Posted on 10/13/2002 4:35:46 PM PDT by c-b 1
It's not another red scare, but it's enough to make Yuman Robert Filbey hope voters realize who will represent them in Congressional District 7, which encompasses all of Yuma County.
Filbey, who retired from the military after 30 years, claims a Tucson man who circulated a nominating petition form for Tucson Democrat Raul Grijalva earlier this year is registered as a Communist in Pima County.
"These are petitions that have already been accepted, so that's not the question," said Filbey, who wrote to the Letters to the Editor section of The Sun. "The question is how you want to define support. This individual's circulated a petition in support of this candidate, therefore, this candidate is receiving support from members of the Communist Party."
Filbey went on to say it wasn't just this one man doing it, there was at least one other person he knew about whose party affiliation was also Com- munist.
Chris Roads, of Pima County Registrar of Voters, confirmed the 75-year-old man who collected 44 signatures for Grijalva first registered with the Communist Party back in 1975.
"This person has changed party affiliation several times, including being a member of the People Before Profit and Labor Party," Roads said. "But in November ’95 he changed his party affiliation back to the Communist Party." However, Roads added, there is a state statute on the books that doesn't allow the Communist Party to exist, even though a U.S. Supreme Court opinion has ruled those type of statutes are unconstitutional.
"It came into existence during the McCarthy era in the ’50s and the state Legislature has never repealed it," Roads said. "So it's been sitting there on the books ever since."
With literally hundreds of people who circulated nominating petition forms for him, Grijalva said his campaign has a policy not to put any of its volunteers through a political screen- ing process.
"If they support the agenda and decide they want to volunteer, we don't put them through any sort of political background check," Grijalva said. "Our platform is very much a Democratic platform, and very progressive, so if people choose to support it, then they should be able to."
Yuma Republican Ross Hieb, who will face Grijalva, along with Libertarian John Nemeth, in the Nov. 5 general election, added his concerns to Filbey's.
"I guess what I would have to say is this country has spent a huge deal of energy, far too many lives and a great deal of its treasure fighting communism since the end of World War II and the Cold War," Hieb said.
Hieb, a former Marine fighter pilot, was recently quoted as saying he thought Grijalva's views and positions on issues were on the verge of socialism in many ways.
"It really strikes a chord because these aren't philosophies this county supports," Hieb said. "We are adamantly opposed to that kind of thought, and if people of that party support him, then they obviously see something that I think is probably contrary to the best interest of this country."
Filbey is bothered that members of the Communist Party are circulating nomination petition forms, he said, because he sees the goal of the party has always been to overthrow the United States.
"As a veteran, I'm not looking for the overthrow of this country by members of the Communist Party," Filbey said.
From the standpoint that the United States is a free country, Filbey said people may vote for whomever they chose, he just wants to stress to people how important it is for them to know who supports the candidates they intend to vote for.
"My whole point to writing the letter was to inform the population that they needed to be more aware of who they want to represent them," Filbey said. "If they are OK with it after receiving the information, go ahead and cast that vote, it's a free country. But if they aren't, hopefully it will cause them to rethink their support."
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