TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords was
distressed when the glass front door of her
district office here was shattered by a kick or a
pellet gun last March, an act of vandalism that
took place hours after she joined Democrats in
passing President Obama’s health care bill.
“Things have really gotten spun up,” she told a
television interviewer the next day.
But tensions have long run high in the Eighth
Congressional District of Arizona, a classic swing
district that shares a 114-mile border with Mexico.
Protesters chained themselves to the desks of Ms.
Giffords ’s Republican predecessor, Jim Kolbe, 12
years ago. And over the past year, Ms. Giffords
struggled in a brutal re-election campaign during
which her opponent appeared in a Web
advertisement holding an assault weapon. The
district has become a caldron of divisions over
government spending, immigration, health care
and Barack Obama.
Today, the Eighth District stands apart as one of
the most emotionally and politically polarized in
the nation.
The rampage on Saturday that left six dead and
Ms. Giffords gravely wounded may prove to be
an isolated act of violence by a mentally disturbed
man. The suspect attended at least one of Ms.
Giffords ’s town meetings before the event
Saturday.
Still, the shootings came after a disconcerting run
of episodes in this district of mountains and
desert, raising temperatures here in a way that
some that some of Ms. Giffords ’s friends argue
fed an atmosphere that might encourage
violence.
Several of them pointed back to the smashed
door of her district headquarters at 1661 North
Swan Street last March as a turning point; a time
when a cloud of unease settled over Ms. Giffords
and her staff.
She and aides began expressing worry about
what they saw as an escalation of threats after a
year of brutal town hall meetings over health
care. They began to take precautions. “When we
did a swing through the district, we began telling
the police what we are doing: We let them know
where we were going to be, ” said Rodd McLeod,
her campaign manager.
And Ms. Giffords made no secret at that time of
saying she owned a handgun.
“She was extremely concerned about it,” said
Thomas Warne, a friend and fund-raiser. “She
was concerned about various threats that the
office had received: they were general threats on
the office itself, on her life. ”
There have been no arrests related to the attack
on her district office, said Sgt. Diana Lopez of the
Tucson Police Department. It came after months
in which Ms. Giffords, like other Democrats,
found herself being battered at loud town hall
meetings on health care. At one of her public
meetings on health care, a man with a gun
showed up. “There was a sense, even in ’09, that
there was a real anger in the district,” Mr. McLeod
said.
And in an interview with MSNBC the day after the
attack, Ms. Giffords said: “We’ve had hundreds
and hundreds of protesters over the last several
months. Our office corner has become a place
where the Tea Party movement congregates and
the rhetoric is incredibly heated, not just the calls
but the e-mails, the slurs. ”
Last summer, Ms. Giffords found herself
challenged by Jesse Kelly, a Republican candidate
with Tea Party backing, who assailed Ms. Giffords
on health care and immigration. He held a
“ targeting victory” fund-raiser in which he invited
contributors to shoot an M-16 with him. This was
playing out against a backdrop of a souring
national economy and rising unhappiness with
Democrats everywhere.
Mr. Kelly, who won the nomination after
defeating a moderate Republican, offered tough-
worded attacks on the establishment and Ms.
Giffords. “These people who think they are better
than us, they look down on us every single day
and tell us what kind of health care to buy, ” he
said at a rally in October. “And if you dare to
stand up to the government they call us a mob.
We ’re about to show them what a mob looks
like.”
Despite all the vitriol, advisers to Ms. Giffords
concluded in a post-election review of the race
that one of the main reasons she won was likely
a steady series of positive biographical
advertisements she ran over the summer; for the
most part she avoided attacking her opponent.
“People want their representatives to work
together in a bipartisan way to get things done,”
she said at one event.
Mr. Kelly received no financial support from the
National Republican Congressional Committee.
But outside groups focused on the race and
invested more than $450,000 in television
commercials against Ms. Giffords. The Republican
primary did not take place until Aug. 24, giving
her several months to command the airwaves in
Tucson before her opponent was known.
The $3.4 million that Ms. Giffords raised was
more than any other Congressional candidate in
Arizona. In the heat of the campaign last fall,
Republican officials expressed exasperation at the
strength of her candidacy, often referring to Ms.
Giffords as one of the smartest and strongest
Democratic incumbents in the country.
The race — one of the most dramatic in the
country — was so close it took three days to call
it.
Ms. Giffords won a third term, but with just 49
percent of the vote, compared with 55 percent
last time.
Representative Raúl Grijalva, a Democrat from the
neighboring Seventh District, said he was taken
aback by the level of animosity in her district.
