How Native Americans Beat the Kochs in ‘America’s Most Competitive’ Congressional District

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/08/1343257/-How-Native-Americans-Beat-the-Kochs-in-America-s-Most-Competitive-Congressional-District

Cook, Rothenburg and other pundits had labeled Arizona Congressional District 1 as one of the most competitive in America, and the Koch Brothers and others poured in nearly $10 million to affect the outcome.

But when the dust settled early Wednesday morning, Ann Kirkpatrick had comfortably retained her seat, trouncing state House Speaker Andy Tobin by nearly 9,000 votes.

This story is told from the perspective of Navajo County. Though it is almost exactly the size of Massachusetts, it is a relatively small part of the district -- which is actually the largest district in the U.S. that is not an entire state. The county takes in portions of the Apache reservations in the south (the size of Connecticut) and stretches into the Navajo Nation (the size of West Virginia) in the north. Between them are off-Reservation towns, with some infused with Mormon TEA Party craziness. Surrounded by the Navajo Nation is the Hopi Reservation, the size of Delaware.

One of our county supervisors, Dawnafe Whitesinger, suggested we start the campaign with a Native American issues conference. Since things are so close to a subsistence level for many people on the reservations, she felt we could only get Natives involved in the campaign if we spoke directly to issues that were most important to them. We held the conference in Winslow at La Posada, a magnificently restored historic hotel owned by one of our supporters. A hundred people showed up, including the Democratic statewide candidates, and everyone helped to identify a list of issues in the area of public safety, jobs, education, transportation and other areas.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. This should be copied in 2016

And forever after . . . The party is getting too comfortable with certain segments - go to them and get the list. Don't make assumptions on preconceived ideas from 20 years ago.

One of our county supervisors, Dawnafe Whitesinger, suggested we start the campaign with a Native American issues conference. Since things are so close to a subsistence level for many people on the reservations, she felt we could only get Natives involved in the campaign if we spoke directly to issues that were most important to them. We held the conference in Winslow at La Posada, a magnificently restored historic hotel owned by one of our supporters. A hundred people showed up, including the Democratic statewide candidates, and everyone helped to identify a list of issues in the area of public safety, jobs, education, transportation and other areas.

[Omaha Steve]

2. See photo from 2008

[dbackjon]

3. Very Happy Ann won

The anti-Kilpatrick ads were disgusting, and full of lies.

Tobin is slime as well.


It very much helps that Ann grew up on the Apache reservation, and speaks Apache.