MAYOR PEREZ LEADS PURGE AGAINST PRO-FAMILY DEMOCRAT
February 21st, 2006 by Peter
Ideological purges of moderate Democrats are all the rage lately among the state party’s hard-Left. Hartford’s pro same-sex unions Mayor Eddie Perez is now leading one such purge against pro-family Rep. Minnie Gonzalez (D-Hartford):
The shouting, coming one recent Friday from the Hartford Registrars of Voters office, was loud enough to clear the room.
State Rep. Minnie Gonzalez had just learned her loyal slate of 3rd District Democrats was facing a challenge at the polls – backed by Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez, a political rival. And she had heard the news from a city office staffed by the most loyal of Perez’s allies.
“My question is why, why?” Gonzalez said later. “Why is he putting all these people against me? Why is he coming after me?”…
And so came Gonzalez’s recent city hall battle cry.
The way she sees it, Perez’s challenge slate is not a matter of strategy as much as a battle of ego. Her slate is not against or for the mayor, she said. They’re simply “independent thinkers”- something that bothers Perez, she said, who likes firm control over all matters Latino and political.
“This,” Gonzalez said, “is a power struggle for him.”
One major reason why Mayor Perez is going after Minnie is because of her courageous pro-family stand. Minnie voted against the legalization of same-sex civil unions and even joined with a few Republicans in attaching an amendment to the bill defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Immediately afterwards, two pro same-sex “marriage” activists approached her in the hall and told her “we’ll be sure that you’re out” at the next election because of her vote.
Mayor Perez, meanwhile, had sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to vote to legalize civil unions. This is in sharp contrast to a Nov. 4, 2004 Courant op-ed by Mayor Perez, “Kerry Lost the Values Vote,” in which the Mayor warned that “to regain status as the national majority party, [Democrats] must be willing to embrace those for whom faith in God is a key component of civic participation.”
Contrary to what he wrote in the Courant, Mayor Perez has been working behind the scenes to purge from Democratic ranks the very people that he publicly claimed the party should be embracing. In Waterbury, he supported pro same-sex “marriage” activist Americo Santiago in his unsuccessful primary against pro-family Democrat Rep. David Aldarondo. And now he is working against pro-family Democratic incumbent Minnie Gonzalez.
The Latino political community is a rising force in our nation’s politics. For this reason, a battle is being waged between pro-family, pro-life Latinos “for whom faith in God is a key component of civic participation” and those, like Mayor Perez and Americo Santiago, who seek to remake their community into a reflection of the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion/pro same-sex “marriage” secular elites.
