I decided to do a search of the interwebs this morning to find out what the blogosphere thought of the US Senate race.

I have found two types of articles on Rodney Glassman besides boring press releases. There are either articles by the Three Sonorans, or those using Three Sonorans as a reference, and now lately there is an increase in the personal attacks on Three Sonorans for the smearing Glassman.

My history with Rodney Glassman might help elucidate my writings.

Rodney Glassman, the paper candidate

I never even heard the name “Rodney Glassman” before about February or so of this year. I was too busy working on a real doctoral dissertation to know every person in local politics.

So when I first heard about him, I fell under the same awe that all his current supporters may have.

Wow, he has so many degrees! All those lines on paper make him look so smart, and he also has time to be in the military and run a business and a charitable foundation. And furthermore his “Ph.D.” was in Arid Land Sciences, which is certainly good for Tucson right?

If you look back at my Facebook posts, I was really trying to support Glassman since I was so tired of John McCain. Whenever I posted, people would comment negatively about Glassman and I would respond “but we need to get rid of John McCain…”

Does this sound familiar to you?

I first met Glassman at the Casino Ballroom. He sounded weak and not as smart as I thought he would. He has a George W-like smirk that he carries with him everywhere and I thought to myself “John McCain will eat him for breakfast.”

The latest poll shows McCain with a 20-point lead over Glassman, but this doesn’t not prevent Rodney from proclaiming that he is the only one that can beat the 24-year incumbent US Senator despite all evidence to the contrary.

But I still continued to support him.

Then came SB1070…

I am not unique in this experience.

During the lead up to SB1070, many of us would ask Glassman about his stance on it. We were all ignored, and sometimes our genuine questions on his Facebook page were deleted!

At this point, during the week leading up to SB1070 being signed into law by Jan Brewer on April 23, 2010, people were calling her office, spreading the word. The media was woefully silent on this bill, at least compared to their coverage after it was signed into law.

One of Tucson’s congresspersons called for a boycott of Arizona. This same person also has a rally at his/her office the day after the bill passed. Furthermore, this same person was a political mentor of Rodney Glassman, so you would think to see Glassman as a stronger opponent of SB1070.

He was not. Now, after all this time, he says that he did do something. That something is issue a statement on the web that doesn’t even address the racial profiling or injustice. He had other things to worry about.

What other things? He took all those $20 donations (that Three Sonorans gave also) and bought a huge RV with that money, because nothing says fuel efficiency and sustainability like driving a Sun Tran size bus all around town and around the state.

Rather than have posts or updates about SB1070 on his webpage, he was having a name-that-RV contest.

This is all a joke for Glassman. While the reasonably suspicious are out there in the sun marching and protesting against injustice, Glassman is having press releases about the name of his bus and what pins he will wear on his suit from now on.

Seriously.

As of April 23rd, I also had never heard of Randy Parraz, or any of the other candidates. Like I said earlier, I was busy with some science research that took up most of my time.

But I want to make this point clear. I have always tried to apply reasoning to my writings and decisions. Here is a post I made on Facebook when I first found out about Randy Parraz. Notice my intentions are genuine, and I am trying to find out the truth.

April 25th Facebook post

I was genuinely trying to decide between the two candidates. I voiced my concerns about Glassman and you can see that I was just learning about Randy Parraz.

So I applied my research experience to this race. I wondered why would Rodney Glassman be so quiet on THE ISSUE of the year/decade/century in Arizona. SB1070 has defined Arizona, it is the image Arizona has to deal with, for better or worse.

Where was Glassman?

This last question became my mantra after every march or protest. Where was Glassman?

Randy Parraz in two-way tie for first place

Then I finally got to meet Randy Parraz the same night many others got to meet him. The Tucson High School students were having a 24-hour vigil against HB2281, the ethnic studies ban. Randy Parraz showed up to show his support.

Rodney Glassman was nowhere to be seen, even though it was down the street from his house.

And then I saw Parraz at the DREAM Act rally at John McCain’s office. That story made it to the NY Times. Still no Glassman.

Alto Arizona, 100,000 people protesting and marching to the state capitol in Phoenix. Randy Parraz was right there besides Dolores Huerta, who just celebrated her 80th birthday this weekend. She was able to march for miles in the 100+ heat, and once again Randy Parraz was the only US Senate candidate to show support.

Rodney Glassman did send his bus, but he was nowhere to be seen. He had to attend a birthday party that day. This is the cycle I have observed all summer. Rodney Glassman is too busy with name-that-bus contests, declaring he is wearing an Arizona pin, going to birthday parties or fundraisers to deal with the reasonably suspicious.

That plan is now backfiring on Glassman. The most recent poll shows Latinos are voting 7:1 AGAINST Glassman in favor of the only candidate that marches besides them in the hot desert summer, Randy Parraz.

Since I have a good brain, and know how to research, I have tried to present as much information as I can on Rodney Glassman and Randy Parraz, and even John Dougherty.

What is interesting is that I probably provide more references in my “Who is Rodney Glassman?” article than he had in his whole dissertation. I provide links to other articles from the LA Times, to government sites, etc.

Randy Parraz and Cesar Chavez. Strong supporters of the UFW. Notice their "No Grapes" buttons. Rodney Glassman is a Fresno grape farmer.

Rather than Democrats saying

“yes, we KNOW he made his millions of dollars off of agribusiness and petrochemical industries that have polluted the groundwater and been sprayed on migrant farmworkers, and yes we know that we that he made a stupid homophobic remark, does not support gay marriage but rather a ‘separate but equal’ form of civil unions, and we know that he has used more water than everyone reading this combined and yet claims to be the water conservation expert, BUT we still love him no matter what”

they resort to attacking Three Sonorans now.

No matter how much I tell the TEA Party or right-wingers about SB1070 or other politics, they will not be convinced, and resort to calling me communist, socialist, marxist, terrorist, illegal, etc.

I have met with a similar response from the Glassman supporters.

I am a liar, a hater, I am running a smear on Glassman, I’m threatened with libel, and more. Rather than discuss the facts that I reference, personal attacks ensue.

Rodney Britz Glassman on his new tractor - a Zamboni

For example, Glassman ran a failed business (the ice rink) and yet was able to emerge from the UA with no student debt and able to write a check for half a million dollars to his own US Senate campaign.

Where did that money come from?

That’s the question I was trying to solve when I wrote my Who is Rodney Glassman article? Why can’t the other journalists explore this question? Following the money is usually a good start. Yes, I know the Glassman foundation may buy ads in your media source, but that should not challenge your integrity as a “real” journalist who does this for a living.

Glassman is receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in free government subsidies for being a “grape farmer in Fresno” even while he is sitting on the Tucson city council. Your tax dollars are funding Rodney Glassman’s US Senate campaign!

If the media doesn’t want to cover this extremely important race in depth, then Three Sonorans will. So yes, you will find more articles on Glassman, Parraz, and Dougherty here, but that’s because I know how to do my research.

This is also why people will turn to the Tucson Citizen more in this election than other local media. Not only do we have a strong progressive voice, we also have the right-wing representing, and they are breaking stories too.

History will write about this election, about the power of Tucson bloggers, and the decline of the other media. It’s all about change. Those that cannot deal with change will get left behind. Luckily I teach calculus at the UA.

Calculus is the mathematics of change. The 2008 and 2010 elections are all about change.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Civil rights, Election 2010, Headline news, political news. Tags for this post: arizona news, cathy eden, Headline news, john dougherty, john mccain, political news, progressive news, randy parraz, rodney glassman, tucson news, US senate news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.