Gabby Giffords

The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords
File:Gabrielle giffords 2009.jpg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Jim Kolbe
Arizona State Senator
In office 2003–2005
Member of the Arizona House of Representatives
In office 2001–2003
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mark E. Kelly
Residence	Tucson
Alma mater	Cornell University (M.U.P.) Scripps College (B.A.)
Profession	Politician; businesswoman

Gabrielle Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is a Democratic politician from Tucson, Arizona. She is congresswoman for Arizona's 8th congressional district. Giffords is the youngest woman ever to be elected to the Arizona Senate, where she served from 2003 to 2005. She is the only member of the U.S. Congress who is a spouse of an active duty member of the US military.

Giffords was first sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 2007. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to serve in the U.S. Congress.

She is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition and the New Democrat Coalition.

Early life and education

Giffords was born in Tucson, Arizona, and graduated from Tucson's University High School.

She received a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American history from Scripps College in Claremont, California, in 1993, and a Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1996. She focused her studies on Mexico–United States relations while at Cornell.

Giffords was a Fulbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1996 and a fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Career in business and with the Arizona Legislature

Giffords worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City.

In 1996, she became president and CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses. El Campo was a local automotive chain founded by her grandfather. In 2000, she oversaw the sale of the company to Goodyear Tire. At the time of the sale she commented on the difficulties local businesses face when competing against large national firms. Giffords said "I’m really proud of being able to return to Arizona and help my family and take over a tire business that had serious challenges."

Giffords is the managing partner at Giffords Capital Management, a property management company based in Tucson.

Giffords began her political career as a legislator in the Arizona House of Representatives, where she served from 2001 to 2003.

Giffords was elected to the Arizona Senate in the fall of 2002 and is the youngest woman ever elected to this body. She took office in January 2003 and was re-elected in 2004. She resigned from the Arizona Senate on December 1, 2005, in preparation for her congressional campaign.

In early 2005, Giffords said of the Arizona Legislature: "The previous two legislatures enjoyed the benefits of a working coalition consisting of Democrats and middle-of-the-road Republicans. Due to a lack of competitive legislative districts and low voter turnout during GOP primaries, a fairly large crop of mostly conservative Republicans will dominate the House and Senate in 2005." Giffords' concerns played out as an increasingly conservative legislature combined with a Democratic governor, led to increased polarity in Arizona politics.

Expanding health care access was an issue of interest for Giffords when she served in the legislature. She also push for bills related to mental health and was named by the Mental Health Association of Arizona as the 2004 Legislator of the Year. Giffords also earned the Sierra Club's Most Valuable Player award.

In the legislature, Giffords worked on the bipartisan Children’s Caucus, which sought to improve education and health care for Arizona’s children. Critics of this plan argued that it amounted to taxpayer funded daycare. She worked with Arizona's Governor Janet Napolitano to promote all-day kindergarten. Giffords supported raising more money for schools "through sponsorship of supplemental state aid through bonds and tax credits that could be used for school supplies." She was awarded Arizona Family Literacy’s Outstanding Legislator for 2003.

Congressional career

Rep. Giffords in 2007

In her inaugural speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Giffords said a comprehensive immigration reform package needs to include modern technology to secure the border, more border patrol agents, tough employer sanctions for businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and a guest-worker program. In her first month in office, Congresswoman Giffords voted to support increased federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, raising the minimum wage, endorsing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and supporting new rules for the House of Representative targeting ethical issues. Giffords also voted to repeal subsidies to big oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy. "We put our national security at risk by relying on oil from unstable regimes in the Middle East and Latin America," Giffords told her colleagues in a speech on the House floor during debate on the Clean Energy Act. The act repeals $14 billion in subsidies given to oil companies and establishes a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to increase research in clean renewable energy, to develop greater energy efficiency, and to improve energy conservation.

During the 2007 session of Congress, Giffords introduced a bill (H.R. 1441) that forbids the sale of F-14 aircraft parts on the open market. She also voted for the contentious May 2007 Iraq Emergency Supplemental Spending bill, saying, "I cannot, in good conscience, allow the military to run out of money while American servicemen and women are being attacked every day".

Committee assignments

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Readiness
  • Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces
• Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
• Committee on Science and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment
  • Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (Chairwoman)

Political positions

Abortion

Giffords is pro-choice. She has a 100% rating from NARAL. She opposes the Hyde Amendment restricting federal funding for elective abortions.

Economic policy

Giffords voted for Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

Giffords voted for the Stimulus.

Education

Giffords argues that Americans are competing on a global level and that this competition starts in the classroom. She is a critic of the No Child Left Behind law, viewing it as an unfunded federal mandate. She is a graduate of public schools and supports them with a variety of proposals to make them more effective.

Tucson Weekly noted a letter Giffords sent, on August 1, 2008, to congressional leaders regarding tax credits that were set to expire. She wrote "failure to extend the tax credits would deal a devastating blow to the U.S. renewable energy industry, just as it is beginning to take off."

In September 2007 she released a report titled: The Community Solar Energy Initiative, Solar Energy in Southern Arizona. The report states that Arizona has enough daily sunshine to power the entire United States. It reviews current energy usage and discusses how to increase the production of solar electricity.

