Right-Wing Slimeball David Crowe Prepares To Challenge Raul Grijalva By Taking On A New Identity As A Hispanic

At the end of last year John Nichols did a piece for The Nation called The Progressive Honor Roll of 2011. They gave Raúl Grijalva the title "Most Valuable Representative." Not just the most valuable in Arizona, the most valuable anywhere in America:

Few members of the House have been so consistently progressive as Arizona Democrat Grijalva, who has a history of challenging Republican, and Democratic, administrations on issues of economic justice, civil rights, and war and peace. Grijalva made headlines when-- in the face of death threats-- he opposed Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant laws. He has been just as outspoken at the federal level, working closely with his Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair, Keith Ellison, against the GOP austerity agenda while prodding the Obama administration to support a dramatically bolder jobs agenda. Grijalva’s no-punches-pulled progressivism is all the more impressive because he represents a district where in 2010 he faced a serious re-election fight. He saw off that challenge, proving that even in the toughest years it is possible, perhaps even necessary, to run left to win.

Monday Campaign For Children named Raúl to their highest level of honor, "Champion For Children." If you follow Grijalva's career, even a little, you'd expect that kind of thing-- champion for children, champion for working families, champion for the underprivileged, champion of the environment... that's what government service has always meant to him. And that's what his day to day life is all about. We created a Blue America page just for him. He and Bernie Sanders are the only ones who got their own.

Last year Raúl was heavily targeted by the same corporate interests who have now been emboldened by their ability to knock off Democratic incumbents by concentrating millions of dollars in poisonous, misleading advertisements in their districts. Tucson is a cheap market and there's no doubt they'll try the same thing again this year. In 2006 Raúl won reelection with 60% of the vote. In 2008 he got 63% (while Obama won the district with 57%). And then in 2010, he scraped by with 50%. against teabagger Ruth McClung who took 40%. What changed? Aside from national Democratic disappointment with Obama, which held down turnout among progressives, there was a little matter of Citizens United, which allowed shady right-wing groups financed by the Kochs, Rove, criminal oligarchs and the kinds of corporations Grijalva works to protect his constituents from, to put immense amounts of basically unregulated cash into the district in the form of vicious attack ads.

This year these people are going to try something else-- another right-wing Republican, but running as a "Democrat." We get them all over the country but this is a new one for the Tucson area. Jim Nintzel is covering it for the Tucson Weekly. Defense contractor and Republican donor David Crowe, now calling himself "David Crowe Robles," claimed in a press release that he's a "Democrat" who "looks to put Congressman Raul M. Grijalva out of work and will officially announce his candidacy in the race for U.S. Representative in the new Third Congressional District. Citing the lack of jobs in the district, that for the last 10 years Grijalva has represented, led to this important decision."

Local activist Luke Knipe responded to Crowe's preposterous claims, although he forgot to mention that Crowe has never lived in the district-- not within the old lines nor the new lines:

This guy's a bit on the silly side. He was a Republican until December of 2010, and had actually given money to Tea Party candidate Ruth McClung that year. After switching his party affiliation, he began talking to people-- including people loyal to Gabby Giffords-- about a run for the U.S. Senate seat Giffords had her eye on, prior to last year's tragedy. Last summer, he came and spoke at our monthly LD 28 meeting. I asked him about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He didn't know what it was.

And now he's got a new name: "David Crowe Robles." (Previously, he was just "David Crowe." Apparently, he's undergoing a metamorphosis of political and ethnic identity. And maybe he's even learning some of the issues while he's at it. But his cluelessness has been witnessed by too many, at this point. He's not fooling anyone serious on the Democratic side. He's approaching this as a more cynical enterprise than it really is, and has mortally wounded his candidacy in doing so. In other words, he's going nowhere.

He's got an even funnier Republican trying to run against him, Gabriela Saucedo Mercer, a crackpot wingnut who we'll pray wins the GOP primary and then get into a nice detailed description.