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Blue on Blue: Grijalva, Giffords Tangle over SB1070

Fratricide Makes it Harder to Keep the Majority

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  August 18th, 2010 at 01:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Giffords’ district – one with a significant Republican lean – is currently rated as vulnerable by respected analyst Charlie Cook. For a Democrat in a conservative state, representing a Republican-leaning seat, it is important to stake out moderate stances on controversial issues. That’s particularly true on a hot-button issue such as immigration, which is obviously very important to Arizona voters this year.

That’s probably the reason Giffords took to the airwaves to make clear that she opposes the boycott favored by some liberals to pressure the state to rescind its new immigration law. This was probably smart politics, but it put her at odds with the liberal grassroots – and with Congressman Raul Grijalva, who was an advocate of the boycott. Worse still, Giffords’ border district abuts Congressman Grijalva’s and the two share the Tucson media market. It’s that market where her ads are airing.

For the grassroots, this is a major offense:

Giffords is looking like the point of the Blue Dog spear being thrust into the House progressive infrastructure. As we pointed out over the weekend, despite Pelosi’s efforts to tamp it down, the Blue Dogs are going on the warpath against progressive Democrats, using Henry Waxman’s interview with The Hill as an excuse. One thing we can always be sure of inside the Democratic Caucus– well, two, actually: Blue Dogs will always put self-preservation above the party’s principles, and the DCCC will do whatever it can to help them get re-elected…

When Grijalva took a leadership role in speaking out against SB1070 and called for civic, political and religious organizations not to bring their conventions and conferences to Arizona, it was a defining and courageous political stand. Since then, he has said that economic consequences mean nothing to political ideologues, and he has been actively working with industries to bring business back to the state to help amplify his voice and effect change (www.vivaarizona.org is one such example). Giffords’ attack on his stand and on everyone who joined him in fighting for what is right obfuscates her failure to exhibit meaningful leadership in this fight, and hurts those who did…

Minutes before publishing time I reached Raúl in Tucson and I was surprised to find him in such a determined mood. “I kind of feel like a character in the movie The Expendables, he told me. “In an effort to maintain their presence in Congress, Blue Dogs are throwing progressives under the bus. I find it disheartening and, quite frankly, I am embarrassed as a Democrat. In their effort to be Republicans, Blue Dogs often paint progressives as expendable. They’re going to find out that we definitely are not.”

Not only was Grijalva exorcised enough at this ‘attack’ to discuss it with liberal activists, he has now taken to the pages of DailyKos to attack Giffords, and to complain about being ‘thrown under the bus.’ He’s appealing for donations that will be used to advance the ‘progressive agenda’ – a thinly veiled attack at Members like Giffords.

Discord in the House majority seems to have hit a new level – with moderates and progressives more intent on fighting each other than governing the country.

Cross-posted to Liberty Central

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  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • acat

    I mean .. really?

    This is what the “incredible power of the blue dogs” has been reduced to?

    The truth is out – there are no blue dogs, just dem rats dipped in blue paint.

    Mew

    • usadying

      Kirkpatrick will say or do anything to keep her seat. But in the end, she is still a dem. They are all progressives.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    She goes on the radio because she’s terrified of meeting with her constituents. See the complete NRCC list here.

    Nor will Dems Anne Kirkpatrick or Harry Mitchell meet with their constituents. Mitchell challenger David Schweikert (CD-5) told us last night at the Tempe Tea Party that the latest polling shows him up by seven points over Mitchell.

    Yesterday, local conservative talk radio station KFYI reported this regarding statewide voter registrations:

    The number of registered voters in Arizona has increased 1 percent over the last three months.

    (AP)-Statewide figures show Democratic registration decreased by 530 voters. Registration for Independents rose by more than 25,000 voters and increased by more than 10,000 voters for Republicans. The changes didn’t upset the registration advantage that Republicans have held in Arizona.

    Thirty-six percent of Arizona’s 3.1 [million] registered voters are Republicans, 32 percent are Democrats and 30 percent are Independents. Libertarians and the Green Party each account for less than 1 percent of registered voters.

    Voters will go to the polls in Tuesday’s primaries for governor, U.S. Senate, congressional seats and other races.

    http://www.kfyi.com/pages/local_news.html?feed=118695&article=7493454

    In CD-5, Republicans hold a significant lead over Democrats in registrations, and even a significant lead over the Democrats in the number of precinct committeemen slots filled, yet somehow Democrat Harry Mitchell was re-elected in 2008.

