While others are focusing on this year’s election of Governor, Secretary of State and other Arizona state offices, I see another critical race in Congressional District (CD) 7. Arizona added this seventh district after the 2000 census. It is located along most of the Arizona – Mexico border and includes all of Yuma County and parts of La Paz, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties. During the 2021 redistricting efforts resulting from data from the 2020 Census CD-7 was revised. Ruben Gallego (D) is currently representing CD 7 but will run for the new CD 3 spot in the November election. Running for re-election for an eleventh term Representative Raúl Grijalva (D), Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus on the U.S. House of Representatives, now wants to represent Arizona CD 7. This Congressional District covers the majority of the territory along the AZ/US border with Mexico.
It’s Time to Retire Highly Progressive Grijalva
Grijalva has a long history in Tucson progressive politics, starting in 1974 when he was elected to the Tucson Unified School board until 1986. Next, he joined the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 2002. Then, he was elected to represent Arizonans in DC 3. Over the decades his associations with other local politicians have grown to become a “Grijalva Machine.” Recently Grijalva said about CD 7, “We have more of Pima County, more of Tucson, more of Southern Arizona and it has included the cities of Bisbee and Douglas.” Indeed a win in CD 7 would give him a larger area of influence than he currently has.
Local far left politicians are part of that machine. Ruben Reyes, long time worker in Grijalva’s Tucson office, is married to Regina Romero, Mayor of Tucson. Grijalva’s daughter, Adelita, is now on both the Tucson Unified School board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. This machine is a huge part of the political arena which finds Tucson near the top of the lists for cities with high levels of poverty and crime. Pima County is also tainted by similar progressive policies that have ruined Tucson. Fortunately other cities in Pima County such as more conservative Marana and Oro Valley and others are able to temper leftist county policies to make for safer and more prosperous communities in their cities.
National Implications of the Local “Grijalva Machine”
Mayor Romero was considered for a Biden appointment to the federal Department of Housing and urban Development. Despite Grijalva’s advocacy for this action Romero decided not to leave Tucson.
In January of 2016 Chris Magnus was appointed to be the police chief for the City of Tucson, Arizona while current Mayor, Regina Romero, was on the Tucson city council. The search for a new Police Chief focused primarily on candidates who would support the progressive agendas of the Tucson city government. In December, 2021 Magnus was appointed to be the Commissioner of Customs and Border Patrol. Both Senator Mark Kelly (D) and Grijalva supported this nomination despite objections from the Arizona Sheriff’s Association. So here we have hyper-progressive politicians supporting a hyper-progressive bureaucrat to run the department charged with managing the border.
