Spokeswoman fired for remarks about blacks

The spokeswoman for the Republican Party in Clark County was fired Saturday, after she said the Democratic Party made black people "dependent on the government."

Didi Lima, the Clark County GOP communications director, also was removed from her volunteer role as a Hispanic community liaison for Republican John McCain's presidential campaign over the remarks made earlier in the day while working at a McCain campaign booth.

"We don't want (Hispanics) to become the new African-American community," Lima said. "And that's what the Democratic Party is going to do to them: create more programs and give them handouts, food stamps and checks for this and checks for that. We don't want that."

"I'm very much afraid that the Democratic Party is going to do the same thing that they did with the African-American culture and make them all dependent on the government and we don't want that," she said.

In August, Lima was named co-chair of McCain's Nevada Hispanic Leadership Team, which aimed to reach out to a crucial voting bloc in a state where polls show McCain in a dead heat with Barack Obama.

Lima is the second Republican Party official to land in hot water this week over comments perceived as inflaming tensions between blacks and Hispanics.

The chairman of the Republican Party in New Mexico's most populous county resigned Thursday, nearly a week after saying "Hispanics consider themselves above blacks" and won't vote for Obama.

Fernando C de Baca had been urged to resign for days by members of his own party.