Anti-Semitic robocalls supporting candidate rile California GOP
Party has disavowed John Fitzgerald in race against Rep. Mark DeSaulnier
For the second time in as many months, Bay Area voters are receiving anti-Semitic robocalls promoting little-known Republican candidates for Congress who have been disavowed by the party.
Robocalls that went out Tuesday promote John Fitzgerald, who was the only Republican among three challengers to incumbent Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, in the June primary. Fitzgerald finished second with 23 percent of the vote to advance to the November runoff for the 11th Congressional District seat.
“It was easily the most racist political ad I’ve ever come across in the Bay Area,” Robert Gammon, business development director for Telegraph Media, which includes the East Bay Express, posted Tuesday on Twitter. He said the call claimed “Jews are taking over the world ‘and must be stopped.’ ”
Fitzgerald was unavailable for comment Wednesday, and it was unclear how many received the automated calls. On his campaign website Wednesday, he claimed he knew nothing about the robocalls until his wife received one and declared them an unauthorized “smear against my cam-
paign.” He claimed the culprit was Road to Power, a video podcast for white nationalists linked to an Idaho man named Scott Rhodes.
Fitzgerald said on his campaign website that Road to Power is run by “a despicable hate-filled person” who “dresses like a Nazi soldier” and “openly hates Jews.” Rhodes was unavailable for comment, and his website indicated he has disconnected his phone and email.
But while Fitzgerald’s website states “I do not” share Road to Power’s views, the GOP candidate’s campaign site is filled with anti-Semitic entries such as last week’s “Why Are Powerful Jews Pushing Mass-Immigration
And Forced-Multiculturalism Throughout The U.S. And Europe?”
The California Republican Party in early May publicly endorsed Fitzgerald automatically as the only Republican on the ballot, a process it is now changing, said spokesman Matt Fleming. But after questions were raised about his views, California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte issued a statement May 29 “to eliminate any support for John Fitzgerald due to anti-Semitic comments he made recently” that he said “have no home in the Republican Party.”
“Once we learned of Mr. Fitzgerald’s anti-Semitic worldview in late May, we moved immediately to undo the unfortunate automatic endorsement,” Fleming said. “Because of this incident, we strengthened our
vetting process.”
But it wasn’t the first time the state GOP had to disavow an anti-Semitic candidate running under its brand. Patrick Little of Albany was among a host of little-known Republicans to challenge U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s re-election in the June primary. His anti-Semitic rants about Feinstein prompted party officials to bar him from their San Diego convention in May.
Later that month, robocalls promoting Little and linked to Road to Power, which has 11 subscribers, and Rhodes went out to voters. Little was eliminated in the June primary with just 1.3 percent of the vote. Under the state’s “top two” primary system, Feinstein will compete in November against runner-up state Sen. Kevin de León, a fellow Democrat.
Matt Shupe, the chair of the Contra Costa County Republican Party, said the county party never endorsed Fitzgerald. It declared him an “unwelcome individual” at its meeting Monday and is in the process of recruiting a write-in candidate to run against him and DeSaulnier.
“This guy’s never attended a meeting, he’s not part of our organization in any way,” said Shupe, who is Jewish. “He does not in any way represent the values or positions of our party.”
Fitzgerald only registered as a Republican a couple of years ago and ran as a Democrat in congressional races in 2010 and 2012.
“It’s disingenuous to think that any of the people who voted for him knew about his views,” Shupe said. DeSaulnier agreed. “People vote ‘R’ and ‘D,’ and he’s the only Republican
on the ballot,” DeSaulnier said. “The inference is people think it’s OK and that’s not the case. It’s that they don’t know.”
DeSaulnier condemned Fitzgerald’s views as “ugly” and said, “I’m not going to go out of my way to debate him.”
“I hate to give him more of a platform,” DeSaulnier said.
California isn’t the only place where Republicans have had to repudiate antiSemitic candidates claiming the GOP banner. They have disavowed Arthur Jones, described as a former leader of the American Nazi Party, who is running in the Chicago area’s 3rd Congressional District. In Wisconsin, the Republican Party kicked out congressional candidate Paul Nehlen, who is running for House Speaker Paul Ryan’s seat, after Twitter
banned Nehlen over antiSemitic posts.
But in California, RNC Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon blamed the “top two” primary system voters adopted under Proposition 14 in 2010 for candidates such as Fitzgerald finding their way onto ballots under the party brand.
Before the top-two system, parties could let only their own voters cast primary ballots for their candidates to ensure their best would represent them in the November general election.
“Under Prop. 14, any clown of any nature can affiliate with either party, and there’s nothing the parties can do about it,” Dhillon lamented. She urged anyone receiving the robocalls promoting Fitzgerald to “not listen to them, and under no circumstances should they vote for this man.”