AZ-09: Raúl Grijalva Comes Out Strong For David Schapira

The most important primary Tuesday is in the Tucson area, where Big Business is running two conservative shills disguised as Democrats against Raúl Grijalva. And, like they did in 2010, shady right-wing PACs, eager to take out the leader of the progressive movement in Congress, are pouring ghastly sums into the race and financing distorted ads against him. And after he wins on Tuesday, those spigots won't be shut off as he gets ready to face well-financed right-wing crackpot Gabriela Saucedo Mercer. [Blue America is closing in on our fundraising goal for Raul right now. Can you help us?]

But, like we mentioned Friday, even while fighting his own reelection battles, Grijalva hasn't stopped boosting progressives across the country. And this weekend he did the same thing in AZ-09, where he sent out an e-mail blast to his supporters asking them to support state Senator David Schapira in his tough primary against two less progressive Democrats.

The 2012 election is going to be about choices. For this reason, it is important that we support candidates who offer a clear choice from their Republican counterparts. As the primary season comes to a close around the country, there is another very important race that progressives should be paying attention to: Arizona’s new Ninth Congressional District.

Your support of my campaigns through the years has allowed me to fight for our progressive values in Congress. We need more Democrats who are willing to take on the Republicans’ extreme Tea Party agenda. Now, I’m asking for your help to elect another Arizona progressive who will stand with me in Congress to fight for the middle class: David Schapira.

David is the progressive choice in AZ-09. As the Democratic Leader in the Arizona State Senate, David has fought the tough fights and stood up for our values, even when other Democrats have shied away. He stood up to Jan Brewer when she removed transplant patients from state health care coverage. When his two opponents abandoned their elected positions to run for Congress, David kept his commitment to the voters of his district so that he could lead the fight against Arizona’s anti-worker legislation and the Tea Party’s extreme War on Women. He also proposed the most substantial ethics reform and anti-bullying legislation in Arizona history. David spoke out against SB1070 from day one, and he authored a bill to ban racial profiling. When some elected Democrats remained silent during the Russell Pearce Recall, David was the only candidate in AZ-09 who actively supported the successful Pearce Recall.

In the final week of the primary campaign, David’s opponents are using shadowy Super-PACs to launch negative attacks against David and against each other. We’ve seen these sorts of tactics from Republicans, but this is not what we should expect to see in a Democratic Primary.

Now, I’m calling on you to help David set the record straight: he needs our help to share his positive message with the voters of AZ-09. Will you donate $50 or $25 today to help David respond to the negative attacks? If you can’t contribute, can you make some phone calls to voters in the final days? Email Mike Fox with Progressive Democrats of America at mikefox@pdamerica.org to make phone calls from home for David!

The makeup of the 113th Congress is in our hands, and we must ensure that the Tea Party does not maintain control. To do this, we must offer voters a clear alternative to the Republicans’ regressive policies. In the AZ-09 primary, we have a great opportunity to elect a real progressive, David Schapira. Join me in supporting him on or before the August 28th Democratic Primary.

Peace,
Raúl

Blue America hasn't taken a stand in this primary because we try to keep our primary endorsements to races that pit a sterling progressive against a Blue Dog. And although it is clear that Schapira is a sterling progressive, neither of his opponents is a Blue Dog (although Andrei Cherny is in the New Dems, which many people argue is basically the same thing). An old friend-- and a supporter of Kyrsten Sinema-- e-mailed me yesterday telling me what a horrifying mess the primary in AZ-09 had become:

Cherny has dropped in $100K + of his own dough today and undoubtedly is going up with a negative ad, and he has IEs going (including a Super PAC out of Tennessee) that are putting out really sleazy stuff. It’s been all attacks all the time from him, many of them absurd, like how many votes Sinema and Schapira missed. Like it matters whether a Republican bill passes by 20-10 rather than 20-9 or 20-8. I’ve also been asked by too many people too many times whether Kyrsten’s bisexuality could cost her the general for it to be coincidence, so I think there’s a whisper campaign going on there. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the Dem establishment is behind that effort. They ran IEs in the primary in 2010 against two statewide candidates because they thought it could hurt Goddard’s chances if there were gays on the statewide ballot in the general. How well did that work out?
 
Schapira, by the way, has run a very clean, very innovative campaign. I’m supporting Sinema, but I’m really impressed by what David has done with meager resources.

Tuesday's the day. Schapira, who has been endorsed by DFA and PDA, just got the endorsement of progressive icon Norman Solomon as well.