I usually save my disclaimer for the end of my diaries but in this case I'll start off with it because this is one disclaimer I'm proud of
I work in political social media as co-owner of a company that does social media consulting for profit. I am working with Rep. Grijalva's campaign team pro bono, on my own time because that is how strongly I support him.
Now some of you may be shaking your heads saying well "duh we all support Rep. Grijalva" and I'm here today to say I'm not convinced.
First of all, as recently as 2 months ago the campaign was showing signs of needing help. Rep. Grijalva's opponent, Ruth "rocket scientist" McClung was already gaining support in the Tea Party crowd and it was obvious that combined with Rep. Grijalva's call for a Boycott of Arizona (more on that in a moment) were going to make for a rough fall in Southern Arizona.
Sadly, those signs have come true. Sadly, six weeks ago leaders in the progressive community like our own Darcy Burner started making the rounds pointing out these truths and were met with deaf ears "Grijalva? He's safe."
Wrong. Dead Wrong. Recent polling as reported by Politico is showing this race as within a few points. You didn't read that wrong...the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus is only leading by a few points in public polling. I'm not going to share any details but I will say this I saw with my own two eyes an internal and it doesn't dispute that Rep. Grijalva is in the fight of his political life...and in my mind this is a fight no progressive Democrat can afford to write off because they think he should be safe...the fact is, he isn't.
In recent days the DCCC finally woke up and started doing what they're supposed to be doing. Safe members of the House have been showing they have Rep. Grijalva's back by contributing to his campaign. Unions are kicking in. Right here on Daily Kos and the other blogs, the community is closing ranks and throwing in $5 or $10 where they can.
But there are two noticably absent supporters. Move On and Daily Kos itself.
Why hasn't Rep. Grijalva been added to Orange to Blue? Why can't they update the list of candidates being supported by "We've Got Your Back" to include today's reality on the ground (and you'll notice that Sen. Feingold is glaringly missing along with a whole host of others)? Why aren't we seeing daily front page missives shouting the truth about Ruth McClung and her way out of whack ideas? Talk about a candidate spouting Tea Party missives by the minute!
Now let's return to one of the reasons many are hesitant to support Rep. Grijalva. Back when Gov. Brewer signed SB 1070 into law, Rep. Grijalva in his anger over a bad bill, frustration over the fact that the federal govt has failed to act thus setting up something like this to happen and his passion for his constituents and people everywhere called for a boycott of Arizona by outsiders in the hopes of showing that Arizona had isolated itself from reality with this abomination of a bill.
Not long after, he realized his mistake,publicly admitted his mistake (and how many politicians do THAT?) and called for the boycott to end. Why? Because he cares...because he realized that there are other ways to do things.
But that's not the end of it. This week Americans for Tax Reform made a darn big ad buy in the district and the ad hits him hard for the Boycott.
Can you say hypocrisy? According to the blog AZCentral back in 2004 AZ had good ole Prop 200 on the ballot which requires individuals to prove citizenship when registering to vote. And gee who do you think called for a boycott of the members of the AZ Chamber of Commerce because the Chamber was opposing the proposition? If you guessed Russell Pearce and Jan Brewer you'd be the winner!
So let's make sure I'm clear: Republicans call for a boycott of AZ because people oppose a clearly immigration related bill and that's great. A Democrat calls for a boycott of AZ because of an immigration related bill and that's the most horrible thing a man can do?
Need I say more?
Oh and another thing...Guess who was named one of the 10 best members of Congress by Esquire magazine? Yep... Raul Grijalva.
So our front pagers may not be willing to put their writing time where their thoughts are, but that doesn't mean we as a community can't do our parts to make sure Rep. Grijalva returns to Washington to continue to fight for us...all of us.
Rep. Grijalva can be found on ActBlue even if it's only a few $...every little bit helps. He's fought hard for us, now it's our turn to fight hard for him.