    CD-5 Active Registrations:

    Republican: 143,650

    Democrat: 105,017

    “Other” (includes independents and “Party Not Designated”): 117,409

    Source: http://recorder.maricopa.gov/voterregnet/redirect.aspx?view=congressional

    Got to go walk my precinct, targeting those Republicans who never seem to vote in the primaries and the independents, too. Historically, in CD-5, only about 20 per cent of registered voters bother themselves to vote in the primary elections. I hope to see an uptick in that on Tuesday and will work with my fellow precinct committeemen thereafter, no matter who wins the Republican primary, to increase Republican voter turnout (and conservative Independent turnout, to the extent possible) to make sure Harry Mitchell does not get re-elected on Nov. 2.

    For Liberty,
    ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman,? not ?political child!?)
    Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (76 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)

    • usadying

      We recently moved to KY from Scottsdale, but there is nothing I want more than for Harry Mitchell to be defeated. I camped at his office during the health care debate…along with hundreds of others constituents. He ignored everyone’s concerns. There are no blue dogs. Harry Mitchell is Pelosi and Rahm’s lapdog.

    • eburke

      with a gajillion candidates, who do you like?

      I remember Schweikert and Bitter Smith from my days in AZ and while my memory’s fuzzy that far back I don’t recall having warm fuzzies about Susan and can’t remember anything about Schwiekert ‘cept his name.

      Your take?

      • minister_of_war

        …but I think that CW does miss a couple points.

        First of all, Harry Mitchell was first elected to Congress in 2006, not in 2008 as his post might seem to suggest. Mr. Mitchell had a lot of things going for him that year, on top of him being a former Mr. Tempe who could do no wrong & an overall bad national mood in regard to Republicans. But the person that Mitchell beat to get elected to Congress was JD Hayworth, who had served in Congress for the previous 6 terms.

        I saw Hayworth’s ship sinking in that district long before Hayworth did. And I say this as somebody who has already cast my early ballot for JD Hayworth in the election to replace John McCain in the US Senate.

        Hayworth’s star began to flicker when he decided not to run when he was considered to be the front runner in the race for the Republican nomination to go up against incumbent Governor Janet Napolitano in her quest for reelection.

        Instead of going up against Napolitano, Hayworth instead decided to try & play it safe when it looked like her popularity numbers were too high. Playing it safe made Hayworth look weak & like a coward. Hayworth had made everybody think that he was going to man up & face Napolitano, who had done everything possible to ruin Arizona. By making it look like he was going to run for Governor, Hayworth cleared the bench of any strong Republican contenders. Republicans were then forced to pick an unknown candidate for Governor & Napolitano went on to crush him in her reelection bid.

        But in order not to lose his bid for the governorship in Arizona, Hayworth decided to lose his race to be reelected to Congress instead.

        • minister_of_war

          CW did say that Mitchell was “re-elected” in 2008, so I must have misread his post the 1st time. Other than that, I’ll stick with my last post.

      • pilgrim

        http://drchrisforcongress.com/home/meet-chris/endorsements-2/writtenendorsements-2

        Dr. Chris Salvino may just be the Dr Dan Benishek type candidate in AZ-5. You lived down there, and so the link with the endorsements listed may give you some insight about where this Dr is coming from.

      • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

        With that said, I will of course work my tail off in the general to help GOTV for the Republican candidate who wins the primary. I have met all the rest and they all claim to be “the real conservative” candidate. But I think David actually is the most conservative. And would have the best chance of defeating Harry Mitchell. Both Jim Ward and Dr. Chris Salvino have the advantage of not being “professional politicians” (both David and Susan Bitter Smith have been in the state legislature and have run for Congress several times) and that would play well, I think, against professional politician Harry Mitchell.

        We’ll see.

        There are A LOT of energized conservative tea partiers and 9.12-ers who will be helping GOTV for all of the Republican candidates (except, perhaps, McCain) in the weeks leading up to the general election.

        (Oh, and, in case I have to fend off the “Reply to This is your friend” comments, I did use that button. Sometimes, it just does not work.)

        For Liberty,
        ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman,? not ?political child!?)
        Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (76 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)

        • kchand

          I’ll probably pull the lever for Schweikert. I worked hard for him last time.

          I went to all the candidates town halls and asked all of them one question, the ONE that was most important to me; How and why will you beat Harry Mitchell? I didn’t get any stellar responses. I don’t think there are any ‘bad’ candidates in CD 5. So, I want the one that will beat Harry.

