Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy.
-- "Slacker"
Just about one year ago, over 170 posts and 8200 pageviews ago, I began this blog as "Grayson for Congress AZ-06" with this:
I am a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's Sixth District. Thank you.
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Last October, I started posting more regularly, as in this post, "Welcome to the Sixth Congressional District of Arizona, Bitch...Uh, Candidate!":
Arizona's Sixth Congressional District was created as a safe Republican House seat in the redistricting following the 2000 census, when the Cactus State gained two Congressional seats. It encompasses parts of Maricopa and Pinal counties. It is mostly made up of eastern suburbs of Phoenix, what we in the East Valley call "the East Valley": Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek and my hometown of Apache Junction (though I've also lived and worked in Mesa).
It's one of the fastest-growing parts of the United States. Of cities over 100,000, Gilbert is the fourth fastest-growing and Chandler the ninth fastest-growing. Queen Creek's population is doubling every four years. In parts of the district, nearly all the buildings date from the 21st century.
According to Wikipedia:
It is currently represented by Jeff Flake, a Republican. George W. Bush received 64% of the vote in this district in 2004. The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R +12.
Population (2000): 641,329
Male 49.3%, Female 50.7%
Median age: 34.1
Median Household Income: $47,976
Racial Composition: 84.2% White, 2.1% Black, 1.8% Asian, 1.0% Native American, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 8.2% Other, 17.2% Hispanic (of any race)
In 2002, Republican Jeff Flake won his second term with 65% of the vote. (He first won a Congressional seat in the old First District in 2000).
Deborah Thomas, the only Democratic candidate who's ever run in this district, got 42,653 votes, or 32%. Libertarian Andy Wagner got 3%.
In 2004, Rep. Flake won 79% of the vote against the Libertarian candidate, Craig Stritar, who got 21%.
In 2006, Rep. Flake got 74% of the vote to 26% for Libertarian Jason Blair.
Why did no Democrat run in the last two elections? Why am I pushing for some Democrat to run in 2008? Why have I so far been able to convince only myself to run? See future posts.
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The day after Thanksgiving I posted this about AZ-06:
Call us the Speedy Gonzales District.
According to Reid Wilson's post at Real Clear Politics, the just-published edition of The Almanac of American Politics notes that Arizona's Sixth Congressional District -- hey, that's us -- is the fastest-growing in the nation:Arizona Reps. Jeff Flake and Trent Franks come in at numbers one and two, and new residents of the state have registered overwhelmingly Democratic, according to the East Valley Tribune. Neither Flake nor Franks are in immediate danger, but a generation from now, the districts will not look the same as they do today.
Between 2000 and 2005, AZ-06 grew 36.3%. We Democrats need to at least run someone in 2008 -- are there any Latina billionaire businesswomen abuelas with civic experience in Mesa? -- but I will represent the party next November if no politician with potential agrees to run.
I am sure that Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, or whatever district replaces it in parts of the Southeast Valley after the next decennial census -- will one day shift from Republican to Democratic control. The demographics and history are on our side.
This do-it-yourself campaign by a non-politician is taking a hiatus for the holiday as we speedily run to the supermarket for tofurkey and trimmings. I'm incredibly grateful that I live in a country where, um, anyone can run for national office.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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In early January, I wrote:
The New Year's Day column by conservative David Brooks mostly concerned Mitt Romney's presidential campaign but went on to make more general remarks about the political situation we are facing in 2008:
As Walter Mondale was the last gasp of the fading New Deal coalition, Romney has turned himself into the last gasp of the Reagan coalition.
That coalition had its day, but it is shrinking now. The Republican Party is more unpopular than at any point in the past 40 years. Democrats have a 50 to 36 party identification advantage, the widest in a generation. The general public prefers Democratic approaches on health care, corruption, the economy and Iraq by double-digit margins. Republicans’ losses have come across the board, but the G.O.P. has been hemorrhaging support among independent voters. Surveys from the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, Kaiser Foundation and Harvard University show that independents are moving away from the G.O.P. on social issues, globalization and the roles of religion and government.
Since I filed to run as a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District last May, I have not heard from anyone in the state Democratic party. For that matter, I haven't heard from a single Democratic voter in AZ-06.
