PHOENIX — Candidate Daniel Hernandez says the next member of Congress needs to be someone who pays less attention to environmental concerns and more to the jobs that sometimes-controversial projects will create.
Whether that reflects who Democrats want to be their standard bearer in the special election this summer to replace ardent environmental advocate Raúl Grijalva remains to be seen, after voters elected Grijalva to 11 terms in the U.S. House. He died in March of complications from cancer treatments at age 77 while holding the Congressional District 7 seat.
“When people are struggling to make ends meet, they need someone who will stand up to make sure they have good wages, protections for their families, and make sure that they have a job to be able to go to,’’ said Hernandez, a former state lawmaker, during a debate Tuesday hosted by KAET-TV, the Phoenix PBS affiliate.
He is one of five Democratic candidates running in the special July 15 primary, who all took part in the debate.
The five candidates to be the Democratic nominee for Congress from Congressional District 7, who debated Tuesday, are (left to right) Adelita Grijalva, Patrick Harris, Deja Foxx, Jose Malvido and Daniel Hernandez.
Whoever survives will face off on Sept. 23 against the winner of the Republican primary. But the Democratic nominee will start off with a huge advantage. The district has about 176,000 registered Democrats, compared with fewer than 93,000 Republicans. It stretches from Douglas through Nogales into parts of Pinal and Maricopa counties and west to Yuma.
Hernandez made it clear he supports projects such as the plan by South32 to extract critical minerals in the Patagonia Mountains; a massive copper mine planned by Hudbay in the Santa Rita Mountains; and a proposal to build a new Interstate 11, including a stretch that would run through environmentally sensitive portions of Pima County.
That brought him into sharp contrast with one of the other contenders: Adelita Grijalva, who is not only a former Pima County supervisor, but also Raúl’s daughter. She made it clear she does not see the claimed benefits to Arizona from the projects. The profits from digging out the ore will be shipped elsewhere, she said.
“And what’s left in the aftermath is an environmental destruction,’’ Grijalva said. She specifically criticized the plans for a new copper mine at Oak Flat near Superior, a project that survived a challenge when the U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to consider concerns of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and others that the land is necessary for their ceremonies.
And if the message about what voters could expect wasn’t crystal clear, Grijalva said she will follow in her father’s footsteps.
“I am going to be another Grijalva,’’ she said. “I don’t think you can be too progressive when you’re on the right side of history.’’
Hernandez found himself in the minority among the Democratic contenders on the issue of jobs versus environmental concerns.
Candidate Jose Malvido, whose father was a union organizer at Phelps Dodge in Ajo when miners went on strike in 1983, said much has been lost as environmental concerns were brushed aside in the name of economic development.
“I grew up in a copper mining town where sacred sites were reduced into a giant mine pit,’’ Malvido said. “It put food on the table, but at what cost?’’
Candidate Patrick Harris, an inventor and former business owner, acknowledged that projects like new mines do create jobs. At the same time, he said, they destroy the environment.
But for him, the question is a bit different: Where do the profits go?
“Those are short-term jobs,’’ Harris said. “That profit is being siphoned out of the district. There are (other) good-paying jobs that can be brought into the district.’’
And candidate Deja Foxx said that from her perspective — she is 25 — not enough has been done to protect the environment that should have been preserved for her generation.
“Every year we see summers get hotter here in Arizona, get longer because of the inaction of older generations,’’ she said.
“Climate change is not theoretical to my generation,’’ Foxx continued. “We will have to live through your plans for 2050 and beyond.’’
But Grijalva did find herself on the defensive on another issue: taxes.
The contenders each were asked about the wisdom of Republicans in Washington who say that reducing taxes is good for the economy and should also be considered by Democrats, who have found themselves losing ground politically.
Hernandez responded that the difference is Democrats believe in cutting taxes for working-class families. Or “most Democrats,” he said.
“The reality is people like Adelita tried to raise taxes just a couple of weeks ago in the city of Tucson,’’ Hernandez said, referring to a plan on the ballot to increase the sales tax by half a cent. “When we are in the height of inflation and people are hurting, the height of being out of touch was trying to raise people’s taxes.’’
It failed by a margin of more than 2-1.
“What we have is a problem where out-of-touch politicians who spent almost two decades in office forget what it’s like to be able to buy groceries at the grocery store, and know what it’s like to have to put something back,’’ Hernandez said.
Grijalva was unapologetic for backing the proposed levy, saying that not just Tucson but Pima County have had to absorb more costs to provide government services even as the Republican-controlled Legislature was imposing a flat 2.5% income tax. Local governments get a piece of that levy.
“So the needs continue but the revenue decreased,’’ Grijalva said, saying that the cost of these local needs must be shared by federal and state governments.
“You’re still trying to raise people’s taxes in the height of inflation,’’ Hernandez responded.
Foxx took her own shots at Grijalva, describing her fight years ago with the Tucson Unified School District board, on which Grijalva served, over its sex education curriculum. Foxx said it had not been updated in decades, was medically inaccurate, and never mentioned things like consent.
Grijalva said afterwards that the board already had been looking at making changes when Foxx made her complaints, but could not do anything until state law was changed.
If there was a central theme to the debate — aside from the obligatory criticism by each contender of Republican President Donald Trump — it was the question of why Democrats recently fared poorly among voters. Foxx said part of that is due to Democrats who have failed to stand up and fight.
“We require activists,’’ Foxx said.
“They don’t know how to fight,’’ Harris said of Democrats. “They don’t have a strategy.’’
Malvido agreed that Democrats are not fighting back hard enough against Trump.
“We need to have the courage to really address issues and not worry about the big-money people that also fund the Democratic campaigns,’’ he said.
“A lot of Democrats, career politicians, all they really want to do is get elected,’’ Malvido said. “So they’re not really going to address the issues and have the courage to fight in the way we need them to fight, especially now.’’
Hernandez said the issue for voters goes beyond whether the Democrats are fighting hard enough.
“It’s that we’re not delivering results,’’ he said.
“You elect people time and time again and yet they come back every two years and they say, ‘We weren’t able to do that because that other person was in charge, but elect us and we’ll do it again next time,’ ‘’ Hernandez said. “People are tired of empty promises.’’
One position that did stand out was Harris’ proposal for what he called “capitated capitalism.’’
In essence, it would cap individual wealth at $1 billion. Anyone whose assets exceeded that at the end of any year would have to spend the excess on things like investing in research.
All that spending, he said, would help stimulate the economy.
“I’m the only one with an economic plan to fund our shared priorities,’’ Harris said.
The three Republicans hoping to clinch their own party’s nomination in the July special election will debate at KAET on Thursday. They are Daniel Butierez, Jorge Rivas and Jimmy Rodriguez.
The Arizona Media Association in partnership with the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission, RIESTER and production partner AZPM in Tucson will host debates here in June.
The Republican primary debate will be held on Monday, June 9. The Democratic primary debate will be held on Tuesday, June 10. A general election debate will take place here in late August.
