The Pima County Democratic Party will also see the end of the “Jeff Roger’s reign of terror and embarrassment,” according to one Party insider. “Our long nightmare is over. He is supposedly seeking a position at the state level and good riddance.”
DJ Quinlan, who served as the party’s elections director before joining Schapira’s campaign last year will temporarily replace Heredia. According to the Yellow Sheet Party spokesman, Frank Camacho, said the party will conduct a nationwide search for a new executive director.
As far as Rogers goes, anti-Grijalva Pima dems are hoping that the same group that led the revolt against Grijalva’s pick for the LD3 chair will wage a battle against Don Jorgensen, a failed former candidate for Arizona House of Representatives in 2008. Jorgensen, a graduate from the Center for Progressive Leadership, is expected to be less toxic and more conciliatory than Rogers.
Many expect new LD3 chair, Luis Gonzales, to take on the powers-that-be. At the time of the takeover Gonzales told writer, Pam Powers, of The Tucson Progressive, that “I have been a Democrat all of my life. Throughout my political involvement, there have been occasions where I have not agreed with positions that the Democratic Party (as an institution) has taken and I have always stood up when I believe that the Party has strayed away from what I believe are the core values of the Democratic Party.”
The Maricopa County Democratic Party Chair, Ann Wallack, has decided to not seek another term as a result of the huge success of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the 2012 election. Wallack also cited the Party’s “strife, infighting and lawsuits” as “major disincentives” to run again.
Shortly after the 2012 General Election, Salomon Baldenegro, a radical enemy of Grijalva, whose daughter-on-law lost in a congressional primary to Ann Kirkpatrick, accused the party of being racist. In a scathing letter sent out to supporters, democrat Baldenegro charged his fellow democrats with racism by injecting “itself into Primary races to deprive candidates of color the opportunity to be elected.”
Baldenego claimed “actions against candidates of color were taken during the election season, precisely because it was election season, with the goal of depriving candidates of color a fair shot at being elected!”
Baldenegro, a formerly close associate with Congressman Raul Grijalva, outlined in detail the racist past of the Democratic Party in his letter. Baldenegro claimed that the campaign against Wenona is rooted in an essay, “All Politics is Local: The Democratic Party’s Abandonment of the Core,” by Dr. Rudy Acuña, in which Acuña criticizes the Arizona Democratic Party for not supporting candidates of color or issues of import to the Mexican American community.”
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