What is going on in Nick Ruiz's head?
Just this past Wednesday my diary on Democratic Candidate for Congress Nick Ruiz's decision to bail out of the race in Florida's 7th Congressional District vs. Rep. John Mica and enter in the race in Florida's 9th Congressional District effectively has pissed off just about the entire Daily Kos community (or at least a good chunk of them so far). Well, maybe not every Kossack is aware yet but judging from my previous diary, it seem the comments themselves are almost universally lambasting Ruiz because he's now challenging Rep. Alan Grayson, arguably the most powerful progressive Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Well, not all comments in that Jan 8th diary criticized Ruiz for his decision to leave FL-07 for FL-09.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Bingo! (0+ / 0-)
Alan is literally one of the richest members of Congress. And he's camped out in a newly cut majority-minority district (FL-9). Could you imagine the outrage, if he did the same thing in Corrine Brown or Frederica Wilson's district? Or Mike Honda or Judy Chu's district? Or Maxine Waters or Jose Serrano's district? Respectfully, it's not right. He's got plenty of options, time and money to switch to other competitive districts in Central Florida.
This controversy has been covered in detail:
Orlando Sentinel: "Congressional race could pit political vs. ethnic identity"
by NRIII on Thu Jan 09, 2014 at 01:57:58 PM PST
In case any of you aren't aware, that was Nick Ruiz himself commenting on the diary. Have no idea why he decided to make a comment there instead of making his own diary to Daily Kos announcing his decision to challenge Alan Grayson but I'll get back to him in a second.
Here's the original comment I responded to which Ruiz thereby commented afterwards:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Dear Mr. Grayson, (0+ / 0-)
It must be a lot lonelier in District 9 (imdb.com), since Multinational United has moved us to District 10. Have you considered running in District 7? I understand they are looking for a nice progressive Democrat over there.
Sincerely,
Wikus van de Merwe
(still waiting for a cure)
by byzantium on Wed Jan 08, 2014 at 08:30:12 PM PST
Then I responded with the following comment:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
You just presented an interesting idea (0+ / 0-)
Why not have Nick Ruiz stay in FL-9 while Alan Grayson runs in FL-7?
I mean really, how could Grayson not kick Mica's ass and defeat him for re-election?
Then again, we have to keep Democratic seats.
by pipsorcle on Wed Jan 08, 2014 at 10:18:03 PM PST
Just so you're aware, I was not asking for Nick Ruiz to respond to my comment nor was I going to even write a follow-up diary to promote the thought of Alan Grayson moving into FL-07 to challenge Rep. John Mica. I do believe that in a hypothetical, it would be an interesting situation if there would be a Grayson vs. Mica contest. Grayson would in fact have a shot at it because Mica's approval ratings took a hit from the recent government shutdown and since October 2013 he's been considered a vulnerable Republican for re-election by the PPP.
However, there are several reasons why this scenario just isn't viable or even plausible at this point:
1) Alan Grayson was previously defeated by then-candidate Daniel Webster November 2010 after serving one term in Florida's 8th Congressional District from 2009-2010. In running in Florida's 9th Congressional District in 2012, Grayson won by a wide margin and has been back in Congress since then. The reason why Grayson won in November 2012 was in part due to redistricting, which meant that he had a greater shot at running in FL-09 than winning re-election in his old FL-08 district. For Grayson to lose the primary to Nick Ruiz would mean then Grayson would have to run yet again and find another district. He could chose FL-07 but the risk is, there's not enough Democrats there compared to the FL-09 which he represents. We also don't know if the other current candidate in FL-07, Wesley Neuman, will beat John Mica on November 4th but on the other hand, it's still January 2014 compared to September 2014.
2) Grayson, for someone who has only served two two-year non-back-to-back terms in Congress, has been very active in fundraising for Democratic candidates around the U.S., not just in Florida. For example, Grayson is hosting a Washington D.C. fundraiser for Pennsylvania PA-13 Democratic Congressional Candidate Daylin Leach this Tuesday, January 14th. Leach himself, like Grayson, is a strong progressive and for Grayson to have this kind of stature and fundraising ability within a relatively short time in office compared to most U.S. Representatives is incredible. It also shows the power of the progressive base and why it's important to grow it.
http://www.politicspa.com/...
