From the Washington Post:
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has emerged as a leading contender for Interior Secretary in the next administration, according to sources familiar with the transition.
Grijalva’s experience and background meshes nicely with some of the Obama team’s top requirements. The son of a migrant worker who grew up in Tucson, Grijalva boasts a strong environmental record and chairs the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
Choosing the congressman, who was just re-elected to his fifth term, would please both Latino advocates and the environmental community. Grijalva boasts a 95 percent lifetime score with the League of Conservation Voters, and he oversaw a federal study that linked oil and gas development on public lands with the decline in Western hunting habitat. He has also questioned the cheap grazing permits the Interior Department has leased to ranchers in the West.
D+10!!! What is Obama thinking!!!!!!!!!!
This is better than him plucking Democrats from seats like MN-07 and SD-AL that we would probably lose. This one as well as IL-05 will be an easy hold.
Who knew there was anyone else out there?
Grivjava is a controversial politician, and frankly, isn’t experienced enough. Why couldn’t Obama appoint someone like Schweiter, or Freudenthal? Why does he keep appointing Washingto insiders? There’s not been much change so far in his cabinet, heck, Bill Clinton appointed a more diverse and outsider cabinet than this. Not a goood way to start off his term.
I’m not too familiar on politics in AZ-07. Who’ll be the likely contenders for his seat?
Now, I looked at the AZ state senate roster (the state house roster did not provide any cities) on wikipedia, and since I do not know where Grijalva’s section of Tucson ends and where Gifford’s begins, I’m just going to list all of the state senate dems who represent Tucson/greater Pima County:
Marsha Arzberger (senate minority leader)
Charlene Pasquiera
Jorge Luis Garcia
Paula Aboud (Gifford’s senate successor–so probably not in the district)
Victor Saltero
Anyone from AZ or with knowledge of AZ-07: feel free to add/subract any names.