Rep. Raul Grijalva (D) Elected 2002, 1st term
Born:	Feb. 19, 1948, Tucson
Home:	Tucson
Education:	U. of AZ, B.A. 1985
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Ramona)
Elected  Office:	Tucson Unified Schl. Dist. Governing Bd., 1974-86; Pima Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors, 1988-02.
Professional Career:	Assistant Dean of Hisp. Affairs, U. of AZ., 1987.
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Southern Arizona, though technically part of Mexico for hundreds of years, was never a home to Hispanic civilization like northern New Mexico. Here the hot desert land was inhabited mainly by Indians who kept their native ways and language until English-speaking whites came in on cavalry horses, miners' wagons and railroad cars in the late 19th century. This was after the 1854 Gadsden Purchase--$10 million to Mexico for 30,000 square miles of desert--cleared the way for a southern transcontinental railroad. Today's Hispanic Arizonans are mostly descendants of later immigrants from Mexico, some who came over the border in the sleepier days before World War II, when la frontera was scarcely patrolled, and many more who came in the 1980s and 1990s and since to partake in the dazzling economic growth which has served as both an attraction and an example to so many norteno Mexicans.

The 7th Congressional District was designed to be the state's second Hispanic district; its population is 51% Hispanic. It is a collection of four distant communities connected by many square miles of uninhabited Sonoran desert. One is the suburb of Tolleson just west of downtown Phoenix. The second is the heavily Latino west side of Tucson. The third is Yuma, located at a Colorado River crossing in an irrigated agricultural valley, often the hottest place in the country, with a desalination plant to protect the farmlands as well as extensive recreational facilities. The fourth is the Mexican border town of Nogales, 94% Hispanic and near many maquiladora plants, long an entry point for illegal drugs and the scene of many illegal border crossings until the Border Patrol was beefed up. The twin smuggling tides--drugs and people--have inflicted damage on the fragile desert ecosystem. In an interesting example of international cooperation the sister cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora have signed an agreement to respond jointly to fire and hazardous material emergencies. Out in the desert there is the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation and the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range (the largest aerial gunnery range after Nevada's Nellis Air Force Range), which is twice the size of Delaware; 95% of it is not used for target practice but is home to the endangered Sonoran pronghorn antelope. The 7th is one of two solidly Democratic districts in Arizona.

The new congressman from the 7th District is Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who was elected in 2002. He began the campaign with a decided edge. He grew up in Tucson and graduated from the University of Arizona; he has lived in the city all his life and has deep roots are in the immigrant community on the city's southwest side. He was the director of El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, and an assistant dean for Hispanic student affairs at the University of Arizona. In 1974 he was elected to the Tucson school board and served 12 years. In 1988 he was elected a Pima County Supervisor and served 14 years. As supervisor he backed an effort to extend medical and dental benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of county employees and focused on affordable healthcare, family and children services and growth. Developers and builders helped elect him to office in 1988, but his support for planned growth and impact fees quickly alienated them.

In the 7th, the Democratic primary would obviously determine who would be the new congressman, and Grijalva entered with a home court advantage: 64% of the primary votes were cast in Pima County. His chief opponent was state Senator Elaine Richardson, who was endorsed by EMILY's List and spent more than $500,000 on ads. She criticized him for wasting taxpayer money on a $3.8 million contract to survey all the manholes in Pima County. Although outspent nearly 3-to-1, Grijalva had a well-organized grassroots effort and influential endorsements from labor unions, the teachers' unions and the Sierra Club. Mocking his opponent's national funding, Grijalva said that he created "Adelita's List," a homegrown allusion to the independent women who fought in the Mexican Revolution. He opposed any "privatization" of Social Security or increase in the retirement age. His proposals for immigration reform included an amnesty provision plus a comprehensive border policy with legalization, economic development, cost recovery, infrastructure enhancement and environmental protection. He won the primary with 41% to Richardson's 21%, and 15% for Jaime Gutierrez, a University of Arizona official. In Pima County, Grijalva got 54% of the vote. Using the campaign slogan, "It's all about the love," he won easily in November and his daughter Adelita won a seat on the school board on which he had served.

In Washington, The New York Times occasionally chronicled the lives of Grijalva and Michigan Republican Candice Miller, as typical House newcomers. In one account, Grijalva is told to return another day during freshman orientation for his official photograph because he was not wearing a necktie. "I knew I was going to need one of those. I just didn't know that it was going to be that soon." Immigration and border policy will inevitably be one of his concerns; his district covers 275 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

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DC Office
1440 LHOB 20515, ; Fax: 202-225-1541; Web site: www.house.gov/grijalva

State Offices
Tucson, 520-622-6788; Yuma, 928-343-7933.

Committees

• Education & the Workforce (18th of 22 D): Education Reform; Employer-Employee Relations.
• Resources (16th of 24 D): National Parks, Recreation & Public Lands; Water & Power.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Raul Grijalva (D)	61,256	59%	$544,081
	Ross Hieb (R)	38,474	37%	$131,282
	John Nemeth (Lib)	4,088	4%
2002 primary	Raul Grijalva (D)	14,835	41%
	Elaine Richardson (D)	7,589	21%
	Jaime Gutierrez (D)	5,401	15%
	Lisa Otondo (D)	2,302	6%
	Luis Armando Gonzales (D)	2,105	6%
	Mark Fleisher (D)	2,022	6%
	Other	2,066	6%

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	74,176	58%
	Bush (R)	49,343	38%
	Other	5,271	4%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Seventh District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +10
• District Size: 22,891 square miles
• Population in 2000: 641,329; 83.6% urban; 16.4% rural
• Median Household Income: $30,828; 21.8% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 26.8% blue collar; 51.4% white collar; 21.8% gray collar; 13.3% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 38.6% White, 2.8% Black, 1.3% Asian, 5.3% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 1.3% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 50.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 7.8% German, 5.4% Irish, 4.8% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.