It's a rare chance to elect a climate hawk in the House of Representatives this year in Phoenix, Arizona. Climate Hawks Vote is delighted to endorse Ruben Gallego in Arizona's 7th Congressional District, in a Democratic primary August 26.
Here's the setup. Retiring Rep. Ed Pastor has represented the deep blue district, but he's apparently taken a vow of climate silence - he's scored a grand total of 3 points, out of 100, on our climate leadership scorecard covering Congressional Democrats by cosponsoring a handful of solar bills and otherwise ducking the issue. The front-runners are Iraq war veteran Ruben Gallego and county supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, facing each other (and assorted others) in less than five weeks.
Gallego's announcement focused on climate change and wage disparity: "There really needs to be an argument on these issues, also from a Hispanic perspective," he said. "I think we need Hispanic congressmen and congresswomen to start stepping up and talking about climate change, start talking about a living wage or at least a higher minimum wage, because that directly impacts Latinos here in this country." He opposes both the Keystone pipeline and the Rosemont copper mine, and he wants to bring more solar energy (and jobs!) to the sunny state. Rep. Raul Grijalva, MoveOn, Dolores Huerta, and DailyKos are among his endorsers. And a week after Climate Hawks Vote made its endorsement, League of Conservation Voters joined in.
Meanwhile, his opponent takes coal money but doesn't bother to include an energy/environment page on her website. Best guess: she'll avoid mentioning climate and score in the same range as Pastor. Gallego, on the other hand, can be one of the few chances in 2014 to put a climate champion in the House.
Polls show Gallego leading by a few points, but with a huge percentage of undecideds - in other words, the kind of race where voter contact and turnout make a difference. And that's why we're backing up our endorsement with boots on the ground, just as we're doing in the Hawaii primaries. Please chip in here.
A note for DailyKos folk: I made the decision to endorse at Netroots Nation 2014 after a chance meetup with an Arizona activist (and, of course, independent research) during the hotly debated topic of Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix. The Climate Hawks Vote organizer will be working to turn out voters in a district that historically doesn't vote much. Changing Arizona politics is a multi-year, multi-faceted effort. The more people in a deep blue district vote, the more we help turn them into habitual voters...and help turn around the politics of a sometimes-crAZy state.