Progressive Democrat Issue 88: REPUBLICANS CONCEDE A HOUSE RACE IN ARIZONA

Democrats only need to win 15 more House seats to take back the House. That's out of 40 surprisingly close races. Well, the Republicans have all but conceded one of those races, meaning Democrats only have to win 14 more.

White Supremicists are often too close for comfort to the Republican Party. Virginia Senator Allen, for example, is clearly a bit too much of a racist for my taste, leading me to donate to and advocate for Democratic candidate for the Senate, Jim Webb. But Republicans in general don't necessarily LIKE being associated with white supremicists. Witness the Republican candidate for AZ-8 Congressional seat: Randy Graf is well connected with white supremicists and has now been endorsed by former Grand Wizard of the KKK (and former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor of Louisiana and twice for president of the United States) David Duke. This was too much even for the Republican Party, leading them to do the right thing and pull out all support for Graf.

Here's a statement from the DCCC on this:

I couldn't have better news. The Republicans have withdrawn all of their financial support in the pivotal race in Arizona's 8th Congressional District, all but conceding defeat in a race that we had targeted.

Their extremist nominee, Randy Graf, was already unacceptable to Arizona. But, when he was endorsed by former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke -- after a history of mingling with white supremacists -- something had to be done. I immediately stepped in and issued a letter to put pressure on my colleague Tom Reynolds, chair of the NRCC, to pull out of the race.

"While you and I may have differences of opinion when it comes to policy, certainly we can agree on the right thing to do. Supporting a candidate with ties to the white supremacist community is not the right thing to do.

...Tom, you should pull down your ads in support of Graf immediately. Candidates tied to white supremacists are not right for Arizona and they are certainly not right for America.

...I assume that it is for these reasons and more that incumbent Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe will not endorse Randy Graf. If he is not worthy of the incumbent's endorsement, he should not be worthy of yours. Please do the right thing and pull your support of Randy Graf."

As a result, the NRCC cancelled all of their media buys and walked away.

For once...for ONCE, the Republican Party is turning its back on a right wing nut case. Too often they embrace such nut cases, like Pat Robertson, Ann Coulter and, well, the little George Bush. For once, they did the right thing. White Supremicists are a disgusting breed that should be shunned by BOTH parties.

Now let's remember that Arizona is one of the most hotly contested races this year with two close House races and an increasingly close Senate race. If we can win these three seats, we will be WELL on our way to winning Congress back. Please donate to turn Arizona blue in 2006.