Gun Rights

Giffords supports restrictions on gun ownership. She has a D+ rating from the NRA and a D- from the GOA.

Immigration and Border Security

Arizona's 8th Congressional District is one of 10 in the country bordering Mexico. Giffords lived in Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar in the early 1990s. She has promoted immigration reform including a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants and supports stronger penalties against employers hiring illegal immigrants.

Iraq and Afghanistan

Giffords is an opponent of the war in Iraq, and a proponent of strengthening American efforts in Afghanistan.

Outsourcing

In 2008, Giffords introduced legislation that would have increased the cap on the H-1B visa from 65,000 per year to 130,000 per year. If that was not sufficient, according to her legislation, the cap would have been increased to 180,000 per year. The H-1B visa is mainly used by outsourcing companies. . Giffords' bill failed to garner the needed support and was not enacted.

Renewable Energy

Giffords believes that renewable energy sources needs to be a top public policy priority and she is a strong proponent of solar energy.

In September 2007 Giffords released a report titled: The Community Solar Energy Initiative, Solar Energy in Southern Arizona. The report states that Arizona has enough daily sunshine to power the entire United States.

Congressional campaigns

Giffords was first elected to Congress in 2006. She was reelected in 2008.

2006

Main article: Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2006

Giffords launched her campaign on January 24, 2006. The campaign received national attention early on as a likely pick-up for the Democratic Party. Prominent Democrats endorsed Giffords including Tom Daschle, Robert Reich, Janet Napolitano, and Bill Clinton. EMILY's List endorsed Giffords early in the campaign cycle. The Sierra Club and the Arizona Education Association also endorsed her. On September 12, 2006, Giffords won her party's nomination in the primary election.

Her Republican opponent in the general election was Randy Graf, a conservative former state senator known for his enforcement-only position on immigration and illegal aliens. Graf had run against Jim Kolbe in the 2004 GOP primary and had announced his candidacy in 2006 before Kolbe announced his retirement. The Republican establishment was somewhat cool toward Graf, believing he may be too conservative for the district. The national GOP took the unusual step of endorsing one of the more moderate candidates in the primary; but Graf won anyway, helped by a split in the Republican moderate vote between two candidates.

Not long after the primary, Congressional Quarterly changed its rating of the race to "Leans Democrat." By late September, the national GOP had pulled most of its funding, effectively conceding the seat to Giffords.

Giffords won the race on November 7, 2006, with 54 percent of the vote. Graf received 42 percent. The rest of the vote went to minor candidates.

Graf's candidacy was mentioned frequently in the national media as a test case of voters' feelings toward immigration issues, and Giffords' victory was portrayed as evidence that Americans are accepting towards comprehensive immigration reform. Graf did not even carry a majority in Cochise County, a border region where illegal immigration is an important local issue. Nonetheless, Arizona's continuing interest in the issue is evidenced by the fact that all propositions in the general election relating to restricting benefits to illegal aliens did pass by wide margins.

2008

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Arizona, 2008 § District 8

In 2008 Giffords was elected to a second term. Republican Tim Bee, a childhood classmate and former colleague in the Arizona State Senate, ran against her. Bee was then the Arizona State Senate President and was considered a strong challenger in this race. Giffords carried the race, winning 56.20 percent of the vote to Tim Bee's 41.45 percent.

Personal life

Giffords' parents are Spencer J. Giffords and Gloria Kay Fraser Giffords. Giffords identifies with Judaism and is Arizona's first Jewish Congresswoman. She is a member of Congregation Chaverim in Tucson.

After Hurricane Katrina struck in the late summer of 2005, Giffords spent time as a volunteer in Houston, Texas, in relief efforts for Hurricane victims. She wrote about her experience in the Tucson Citizen.

Giffords is an avid reader and was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition on July 9, 2006. She discussed books she was currently reading, including First Man, a biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong and The Heartless Stone a book by Tom Zoellner about the intricacies of the diamond industry across several continents. Congresswoman Giffords was periodically interviewed together with Illinois Republican Peter Roskam on NPR's All Things Considered. The series focused on their experiences as freshman members of the 110th Congress.

Giffords married U.S. Navy Captain and astronaut Mark E. Kelly on November 10, 2007. He was the space shuttle's pilot on STS-108 and STS-121. STS-121 in 2006 was the first shuttle mission to launch on the Fourth of July. Giffords participated in a NASA tradition when she selected "Beautiful Day" by U2 as one of the wake-up calls for the STS-121 shuttle crew. On May 31, 2008, Kelly rocketed toward the heavens for the third time as Commander of STS-124. This mission in to space marked the first time an astronaut was married to a sitting member of the U.S. Congress.

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections, 2008
• United States general elections, 2008
• United States House elections, 2006
• United States general elections, 2006

External links

• Gabrielle Giffords on X
• U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords official House site
• Gabrielle Giffords for U.S. Congress official campaign site
• Giffords Community Solar Energy Initiative

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Arizona Democratic Party
• Arizona Congress Watch
• Forty under 40, Tucson area young leader award
• Gabrielle Giffords: USAA member since 2007 in USAA Magazine: A Member's Guide to Financial Security (United Services Automobile Association), Spring 2009, p. 32 (back cover).