“Birther queen” and California dentist Orly Taitz is back and scaring California’s Republican establishment.
Taitz, who insists Obama was born in Kenya (and ran up $20,000 in court fines trying to prove it), is making a run for California Secretary of State on the GOP ticket. But while fringe candidates run for office all the time, state Republican officials think Taitz can actually win the primary and fear she could be a liability going into the fall election.
“Can you imagine if (gubernatorial candidate) Meg Whitman and (candidate for Lt. Gov.) Abel Maldonado — both of whom might have a chance to win in November — had to run with Orly Taitz as secretary of state, who would make her cockamamie issues about Obama’s birth certificate problems at the forefront of her activities?” says James Lacy, a lawyer and California GOP activist, to Politico.
Taitz’ chances of winning are buttressed by a weak Republican primary opponent in ex-Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Damon Dunn, who Taitz alleges (you guessed it) is ineligible to run because he had been a registered Democrat in Florida. Political watchers say Dunn is the favorite for the GOP nomination, but not necessarily prohibitively so.
If she can eke out the GOP crown, Taitz would face Deborah Bowen, who is the incumbent Democrat favored to win the November vote. “Orly Taitz is interesting because she’s on the fringe with the birther movement,” Bowen spokesman Steve Barkan told Politico. “But we’ll take both candidates seriously.”