PHOENIX — Democratic candidate for governor Marco Lopez won the endorsement of the Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund Monday.
A sign Democratic front-runner Secretary of State Katie Hobbs still has credibility issues with people of color.
“The margins are small. 10,458 votes separated Donald Trump and Joe Biden and so it matters," Marco Lopez said.
While the endorsement is welcomed, Lopez knows he still has a lot of work to do to catch up to Hobbs.
Marco Lopez is a Phoenix businessman.
At 22, he was elected mayor of Nogales. He later served as Commerce Secretary for Governor Napolitano and held a position in Homeland Security during the Obama Administration.
“Sadly the promise for too many Arizonans is out of reach because our current leadership is more concerned with cutting taxes and serving the wealthy than for providing economic opportunity for families in need,” Lopez said.
According to the most recent polling, Lopez and former state Representative Aaron Lieberman are far behind Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the race to be the Democratic nominee for governor.
But both candidates see a chance to eat away at her lead.
In November, Hobbs was criticized for repeating derogatory comments she made against Telonya Adams.
Adams, an African American state senate policy advisor, sued the State Senate in 2015 after she questioned why she was not paid the same as Republican policy advisors doing the same work.
She was later fired.
Two federal juries agreed with Adams that she was the victim of discrimination and retaliation.
Katie Hobbs was the Senate Minority Leader at the time and was responsible for Adams’ dismissal.
Chicanos Por La Causa says it will work to register voters and get them to show up on Election Day for Lopez.
“It takes the ground troops. You have to go door to door to make sure we’re having the proper response,” says CPLC-Action Fund Director David Adame.
But pollster Mike Noble says not enough people know Marco Lopez. The promise of door knocks is not enough.
“The endorsements are important, however, he should be spending 60%-80% of his time raising money,” Noble said. “Can he show he has the funds to get his message out? I think the biggest thing to focus on is dialing for dollars.”
Lopez says he spends most of his day on the phone trying to raise money for his campaign.
We’ll find out how successful he’s doing in January.
That’s when candidates report how much money their campaigns have raised.
It will also be the month new polling results are released and we learn if Katie Hobbs is beatable in the primary.