3) By Nick Ruiz challenging Alan Grayson, it's a big distraction now in January 2014 for the progressive movement as the primary objective should be to: Win back the House of Representatives and keep control of the U.S. Senate for the Democrats. The irony in all of this is that Ruiz himself is progressive, anti-chained CPI, etc. but progressives know very well that running against another fellow progressive is like stooping down to the level of Tea Party candidates running against incumbent Republican U.S. Representatives or U.S. Senators regardless of how long they've been in office. You'd think Ruiz would understand that Grayson has a juggernaut of a grassroots network, a massive campaign war chest and lots of stature and that maybe, gee, he'd want to actually think about helping Democrats win a House seat instead of going after another Democrat.
And in the Orlando Sentinel article Nick Ruiz cited as the basis for indicating that a lot of the FL-09 Puerto Rican voters need their own Representative, the article dates back to March 2012 when Alan Grayson ran for FL-09 and mentions the following:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...
Now a veteran Hispanic Republican, Osceola County Commission Chair John Quiñones, says he too is "seriously considering" the race. And Hispanic activists aren't shy about asserting their intent to back one of their own.
"I have nothing against Congressman Grayson. I think he did a good job. But he should be running in another district," said Zoraida Rios-Andino, a Democrat who is vice president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights — Central Florida Chapter and is supporting Nieves. "That is the whole issue of the redistricting crisis: Puerto Ricans need their own congressman."
Voters in District 9 are heavily Democratic — they favored Barack Obama over John McCain by 21 percentage points in 2008 and Democrat Alex Sink by 10 points over now-Gov. Rick Scott in 2010. Yet voters in the area also have supported Hispanic Republicans, notably Quiñones, who has been elected five times to represent parts of the district.
There's a problem with Nick Ruiz citing this article in the comment he made in my diary: He had ample time to run in FL-09 in 2012 (when the article was published) and express his concern about the communities of Hispanic, Puerto Rician, and so forth there getting better representation as he would be facing off with Alan Grayson then. Ruiz also previously ran in FL-07 in 2012 but lost the primary to then-Democratic nominee Jason Kendall who won just 41.3% of the votes vs. Rep. John Mica's 58.7%. Perhaps had Nick Ruiz been the nominee, either the voting percentage would have gone up a good few points or Ruiz might have won. On the other hand, Congressman Mica wasn't vulnerable for re-election in 2012 like he is today.
Second, the fact is, Alan Grayson was the only Democrat who ran in 2012 in FL-09 and he was also not an incumbent Congressman. Effectively Grayson entering in the FL-09 race in 2012 cleared the field and neither Nick Ruiz nor any Hispanic, Latino, Puerto Rican, etc. ever ran as a candidate. I'm not putting blame here for Ruiz or anyone in his community but the fact is, no one but Grayson ran for the Democratic nomination.
And this late timing on Nick Ruiz's end to enter in FL-09 and challenge Alan Grayson raises a lot of questions: What really is going on in Nick Ruiz's head?
First off, as I mentioned before, Ruiz is a progressive and he himself is a Daily Kos user and has reached out to this community in the past. However, upon doing further research on Ruiz's activity on Kos, he's not that active of a user.
Also, the comment Ruiz made on my January 8th diary was the first comment he made on Daily Kos since February 2012.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
In addition, Ruiz himself has done a few diaries on Kos in the past but the last one he authored was published January 2012.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Now no one is forcing Nick Ruiz to have to be a regular Daily Kos user as in publishing diaries every month of his campaign. He also doesn't need to comment every day or every week as of course he's out campaigning and meeting potential voters face-to-face. Contributors like myself and Kos readers typically have more time to spend on Daily Kos than candidates like Ruiz does.
However, Ruiz making that comment on my past diary on FL-09 after nearly two years of no activity on Daily Kos while at the same time campaigning for MONTHS in 2013 as a Democratic Candidate in FL-07 raises a lot of questions as to what kind of agenda he's up to or if he really knows how to reach out to the Kos community.
Judging by the following citations in this September 2011 diary Nick Ruiz published on Daily Kos, it seems he's got a bit of explaining to do with regards to the progressive community:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The GOP’s offensive rapture knows no bounds. And so it seems,
the Republicratic reactionary participation knows no limit.
Furthermore:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
But do progressive Democrats offer something truly different?
Yes, they do – but they need help in making progressive policy
happen. I’m determined to do something about it by becoming a
U.S. Representative for FL-24.
Progressive democratic efforts in the recent election recall success
in Wisconsin, of course should be lauded, so don’t get me wrong –
but should not be mistaken for strong progressive leadership or
policy. Why? The fact that such a recall was necessary at all,
evinces that the previous elections were mishandled and wasted. In
fact, having to recall elections is by definition, regressive – not
progressive.