          I will work my tail off for whomever is elected. The Pelosi hand-maiden, must go. Harry will not meet with anyone in this district that I could find. His office would not advise me of ANY meetings over the past 2 years. He is a political coward.

      • aesthete

        but I play an AZ-05 voter on the internet (I’m cursed with having to see Grijalva win in my district for the umpteenth time this November). I’ve only met Jim Ward, but I have to say that for me, it’s a toss-up between Jim and Schwiekert as being the most conservative in the race. Both are the frontrunners and both lead the other candidates in the polls, so honestly, we don’t have to worry about having to support an un-conservative candidate as our standard-bearer in AZ-05. I would say that both have their Tea Party supporters (I’m pretty sure CW lives there and could break down support levels better than I could), and anecdotally it seemed like it broke about 55/45 for Jim Ward in the Tea Party. Jim isn’t a professional politician, ran LucasArts very well, has been part of the Tea Party movement up there for a while, and has mostly refrained from dumb statements about how we should run government like a business. David Schwiekert is a former pol, but his record is very good. Ultimately, I go for the not-professional here (Jim Ward), but I think that Schwiekert is equally good, and might be better. I defer to CW’s opinion on the race.

        • eburke

          with this comment:

          ” we don?t have to worry about having to support an un-conservative candidate as our standard-bearer in AZ-05″

          That’s the biggest thing I worry about in these umpteen gajillion conservatives in a GOP primary gigs – that we’ll have happen what happened in MI where 3 conservatives split 63% of the vote and the only moderate/lib in the race ended up winning.

          That’s my biggest concern about AZ – 3. From what I’ve heard, there’s about 7 conservatives and only a couple of moderates in that contest and I can just see a solidly R District being represented by some lib/mod because all the conservatives split the vote.

          I am relieved to hear that is not the case in AZ – 5.

          Thanks for the good news!! (oh and btw…my most profound sympathies on having Grijalva as your Rep. He actually makes Bernie Sanders look like a conservative Republican; Ever thought of moving just on the principal of the thing? I know he’s from the Tucson area but is there any chance in hell in a wave election that he can be beaten? Or is his district even more liberal than Pastor’s?)

          • aesthete

            I’d move. Currently, I can’t. There isn’t much chance of his being beat: the Republicans have insisted on putting forward a piss-poor anti-Semite as their banner bearer (basically as a sacrificial lamb), and the entire area is populated by drug lords, various welfare beneficiaries, and its fair share of idiot yuppies (I don’t remember if AZ-07 contains the UA, but I wouldn’t be surprised). AZ-08 is eminently winnable, though: it contains Davis-Monthan (our AF base) and Vail District, which is a suburb with lots of engineers and AF people.

            A candidate could potentially win in a Scott Brown upset if he/she aggressively courted Mexicans in their venues (Spanish-speaking areas), and was strongly socially conservative. I highly doubt that a fiscal conservative could ever win, and I’m pretty sure such a prospective candidate would have to diverge from the conservative orthodoxy on other issues, as well (immigration for starters). Judging from the reaction to Scott Brown, if such a candidate won we could expect plenty of posts about how he/she is “betraying conservatives” on those issues. I’d be content with kicking Grijalva out, period.

  • ralatredstate

    “two GOP kooks seeking their party’s nomination to challenge her, Jonathan Paton, a relatively mainstream conservative, and Jesse Kelly, an out-and-out Glenn Beck teabagging imbecile who has been endorsed by a gaggle of far right congressional xenophobes like Trent Franks, Marsha Blackburn, and Duncan Hunter (father and son) as well as the Family Research Council and
    most of the tea party and militia groups operating in the area.” – Brian’s “Grassroots” cite

    http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/08/unscrupulous-blue-dog-attack-on-raul.html

    • pilgrim

      The incumbent, Harry Mitchell is a him not a her. The two GOP people you mention are not running for the AZ-5 seat. Your adjectives about a candidate runnibg in AZ-8 sound like kos instead of RS.

      • deano64

        Gabby Giffords district not Harry Mitchell’s district. Sarcasm thrown in regarding Jesse Kelly (me thinks). Harry Mitchell isn’t the topic of the original post.

      • ralatredstate

        The passage with the adjectives is a quote from the wacko left site downwithtyranny. What this site thinks about Paton and Kelly may be of interest to anyone undecided between them (in AZ-8 – I was confused about this). I guess I should keep my nose out of races I don’t know anything about, but I thought the description of Kelly was worth repeating, and the poor joke was – if these wack jobs hate Kelly, that’s a good reason to support him.