NEXT PAGE »
Sam Dolnick and Adam Nagourney reported
from Tucson, and Katharine Q. Seelye from New
York. Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from New
York.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/us/11district.html
distressed when the glass front door of her
district office here was shattered by a kick or a
pellet gun last March, an act of vandalism that
took place hours after she joined Democrats in
passing President Obama’s health care bill.
“Things have really gotten spun up,” she told a
television interviewer the next day.
But tensions have long run high in the Eighth
Congressional District of Arizona, a classic swing
district that shares a 114-mile border with Mexico.
Protesters chained themselves to the desks of Ms.
Giffords ’s Republican predecessor, Jim Kolbe, 12
years ago. And over the past year, Ms. Giffords
struggled in a brutal re-election campaign during
which her opponent appeared in a Web
advertisement holding an assault weapon. The
district has become a caldron of divisions over
government spending, immigration, health care
and Barack Obama.
Today, the Eighth District stands apart as one of
the most emotionally and politically polarized in
the nation.
The rampage on Saturday that left six dead and
Ms. Giffords gravely wounded may prove to be
an isolated act of violence by a mentally disturbed
man. The suspect attended at least one of Ms.
Giffords ’s town meetings before the event
Saturday.
Still, the shootings came after a disconcerting run
of episodes in this district of mountains and
desert, raising temperatures here in a way that
some that some of Ms. Giffords ’s friends argue
fed an atmosphere that might encourage
violence.
Several of them pointed back to the smashed
door of her district headquarters at 1661 North
Swan Street last March as a turning point; a time
when a cloud of unease settled over Ms. Giffords
and her staff.
She and aides began expressing worry about
what they saw as an escalation of threats after a
year of brutal town hall meetings over health
care. They began to take precautions. “When we
did a swing through the district, we began telling
the police what we are doing: We let them know
where we were going to be, ” said Rodd McLeod,
her campaign manager.
And Ms. Giffords made no secret at that time of
saying she owned a handgun.
“She was extremely concerned about it,” said
Thomas Warne, a friend and fund-raiser. “She
was concerned about various threats that the
office had received: they were general threats on
the office itself, on her life. ”
There have been no arrests related to the attack
on her district office, said Sgt. Diana Lopez of the
Tucson Police Department. It came after months
in which Ms. Giffords, like other Democrats,
found herself being battered at loud town hall
meetings on health care. At one of her public
meetings on health care, a man with a gun
showed up. “There was a sense, even in ’09, that
there was a real anger in the district,” Mr. McLeod
said.
And in an interview with MSNBC the day after the
attack, Ms. Giffords said: “We’ve had hundreds
and hundreds of protesters over the last several
months. Our office corner has become a place
where the Tea Party movement congregates and
the rhetoric is incredibly heated, not just the calls
but the e-mails, the slurs. ”
Last summer, Ms. Giffords found herself
challenged by Jesse Kelly, a Republican candidate
with Tea Party backing, who assailed Ms. Giffords
on health care and immigration. He held a
“ targeting victory” fund-raiser in which he invited
contributors to shoot an M-16 with him. This was
playing out against a backdrop of a souring
national economy and rising unhappiness with
Democrats everywhere.
Mr. Kelly, who won the nomination after
defeating a moderate Republican, offered tough-
worded attacks on the establishment and Ms.
Giffords. “These people who think they are better
than us, they look down on us every single day
and tell us what kind of health care to buy, ” he
said at a rally in October. “And if you dare to
stand up to the government they call us a mob.
We ’re about to show them what a mob looks
like.”
Despite all the vitriol, advisers to Ms. Giffords
concluded in a post-election review of the race
that one of the main reasons she won was likely
a steady series of positive biographical
advertisements she ran over the summer; for the
most part she avoided attacking her opponent.
“People want their representatives to work
together in a bipartisan way to get things done,”
she said at one event.
Mr. Kelly received no financial support from the
National Republican Congressional Committee.
But outside groups focused on the race and
invested more than $450,000 in television
commercials against Ms. Giffords. The Republican
primary did not take place until Aug. 24, giving
her several months to command the airwaves in
Tucson before her opponent was known.
The $3.4 million that Ms. Giffords raised was
more than any other Congressional candidate in
Arizona. In the heat of the campaign last fall,
Republican officials expressed exasperation at the
strength of her candidacy, often referring to Ms.
Giffords as one of the smartest and strongest
Democratic incumbents in the country.
The race — one of the most dramatic in the
country — was so close it took three days to call
it.
Ms. Giffords won a third term, but with just 49
percent of the vote, compared with 55 percent
last time.
Representative Raúl Grijalva, a Democrat from the
neighboring Seventh District, said he was taken
aback by the level of animosity in her district.
NEXT PAGE »
Sam Dolnick and Adam Nagourney reported
from Tucson, and Katharine Q. Seelye from New
York. Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from New
York.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/us/11district.html
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