I originally filed to run because I believe in contested elections and because I was frustrated that Sixth Congressional District Democrats like myself did not have a candidate to vote for in November 2006, when our party won back the U.S. House, or in November 2004, in a crucial election that got many Democrats energized.
All along, I have said I would happily step aside if a more credible Democrat would just step forward and run. That remains true.
Look, I know I am a horrible candidate for our party. I am no politician. Anyone glancing at the posts on this blog can see that. I am running only because no one else will.
I completely understand why state and national Democrats have little interest in AZ-06. It has the lowest percentage of registered Democrats of any congressional district in the Cactus State.
Our party needs to ensure that Rep. Harry Mitchell in AZ-05 and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in AZ-08 win their first re-election campaigns; their victories in 2006 brought Democrats 4-4 parity in the state's U.S. House delegation.
In 2008, we have an excellent chance of picking up the Republican seat in AZ-01 where an unpopular incumbent is retiring. We also have a very good chance to pick off another of Arizona's conservative Republican congressmen in AZ-03, where Bob Lord is a terrific candidate for our party.
Arizona's Sixth Congressional District should and must take a back seat to these eminently winnable races. But the national and state Democratic party should not abandon us.
I believe 2008 is the year, as Brooks said, the Reagan conservative coalition has come apart. The impending Republican primary fight between Rep. Jeff Flake and Russell Pearce in AZ-06 is a sign of this, as is the chaos in the GOP presidential race.
In my posts over the past few months I've tried to show that Rep. Flake is vulnerable to attack as a rigid right-wing laissez-faire ideologue at a time when this ideology is being rejected by many voters -- including those who have long voted Republican. If Russell Pearce somehow upsets the incumbent in next September's GOP primary, many more Republicans will join AZ-06 Democrats in seeking an alternative.
Please, leaders and members of the Arizona Democratic Party, let's build for the future in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, the fastest-growing district in the entire nation.
Find a better candidate than Richard Grayson.
One who doesn't talk about himself in the third person would be a good start.
[campaigning children in the photo at top are supporting their father, Democratic candidate Alan Grayson in FL-08]
* * *
In mid-April, I posted some "GrEaT nEwS":
As Hubert H. Humphrey would say, I'm as pleased as punch to report that two new Democrats have entered the race to represent Arizona's Sixth Congressional District in Congress.
Rebecca Schneider of Mesa is a librarian at ASU who has the compassion sorely lacking in Rep. Jeff Flake.
Chris Gramazio of Queen Creek is a working man, married father of one (and one on the way), who has the common sense so foreign to Rep. Jeff Flake.
Either of them would be a vast improvement over the Sixth Congressional District's current pathetic excuse for a people's representative.
I started this campaign and blog last year because I was mad that I had no Democrat to vote for in the 2006 U.S. House race.
If either Chris or Rebecca, or both, successfully file their petitions to get on the September 2 Democratic primary ballot, I will gratefully step aside and enthusiastically vote for our party's candidate. If by some chance, neither gets on the ballot, I'll run as a write-in candidate.
Till there's clearly a Democratic candidate in November, I'm going to continue this furshlugginer blog, not trying to promote my own candidacy but explaining why Rep. Jeff Flake needs to be replaced by a progressive Democrat.
Good luck to both Rebecca and Chris. I am really, really happy you are running.
* * *
In this blog, I've posted a lot about what I feel are the failures of Rep. Jeff Flake. Often I used over-the-top language, meant as kind of a parody of the attack ads seen in what passes for political discourse over the airways.
I still stand by all my criticisms of Jeff Flake's record as a congressman (as well as my occasional praise for some of his forward-thinking actions), but I am sorry if the words I used offended anyone, particularly Rep. Flake or his family. I think he's a decent guy and a very intelligent man who happens to have a view of government that is out of step with our times.
After it was clear that other candidates were in the race, I changed the name of the blog from one promoting my "candidacy" to "Defeat Jeff Flake." Now, with Chris Gramazio having filed his signatures to get on the September 2 AZ-06 Democratic primary ballot and Rebecca Schneider filing her petitions next Tuesday, it's time for me to step aside and let a real candidate take over. I'm leaving to spend the summer in Brooklyn. Thanks to everyone who came to the blog.
* * *
Here is my final post:
I am no longer a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's Sixth District. Thank you.
Goodbye and good luck!
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