Raul Grijalva, the Democratic Congressman from AZ-7 is the head of the Progressive Caucus in the House and one of the most liberal members of the House. He’s also one of the few politicians with the sense to come out strongly against the Arizona anti-immigrant law.
He’s also facing a tough race in November and he’s on our ActBlue list.
You know what to do.
Napoleon
Not that I think you are making it up, but what is the basis for thinking he is in trouble?
NobodySpecial
Denounce him as too extreme for Centrist America and bemoan the idea that someone put him up to run in such a red part of the country?
Oh, I almost forgot: We also have to criticize him for being insufficiently with the President’s line on issues like immigration?
Right?
Omnes Omnibus
@NobodySpecial: I really hope you are kidding. Does everything have to be a fight between left and center-left, or between purists and incrementalists? This is why we can’t have nice things.
Bulworth
Thanks for letting us know about Grigalva. Just threw a couple bucks his way.
HRA
I gave to Grigalva, too. Thanks for letting us know about him, Doug.
ruemara
@Omnes Omnibus:
In a word, yes. Go back and review any threads on any of these subjects.
Bill H
Interesting. All of the liberal screaming about “foreign money” influencing our elections, and yet liberals also want money from 50 states to influence an election in one district in Arizona. Why is money from, say, New Jersey not considered “foreign money” in the election for representative in a single district in Arizona? Should not the people and businesses in that Arizona district be free of New Jersey influence in its electoral process?
And don’t call me some right wing talking point spouter. You have not seen the names I have called the likes of John McCain, Carley Fiorina and Meg Whitman. I am voting for Boxer, Brown and Susan Davis.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Napoleon:
An email tip from someone who should be in the know.
Cat Lady
Every time I use my heavy cast iron skillet I think about Eating Raoul. Bonk! That was a strange little movie – wasn’t one of their victims a secret Nazi fetishizer? How quaint. Now they run for office.
Napoleon
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
Fair enough. Too bad I already hit my limit. I gave twice as much as I have given in any other cycle this year and I made sure I did it by the end of Sept. Raul would have been worthy of some dough.
NobodySpecial
@Bill H: Ok, I won’t call you a right wing talking point spouter.
I’ll call you a fucking idiot instead.
Better?
Irony Abounds
There was a recent poll, although it was likely a Republican organization doing the polling, that showed him up only 2 points in a district he should be ahead by 20. His biggest problem with many voters is that he called for a boycott of Arizona. Not exactly a bright thing to do given how shitty Arizona’s economy is and given the importance of tourism. But then, no one has ever accused Grijalva of being bright.
Sorry, but he’s one guy I will not get on board to support. I can’t condemn Palin, Angle, etc. for being too stupid to hold office and then support a liberal dummy just because he spouts the liberal line. Grijalva is a product of Pima County local politics, having been on the Board of the Tucson Unified School District, a horribly run district, and on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, which has also been a disaster for a number of years, and Grijalva has been part of the clique that has turned Tucson and Pima County into areas with big city problems and small town amenities, and most importantly, a low wage economy. I’m concentrating on getting Giffords re-elected over the Teabagging hack running against her.
Bill H
@NobodySpecial:
So let me get this straight. I live in CA-53. I want Susan Davis to be my representative. But I should be perfectly happy if people from New Jersey, New York and other states in the East Coast are trying to override the wishes of people who live in this districe and elect someone else to represent me. I should cheer on the efforts of assholes 3000 miles away from me who think they know better than I do what I want to be presented to Congress in my name.
You do not, in other words, believe in a representative government at all. You do not believe that regional or local concerns and beliefs matter. If 51% of the nation are Democrats, then all representatives of all districts should be fucking Democrats, regardless of what the people who live in that district think.
You know nothing about Grijalva other than that he is a Democrat.
b-psycho
@Bill H: Overriding the wishes of your district is what every member of congress does when they pass something that your district doesn’t like. The same goes for every other district — if yours wants something & can get enough people to agree, then that’s what passes and fuck the other districts. That’s why people outside of it care who gets elected there, because that person has power that affects them despite living elsewhere.
I think this arrangement is completely nuts, btw.
NobodySpecial
@Bill H: Quick, how many people from outside your district come to your district to vote?
If you think about it, then you’ll realize why I called you a fucking idiot.
piratedan
well living in AZ CD-8 (right next door) I can tell ya about Grijalva if you really wanna know…
Raul is getting some blowback on a couple of issues….
1) the AZ Boycott he proposed post the passage
of SB1070, which happened to work well when
Ev Mecham was our wingnut governor, but times
were a damn sight better then, the land/housing
boom was in full swing and the boycott didn’t
hurt common folks. Now, with tha AZ economy
in full meltdown, thanks in large part to the
shortsighted Rethug legislature and their refusal
to tax anyone other than consumers, that boycott
hurts the tourism industry, which mostly employs
folks that are living paycheck to paycheck. Lovely
concept but hurts the wrong folks. Besides, the
Rethugs have learned a thing or two about spin
since the days of Ev and Fife.
2) Unemployment is higher in his district
than the rest of the state and as such, the
inability of Dems to see the light and couple
a bigger jobs bill or a better one, is killing
his district
3) Immigration reform, or lack thereof, while
his district has a healthy latino makeup, the
lack of anything resembling immigration
reform is hurting him in that he was unable
to get it on the agenda to get the process
started. We all know we need a common
sense approach to this, but it’s a rabid
pavlovian response button for the wingnuts
out here (despite the facts to the contrary
which no one will run on for some strange
reason) and his base isn’t happy that they’re
left twisting in the wind awaiting something,
anything to happen on that front.
Koz
Yeah no shit. Tell the rest of the world to boycott Arizona in today’s unemployment environment. There’s a brilliancy prize.
I’m looking forward to Grijalva going down just to see what he does after the election. I can guarantee you there’s no way a no-talent political hack like Grijalva will get a real honest job after he retires (or is retired) from Congress. If by some miracle he does I’ll have to give him some respect. Maybe he could lose some weight in his spare time.
mai naem
I am not saying he’s not in trouble but I find it hard to believe he’s in trouble until I see a non partisan outfit do a poll. BTW, Grijalva may be a result of S AZ machine politics but the woman running against Grijalva is just as much of teatard as the one running against Giffords. I do find it hard to believe that Grijalva is in more trouble than Mitchell in AZ 5 which has a higher Repub to Dem registration edge while Grijalva’s has a high Dem to Repub registration egde.