves. Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."
C de Baca said there continued to be differences between the races throughout U.S. history.
"There's a strong feeling that African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement took advantage, full advantage, of all the benefits and the programs that the government offered that were supposed to be offered to all minorities, but (Hispanics) were left behind - we were left sucking air," he said. "And we've resented that ever since the '60s, and I don't see how a black president is going to change that."
C de Baca has denied that the comments he made were racially motivated. He said his words were taken out of context.
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During a Thursday interview with 770 KKOB radio host Peter St. Cyr, C de Baca said the media were to blame for his decision to resign from his position.
"The media sideshow which has developed, due to remarks taken totally out of context, has created a media spectacle of major proportions, and, as a result, I decided to resign as of this morning in an effort to get the focus back on the 30 or more Republican campaigns in Bernalillo County," C de Baca said. "We have precious few days remaining before the general election and not a moment to spare."
C de Baca's resignation came just hours after a rally of about 100 black leaders outside his house demanding he step down as chairman.
Ryan Cangiolosi, treasurer of the county party, will take over the position.
Antonio Gandara, vice president of the UNM College Democrats, said he was with C de Baca during two interviews with the BBC crew.
He said C de Baca's words may have upset community members, giving them the impression that the party shares C de Baca's views.
"The quote that they took was a generalized statement about the Hispanic community - and if the Hispanic community, almost as a whole, does not feel that way, they're not going to feel represented, especially considering the fact that he's a major party member of the state," Gandara said.
Student Michael Feracho, a member of Black Men in Motion, said voters should not base their political decisions on what C de Baca said.
"People should be open-minded and make decisions for themselves," Feracho said. "I think he made a very general statement, where maybe some people feel like that or maybe he feels like that, but I don't think that's across the board or that everyone feels that way."
Stephen Dinkel, president of Lobo Conservatives, said C de Baca's decision to step down was unfortunate.
"I think it's going to hinder progress, but I guess the state party decided that it would be more beneficial to have him step aside and go from there," Dinkel said. "I wish they would have made a decision sooner because there was too much . going on, but I think he was just bombarded with everybody requesting him to step down that he had no choice."
Allen Weh, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, said that if C de Baca hadn't resigned, he would most likely have been ousted from his position in March.
Weh said C de Baca's decision to step aside is for the best, regardless of whether his words were taken out of context.
"It really doesn't matter at this point, because what was said was inappropriate, and then the audio transcript which is now out, which takes a different twist . that also was not well-thought-through, and those comments were inappropriate," Weh said.
