<p>Longtime Orange County Republican Party boss Tom Fuentes is fending off a growing cry for his resignation, with even some once-staunch defenders now saying he has alienated too many key Republicans and is no longer an effective leader.</p>
<p>Fuentes, chairman of the county GOP for the past 19 years, has been at the center of building the organization into one of the country's Republican powerhouses, reliable both for its ability to raise money and to guarantee broad margins of victory for GOP candidates.</p>