Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Over on AZ Congress Watch, there was a report yesterday that Rep. Raúl Grijalva was leaving the hispanic caucus. Well, not quite.

Grijalva, along with most of the caucus’s California membership, have ceased association with the caucus’s PAC, called BOLDPAC. Apparently, this has been stirring for quite some time, and stemed from thePAC’s support of relatives of caucus members running for local offices.

Of course, Rep. Loretta Sanchez being mad about this sort of nepotism is amusing, but never mind that.

What is interesting to me is that while Grijalva on the list, the rest are entirely from California. The member that runs BOLDPAC, Rep. Joe Baca, is from California as well. What is up with that? Also, I find it interesting that Sanchez and Rep. Hilda Solis are both on the list. The two have had some friction in the past, particularly after Sanchez recruited her sister Linda to run for congress over several local politicos who had paid their dues.

I can’t pretend that I have any idea what is going on in the background here, but BOLDPAC isn’t known for raising an awful lot of money, and doesn’t have a field operation to tap into. New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid has a great shot at taking out Rep. Heather “Janet Jackson Made Me Cry” Wilson, and there is a need to defend the seats of Rep. John Salazar and newly appointed Senator Robert Menendez. Building a “farm team” is important, but I can see why there is anger over spending scant resources on electing someone’s daughter county clerk.

The important thing to remember here is that Grijalva and Co. are not leaving the caucus. The caucus is not just BOLDPAC, it is also a voice on issues like immigration and education and also has an arm called the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, which is involved in various philanthropic activities. The caucus has always been pretty diverse, it includes more conservative Tejanos like Rep. Henry Cuellar as well as liberal firebrands like Nuyorican Rep. Nydia Velázquez. (Oddly, Hispanic political icon Henry B. González was never a member) For a long time, Cubano members, who are entirely Republican but for obvious reasons are also concerned about the direction of the immigration debate, were active caucus members but left as partisanship in the house grew (’round about the time of the formation of BOLDPAC).

NB - Rep. Dennis Cardoza is a member? The reason why I ask is that I have a friend that is very active in the Portuguese community in Massachusetts. When I said once, “Well, you are sort of Hispanic too…” she got very offended.

“But, Portugal was part of Hispana too.”

“No, it was part of Lusitania. We aren’t Hispanics, we are Luso-Americans.”

Maybe the community in New England is more uptight, you know, all that snow and chowder.

Second mildly related anectdote:

I drove around Rep. Hilda Solis when she came to the 2001 Young Democrats of America convention. The radio in the rental car I was driving for some reason had the local classical station on. I left it there, figuring it wouldn’t offend anyone. Solis and one staff member got into the car and she said, “Oh please, you think that just because I’m in congress that I’m old and boring? Put on some rock and roll…”

I switched it one of our copious classic rock stations (one that has probably changed format three times since then) and she sang along.