Raul Grijalva
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Raśl M. Grijalva (born February 19 1948), is an American politician. Grijalva has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing the 7th District of Arizona (map (http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/az07_109.gif)), and is usually considered quite liberal. He was born in Tucson, Arizona, was educated at the University of Arizona, where he was a member of MEChA. He later became Director of El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, Assistant Dean for Hispanic Student Affairs at the University of Arizona and a Supervisor of Pima County before entering the House. While a Pima County supervisor, Grijalva pointedly snubbed an award from an environmental group named for Edward Abbey, and attacked Abbey's views. While claiming to be a lifelong Democrat, Grijalva was actually a member of the La Raza Unida party until he switched his party membership to Democratic in 1977. [1] (http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/2002-08-08/curr2.html)
After his election but before taking office, Grijalva reached an agreement with the New York Times under which they would provide continual updates on him and a female Republican freshman member as they organized their offices, worked for their policy goals, and so on.
Grijalva was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 2002, narrowly winning a hotly contested Democratic primary but easily winning the general election over Republican Ross Heib by a 59%-37% margin. During the 2004 election, Grijalva's Republican opponent was Joe Sweeney, who has run for Congress 11 times under three different party labels. He defeated Sweeney by a 61%-34% margin.
References
- Edward Abbey: A Life by James Cahalan, University of Arizona Press, 2001 ISBN 0816519064
External links
- Official website (http://www.house.gov/grijalva/)
- 2004 campaign finance data (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00025284&cycle=2004)
