Two candidates for the US House of Representatives need your support:

In the 1st District in New Mexico, which includes Albuquerque, the state’s Attorney General, Patricia Madrid, campaigns against a long-term Christian-Republican incumbent. The incumbent has collected the fourth highest cash total from Tom DeLay’s ARMPAC campaign money-laundering operation. Because Madrid has a high profile in the state and this district went for Kerry in 2004, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball considers this election a toss-up.

In the Arizona 8th district, including Tucson, State Senator Gabrielle Giffords is running for the Democratic Congressional nomination. Robert Reich mentioned her in his blog, so I made a campaign contribution. Sabato also rates this as a toss-up. Attacks by rightist Christian-Republicans on the remaining “moderates” in the party may sufficiently damage the party organization that it might not conduct a strong campaign in November. (As an indicator of the corruption in the Christian-Republican party, the right-wing candidate recently fired his campaign manager when reporters discovered the campaign manager’s conviction for sexually abusing teenage girls.)

The national Christian-Republican machine will pour money and negative attacks into both of these campaigns. Madrid’s district includes many Hispanic voters, so the attacks may not focus on anti-immigrant race-baiting. Arizona’s 8th district includes about 1/3 of Arizona’s border with Mexico. The rightists’ candidate, a former golf pro, already uses immigration/race as his wedge issue.

So, before you log off, please take a few minutes to contribute to Giffords and Madrid.