Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) By Daniel Newhauser

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot today at a constituent event in Arizona. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) allies herself with the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, but supported the major economic initiatives of the Obama administration.
She generally hews to the center of her party, with a focus on immigration issues, alternative energy policy and relations with Latin America.
The 100-mile border that her district shares with Mexico influences Giffords’ views on immigration.
She called the state law that targeted illegal immigrants “divisive” and “extreme” and said it does “nothing to make the communities I represent safer from smugglers and the dangerous spillover effects of border violence.”
She supports an immigration overhaul that would stiffen border security, impose tougher penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrants and create a guest worker program allowing foreign citizens to work seasonally in the United States.
But Giffords took issue with a boycott of local businesses that was supported by home-state colleague Raúl M. Grijalva, the Democrat who represents the district adjacent to hers.
She said the state law, which required state police officers to check the immigration status of people they detain for other offenses such as traffic stops, pointed to the need for the federal government to do more.
She called for the deployment of the National Guard and more Border Patrol agents to the region. Giffords claimed victory when the Obama administration allotted 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and dedicated about $600 million to add technology and border agents.
The 8th District’s border with Mexico for years had no permanent checkpoint. “We had a wide-open gap, like ‘enter here!’” Giffords said, and Tucson was a magnet for smugglers.
When the Border Patrol announced a permanent checkpoint near a densely populated area in Santa Cruz County, local residents objected. Giffords formed a group consisting of business owners, residents and environmentalists that worked with the Border Patrol on a compromise to move the checkpoint six miles south.
The Arizona Republic in a September 2007 editorial praised Giffords for “an effective effort by a first-term lawmaker.”
Giffords, who speaks Spanish and owns a home in Mexico, sits on the Foreign Affairs panel’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee.
She also has a seat on the Science and Technology Committee, where she served as chairwoman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee in the 111th Congress (2009-10).
She is particularly interested in developing solar power and other renewable energy sources in Arizona, which enjoys about 300 days of sunshine each year.
“We have the land, the technology, the concentrated sunshine,” Giffords said. “I want to see south Arizona be the ‘Solarcon Valley’ of the United States.” Her 2009 legislation to develop a road map to advance solar technology passed the House.
She introduced legislation, which became part of the sweeping energy package in the 110th Congress (2007-08), to authorize $43 million through fiscal 2012 for research to help solar plants generate more energy in low-light situations.
Giffords sits on Armed Services, which allows her to look out for her district’s two military installations. She was the first Democratic freshman to visit Iraq in February 2007, when during a stopover in Israel, she learned that F-14 parts from American planes were being sold to Iran.
Once home, Giffords introduced a bill to ban the sale of F-14 parts, which passed the House. Iran’s air force is the only one that still flies the F-14, a legacy of pre-revolutionary Iran’s friendlier ties with the United States.
In the fall of 2008, she was one of four Blue Dogs to change their vote on a $700 billion proposal aimed at shoring up the nation’s financial services sector. Having opposed an initial measure, she supported a revised version that ultimately became law.
But the next year, she opposed a $14 billion bailout bill for U.S. automakers and, in 2009, voted against a $2 billion vehicle trade-in program.
She votes with her party on most social issues. In 2007, she voted to override President George W. Bush’s veto on a bill to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children from low-income families that make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, and voted against allowing faith-based Head Start preschool program providers to take religion into account when hiring.
She supports abortion rights. But in 2008, she backed a measure to roll back District of Columbia gun control laws.
Giffords is a third-generation Arizonan who grew up in Tucson. Her father owned a tire business and served on the school board. Her mother is an art conservator, specializing in Latin American art. Giffords grew up riding horses and racing motorcycles competitively and loves working on old cars.
At 18, she was inspired by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor — also of Arizona — to register as a Republican. She attended Scripps College in California, and after graduation was awarded a Fulbright grant to study in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Giffords also spent a year in San Diego studying a border control program initiated along the California-Mexico border.
After earning a master’s degree in regional planning and completing a consulting stint in New York, Giffords returned to Tucson to take over the family tire and automotive business when her father became ill.
In 1999, she changed her party affiliation because she viewed herself as more moderate on social issues than most Arizona Republicans. She was elected to the Arizona House in 2000. In 2002, she became the youngest woman elected to the state Senate.
When GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe decided to retire, Giffords beat out five primary challengers and in the general election faced former state GOP Rep.
Randy Graf, who touted a tough enforcement-first approach to immigration. Graf’s primary victory split local Republicans, and Giffords prevailed with 54 percent of the vote. In 2008, she beat GOP state Senate President Timothy S. Bee by 12 percentage points.
Republicans targeted her early in the 2010 election cycle, and her party-line votes for major Democratic priorities in the 111th Congress cost her some of her centrist bona fides. Retired Marine Jesse Kelly attacked Giffords for those votes and for not being tough enough on border security. But she eked out a win by barely more than 1 percentage point.
Nestled in the state’s southeast corner, the 8th District is home to many swing voters and independents. The more conservative Cochise County takes up most of the 8th’s land, but most residents live in Pima County in the Tucson area.
The district runs along more than 100 miles of Arizona’s border with Mexico, and immigration and border security are major issues here.
Tucson is surrounded by mountain ranges and “sky islands” towering over the desert, but the majestic Santa Catalinas north of the city are the local landmark.
Although population growth north of the city is slowing, water resources and water services remain major concerns in this arid region. South of the city, Green Valley is known for retirement communities, and nearly three-fourths of the population is older than 65.
Military jets flying past Tucson on their way to or from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, southeast of the city, reveal one the area’s economic engines: the military. Defense and aerospace contractor Raytheon Missile Systems is a major district employer.
In Sierra Vista to the south, Fort Huachuca — home to the The U.S. Military Intelligence Center — employs thousands of contractors in high-technology fields.
Although its flagship campus is in the neighboring 7th, the University of Arizona has a campus in Sierra Vista and is one of the largest employers in the district. Service industries and tourism account for a significant portion of the district’s economy.
In one of the state’s closest presidential contests in 2008, Republican John McCain took 52 percent of the district’s vote