        • aesthete

          Thanks for clarifying.

          Since everyone has gotten so interested in AZ-08′s race, I’m gonna have to write that diary I’ve been dragging my foot on for the past couple of weeks :)

          Basically, your general sentiment is spot on, though I am surprised that Paton wasn’t excoriated more by the left. Kelly is our Tea Party candidate, and is for entitlement reform and all those other crazy Tea Party ideas: he’s been with the Tea Party pretty much since it started, and it’s gotten him a lot of support. Paton’s alright; we can do (and have done) much worse than him. He passed lots of tax cuts, but he’s also not fought much spending, and has been for funding lots of non-essential educational crap. He’s also a bit more green than I am, and has voted accordingly (I guess you could categorize him as a really “crunchy” crunchy-con). Then, he’s funded various other things and voted for stuff that I find suspect. While he’s not a big-spending Republican in the mold of Bill Frist, I don’t see him fighting for spending cuts in the same way that Kelly would.

          • ralatredstate

            but ‘Leans Dem’ by Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Cook (PVI = R+4).

            While I was at Cook’s site I noticed:

            Danger Zone: Ratings Changes for 10 Democratic Incumbents

            August 17, 2010
            House Editor David Wasserman explains why ratings have shifted in ten races where Democratic incumbents are facing tough reelections. Three more races have joined the Lean Democratic column, while seven more races have joined the Toss Up column.

            CA-47 Loretta Sanchez Likely D to Lean D
            FL-02 Allen Boyd Lean D to Toss Up
            GA-08 Jim Marshall Likely D to Toss Up
            IA-03 Leonard Boswell Lean D to Toss Up
            IL-11 Debbie Halvorson Lean D to Toss Up
            OH-16 John Boccieri Lean D to Toss Up
            PA-08 Patrick Murphy Lean D to Toss Up
            PA-10 Chris Carney Likely D to Lean D
            SD-AL Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Lean D to Toss Up
            TN-04 Lincoln Davis Likely D to Lean D

            Some of this is just Cook catching up, but dang, this is great.

    • minister_of_war

      …of actually beating Grijalva in his own district. Of course, it all depends on who wins the Republican Primary. If the racist, anti-Semite & crazy Joe Sweeney wins the Primary like usual, then Republicans have no chance. Sweeney only wins primaries due to name ID & idiot voters who don’t pay attention. Or maybe Grijalva is getting his supporters to register as Republicans & Independents in order to support Joe Sweeney in the Primary. Regardless, Sweeney has been on the ballot so many times that he somehow gets people to vote for him just because they remember seeing his name before.

      But maybe Ruth McClung can win the Republican Primary & voters in Arizona’s CD-7 will vote in massive numbers against Grijalva due to his illicit support for illegal immigration & his calls to boycott the small businesses of his own constituents.

      EIther way, it’s sad to say, but even the racist, anti-Semite Joe Sweeney might be better than the racist, anti-his own district Grijalva.

      • IJB

        The short answer to your question is that it is theoretically possible that Grijalva could go down (just like Bob Filner in CA-51), but it will take an *extremely* low turnout election for it to happen.

        IOW, if it’s going to happen, 2010 is the year…

      • mbecker908
        • IJB

          AZ-07 is a D+6 district – in a big enough ‘wave’, even D+6 districts can go down, especially in districts like AZ-07 where the turnout is likely to plummet in such an environment.

          It may not be “likely”, but it *is* “possible”.

      • aesthete

        I live in the district, and it is basically a giant ghetto rife with drug violence (with some parts of the ghetto nicer than others, admittedly). Anything’s possible (I didn’t think Cao would win in Louisiana, for instance), but basically, the district would need a Marco Rubio type to run in a low-turnout environment — and make no mistake, the Republican in question would have to be very socially conservative, and very Hispanic. At the very least, the candidate would have to try to reach the voters using non-English forms of media, like Univision and the like. Given the candidates, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

        • pilgrim

          He is married to an hispanic, and she writes a spanish appeal on his website.

          http://www.cflow4azcd7.com/Mary_s_Page.html

          • pilgrim
  • minister_of_war

    Gabby is a complete phony. At first blush, one could be glad to see that Giffords isn’t completely under the foot of the local Grijalva Machine like every other local Tucson Democrat & the entire local media establishment. But Gabby still has done NOTHING WHATSOEVER to secure the border & stop illegal immigration, and any discord between Giffords & Grijalva is most likely just a ruse.

