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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Florida GOP official under fire after Monica Lewinsky comment

Tribune News Service

MIAMI – In a presidential election in which the Republican front-runner commented on the size of his – well, you know – Broward’s GOP chairman has taken the level of discourse to a new low.

Bob Sutton, chair of the Broward Republican Executive Committee, told the Washington Post that Democrat Hillary Clinton would be easy to defeat in a debate.

How easy?

“I think when Donald Trump debates Hillary Clinton she’s going to go down like Monica Lewinsky,” he said in an article about campaign gender wars.

Sutton’s quote set off a flurry of phone calls and emails between Broward Republican activists who felt his comments were in poor taste.

“I’m getting a lot of phone calls right now. A lot of women are very offended,” said Dolly T. Rump, an activist and Trump supporter who lives in Coral Springs. “It’s very distasteful to a lot of women.”

Sutton’s comment showed poor judgment, said Lauren Cooley, a 23-year-old Fort Lauderdale Republican who lost the chair race to Sutton last year.

“I thought it was disappointing to read a comment like that from our chair, who is supposed to represent the positive values and ideals of the Republican Party,” Cooley said.

Not everyone was upset. Flo Goldfarb, a Republican committeewoman from Pembroke Pines, directed her wrath at Clinton: “She is the cause of all the war on women, because of the issues her husband had womanizing women.”

Sutton could not be reached by cellphone, email or text Thursday afternoon, and his voicemail was full.

One of the Post’s blogs wrote that Sutton’s comment is “not likely to endear him to some female voters.”

He also put some women off last year, when he formed a business called “Red Hot Republican Women.”

While Sutton was vice chairman, he brought some of the women – wearing bikinis and high heels – to the Broward GOP’s regular monthly business meeting.

Sutton wanted to hold a fundraiser with a fashion show, and brought the women as a teaser.

But so many Republicans spoke out against the idea that the fundraiser/fashion show never materialized.

“To their credit, when Republican women spoke up and said that is probably not the best idea, the idea was nixed,” Cooley said. “And there were several Republican committeemen who got up and left. They thought it was inappropriate.”