Giffords: A Democrat who wins in conservative district

Associated Press

PHOENIX

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, one of Arizona’s most high-profile Democats, always has seemed an unlikely voter choice in the state’s conservative-leaning 8th Congressional District.

But the Democrat from Tucson has managed to win election three times by holding centrist positions, reaching out to constituents and bucking her party’s position on many issues as a key member of the “Blue Dog Coalition” Democrats.

She has been tough on border security but supports comprehensive immigration reform.

She voted for President Barack Obama’s stimulus and health-care reforms, but pushed the administration to put armed National Guard troops on Arizona’s border with Mexico to stop drug and human smuggling.

In the wake of her November re-election win — where she fended off a strong tea party challenger in a Republican year that saw two other Arizona Democrats swept from Congress — Giffords has been mentioned as a possible Democratic nominee in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Jon Kyl or for the governor’s office in 2014. Kyl has not said whether he’ll run again.

“When you’re talking about a future gubernatorial race or anything else, when you’ve run three times in a Republican district in a state that still has a narrow Republican majority, she goes to the top of the list,” said Don Bivens, state Democratic Party chairman.

Giffords, 40, a one-time Republican, became a Democrat in 2000 and won election to the Arizona House, where she served one term. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona Senate and was re-elected in 2004, then stepped down in 2006 to try for the seat of retiring Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe.

Known as “Gabby,” she won an easy victory by taking conservative positions for a Democrat in the district that had elected the moderate Kolbe 11 times — helped by the missteps of an ultraconservative Republican who failed even to win Kolbe’s endorsement. She was easily re-election in 2008.