And look carefully in the part of this citation that I highlighted in BOLD:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
And let’s ask - how many progressive candidates are languishing all
over the country, at the state and federal level, women and men who
could do so much collective good for America with the strong
national support of like-minded people – but may never come to
light in 2012 due to the money and GOTV resource vacuum possibly
created by the gigantic sum of $40 million of ‘progressive’ money
invested in WI 2011? Well, that’s $40 million that won’t be spent
somewhere else. Consider, for example, that a federal race often
costs $1 million or more – that’s 40 federal U.S. House races that
won’t receive one progressive penny.
How many progressive endorsements have been made? How many
progressives are receiving the backing they need to change Capitol
Hill for the better of America?
Actor Sean Penn is backing Norman Solomon for (CA-6).
Blue America, my personal favorite - has endorsed Alan Grayson for
(FL-26), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for Senate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
and others, including myself for (FL-24).
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has endorsed Eric
Griego for (NM-1).
Feingold’s Progressives United has endorsed no one. Though
according to the HuffPost, they’ve raised over $2 million this
election cycle.
And this is a statement that can come back to haunt Nick Ruiz:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Progressives must come together.
Always on the defense, there is no way forward. The past thirty
years of progressive Democratic floundering have shown us this
fact. What will 2012 bring?
Well, November 2012 produced a few loses for Democrats in the House of Representatives but also generated quite a few gains for Democrats at the same time.
Now is Nick Ruiz still going to stand by his statement back in September 2011 that "progressives must come together?"
Let's take a look at what Down with Tyranny wrote about Nick Ruiz back in June 2012 when he was then running in FL-07, still occupied by Rep. John Mica:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/...
You ever just have a feeling about something? Like, when my old boss Seymour Stein signed Madonna-- did he even know it was MADONNA-- who would go on to make him a millionaire many, many many times over... and keep Warner Brothers humming along in the black for over a decade? Probably not-- but he had a powerful feeling, I'm sure. At any rate, that's how John and Digby and I feel about Nick Ruiz, who is running for Congress in central Florida's new 7th congressional district. His election can change how Americans feel about politics, because there is something extraordinarily authentic about him. Of course, politics isn't the music business-- but it is about intuition as much as it's about anything else... more, thank God, than just being about cold hard numbers (or we wouldn't have won this year with Matt Cartwright (PA), David Gill (IL) and Beto O'Rourke (TX), all of whom the "experts" said had "no chance.") And there's something about this guy, Nick-- if we can elect him-- it will change EVERYTHING.
Ruiz will be for American politics, what Madonna was for the American music biz in the eighties and nineties. In many ways, they (and some other notable bands and artists, from Dylan, The Doors, Hendrix, Aretha, Led Zeppelin to The Clash, Pistols, Michael Jackson and Nirvana) reset the whole industry in a different direction.
And more here:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/...
Not Ruiz. He's an old school, New Deal Democrat. Liberal. Progressive. In all the good senses of those words. Look at his platform. How many Democratic candidates spell out where we need to go in these terms? Almost nobody. Ruiz is refreshingly unlike almost any other progressive candidate we have encountered to date.
Well, that was until I reported that Nick Ruiz was switching from FL-07 to challenge Alan Grayson in FL-09 and now it seems Howie Klein and his Down with Tyranny community are pissed at Ruiz as they made a comment:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Those of us who contributed money to Ruiz... (0+ / 0-)
I gave him money because he said he was running against John Mica, a contemptible GOP reactionary. But now he's going to spend that money against the single best Member of Congress in the whole country. Do you think I should ask him to return the contributions I gave him?
by downwithtyranny on Wed Jan 08, 2014 at 05:56:52 PM PST
Right now it appears there's evidence Nick Ruiz is reaching out to Spanish-speaking voters in FL-09 and around to spread word on him entering the race to challenge Alan Grayson:
So now this leaves the big question: Does Nick Ruiz REALLY care about uniting progressives just as much as he cares about the progressive cause? If that's the case, he wouldn't be running against one of the top five progressives in Congress.
By going on Nick Ruiz's website, he has a ballot petition for FL-09 voters to sign in order for him to officially run against Alan Grayson: http://intertheory.org/...
Judging by Ruiz's campaign contributions on Act Blue, he's raised $12,397 in FL-07.
https://secure.actblue.com/...
However, being that Ruiz may very well be entering the FL-09 race, he's not going to have enough time to generate enough fundraising because Alan Grayson's totals on Act Blue are a massive $562,880 for 2014:
https://secure.actblue.com/...
If you want to show support for Alan Grayson, here's his 2014 re-election information pages:
Alan Grayson for Congress: http://graysonforcongress.com/
Donate: https://secure.actblue.com/...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/...