    Grijalva is probably just trying to help Gabby Giffords get reelected by allowing her to appear like she isn?t lockstep with the man who tried to further destroy the Arizona economy by calling for a boycott of his own State & the congressional district that he is supposed to represent. Grijalva is one of the top 3 dumbest members of the entire Congress to go along with Jim McDermott of Washington & the dumbest human being ever elected to either house of the United States Congress, Barbara Boxer. Putting Grijalva in the top 3 list of dumbest members of Congress requires a lot of work when you have people in Congress who worry about overcrowding Guam with Navy Sailors & Marines to the point that the island could tip over and capsize. But if you are unfamiliar with Raul Grijalva – believe me – he definitely makes the top 3 idiots in Congress list with flying colors.

    With regard to Giffords, once again, she has done nothing to help secure the border, even though her district includes a huge swath of the Arizona ? Mexico border & the Border Patrol?s Tucson Sector has almost half of the border incursions & apprehensions for our entire Border Patrol. This includes drug smugglers, human smugglers, potential terrorists & many other previously deported criminal aliens to go along with those who are just coming across to try and get a better life for themselves than would be offered in their 3rd world countries south of the border.

    And for a little more background on Gabby Giffords, she is not the moderate that she tries to paint herself as. She is one of those ?progressives? that tries to make herself look moderate by rebranding her support for liberal things with less provocative words. For instance, Giffords was one of the first to change calling amnesty for illegal aliens to support for ?comprehensive immigration reform.? She is a huge supporter of taxpayer funded abortion on demand as is demonstrated by how much her campaign raises from Emily?s List & other pro-abortion groups. Giffords is also a huge supporter of the ACLU & its liberal causes. When she was in the Arizona State Senate, Gabby actually voted against a bill opposed by the ACLU that would have banned convicted child molesters & predators from living next to elementary schools because it would have violated their civil rights.

    To go along with that strong stance in favor of family values, Giffords also met her NASA astronaut husband while they were both traveling in China. The two started dating shortly thereafter. The only problem was that Giffords? husband was still a married man & his wife was pregnant with their 2nd child. So, her husband was obviously a complete sleaze for cheating on his pregnant wife, but that means that Gabby was either unaware and should have dumped him when she found out or that Gabby was actually seeking after a married man. Either way, Gabby was a home wrecker. The best part of all is that when she campaigns now, four years later, she actually talks about his husband?s children as if they are also hers. I actually heard her use the words ?our children? to describe them. All I can say is: That?s messed up!

  • deano64

    As a Republican PC I will do everything in my power to defeat him. He’s a real piece of work.

    • aesthete

      Grijalva is, by far, the worst CongressCritter of the lot. And that’s saying something.

      • deano64

        slight voter registration advantage for like the first time in a long time. I think this is huge. Unfortunately CD7 isn’t just Pinal alone.

  • smagar

    I’ll bet THAT went over well with the Dem nutroots.

    • minister_of_war

      It’s funny to me how much liberals hate free speech. The liberal crazies will go nuts about any Dem speaking on FOXNews, but putting a FOXNews clip in an ad would be the ultimate sacrilege.

    • IJB

      To call them disingenuous would be an understatement.

      The real question is whether people in Tucson and its environs are paying attention this time. I sure hope so…

  • aesthete

    in that she loves to take conservative stances on minor, mostly cultural issues that don’t affect anyone or anything (this being one of them), and voting progressive down-the-line on important issues. She was all for the Grijalva-designed single-payer model of healthcare, and voted for the amended bill. Her big focus is on solar power, which she supports using conservative language (“energy independence is necessary for national security” type of verbage), and likes to make herself out to be a defender of our veterans. Paton and Kelly having been involved in combat ops in the Iraq War will make it difficult for her to out-military either of them come the general, so basically the only thing she’ll have to run on, record-wise, is her support for solar power. She is, however, a good politician, and might be able to turn attention to non-issues where she can avoid the “Obama Democrat” label.

    I’ve met her (was actually her Air Force Academy candidate for a while), and she seems like a very nice person. In addition, she provides good constituent service — her staff is very polite, punctual, and friendly. She’s been hiding from the mob since ObamaCare passed, though, and that’s going to hurt her. We have a good chance of winning the district, and the current political theatre is just her trying desperately to hang on to her seat.