Giffords preps for Bee challenge

District 8 Democrat Gabby Giffords has been serving in the U.S. Congress for little more than a year, but she is already looking at a tough battle for re-election.

“Republicans will make it as tough as possible for her,” says Giffords campaign chair Michael McNulty.

Republicans have chosen a candidate to face off against Giffords: State Senate president Tim Bee.

“Bee is as strong a candidate as Republicans could field against Giffords,” McNulty says.

Giffords, 37, served in the State Senate from 2003 to 2005. In 2006 she won her U.S. Congress seat over Randy Graf, a former member of the state legislature who had taken a tough stance on illegal immigration. Graf had stepped in for Republican incumbent Jim Kolbe, who had decided to step down after serving 11 terms in the House.

The Giffords campaign says that since winning her seat Giffords has worked to maintain contact with her District, which spans most of Tucson. In the last 12 months she has made more than 40 trips from Washington D.C. to Arizona.

Take a close look at the District and it makes sense why. In 2004 Kolbe won the seat with 60% of the vote. And George W. Bush won the district with 50% and 53% of the vote in his 2000 and 2004 runs for the White House, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

What benefits Giffords, insiders believe, is that she is a strong campaigner.

“She’s going to be ready for the fight,” says Nathan Gonzalez of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. He adds: “Giffords is a tenacious campaigner. She knows what it takes to win in the area.”

Giffords has been at work raising money, setting up a Tucson-based finance committee. Amy Hartmann, who has worked at the Arizona-Senora Desert Museum, has been tapped to run the fundraising operation. The campaign has been quiet about releasing figures, but says it has raised more in the fourth quarter of 2007 than the third, when it banked $258,000. $1.1 million sits in the campaign account.

The campaign intends to add staff in the coming months, with a manager coming aboard in about 6 weeks.

The Giffords campaign plans to talk about a few key issues, including public service and alternative energy. She also plans to talk about bringing home the troops from Iraq.

But Republicans look at the seat and see an opportunity.

Insiders see Bee as a moderate and probably a better fit for the District than Graf. The Giffords campaign doesn’t necessarily disagree with the assessment.

“Bee is more moderate and kind of a nice guy,” McNulty says, but adds that Bee is to the right of moderate and that voters in the District are largely looking to vote for a moderate.

The Bee campaign is likely to run paint Giffords as a cog in the Washington machine, someone who lacks bipartisan skill and doesn’t push solutions forward. The Giffords campaign, however, says voters won’t buy the charge.

“She staked out her bipartisan credentials two years ago,” McNulty says.

In this race the immigration is the issue likely to take center stage.

“Amnesty is not the answer to our immigration problem,” Bee has said. “Securing our border is.”

The Giffords position, in the words of campaign chair McNulty: “Until we get the border under control, there is little we can do.”

For now, the Giffords campaign says that it is prepared for a fight.

“It’s going to be a tough, expensive race,” McNulty says, who then adds: “But no one feels the hot breath of Bee on their neck.”