Raul Grijalva is a four-term congressman from southern Arizona. Yet in the wake of the state’s SB1070 anti-immigrant legislation, the historically shoo-in Democrat is locked in a tight race with his Republican challenger after Grijalva had the gall to back a national boycott campaign against the Grand Canyon State.
The 62-year-old Grijalva is pitted against Republican Ruth McClung, 28. –JCL
Los Angeles Times:
The contrast between the two candidates couldn’t have been starker. On one side of the stage slouched Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, 62, a four-term congressman and local Democratic icon, sporting a bushy moustache and wearing an open-collared shirt that he had changed into an hour earlier but already looked rumpled.
On the other end sat Republican nominee Ruth McClung, 28, her yellow jacket matching her sensibly styled blond hair, carefully smiling at the crowd gathered here this week at a candidate forum about 15 miles from the Mexico border.
Grijalva has represented southern Arizona for decades and his daughter sits on the Tucson School Board, as he did in the 1970s. McClung’s only other experience running for office was her campaign to become captain of her high school swim team.