A Passionate Politician and a Friend to Colleagues, Bikers and Lost Mayors

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/politics/09profileweb.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

A Passionate Politician and a Friend to Colleagues, Bikers and Lost Mayors

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
WASHINGTON — Unusual is a relative term in American political life, but Representative Gabrielle Giffords fits the bill: avid equestrian and motorcycle enthusiast, repository of arcane health care data, successful Democrat elected three times in a Republican Congressional district, French horn player and wife of an astronaut.
Kelly Presnell/Arizona Daily Star
 Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona
Norma Jean Gargasz for The New York Times Ms. Giffords at her wedding to Capt. Mark E. Kelly in Amado, Ariz., in 2007. Ms. Giffords, who was shot and critically wounded while meeting with constituents in her district in southern Arizona on Saturday, is widely admired and liked in her state and the nation’s capital for more than her political smarts. Friends and associates describe her as the first person to arrange a party for a departing colleague, the one who will walk you across the Capitol complex to make sure you know your way, the person whom even former political opponents call a friend.
Politically, Ms. Giffords, 40, is as passionate as she is independent. She is a longtime proponent of gun rights and tough border security — she once put out a news release ahead of President Obama announcing an increase of troops at the border. She also sided with motorcycle riders who favor state legislation to ride helmet-free, as she does.
But she was equally ardent in her support of the health care overhaul last year, and once told a reporter she was prepared to lose her seat to defend it. A comer in Arizona, where she was born and grew up, Ms. Giffords was widely considered as a strong future candidate for statewide office in a state where Democrats ride uphill.
“We once got into a conversation about the meaning of life,” said Tom Zoellner, a friend of Ms. Giffords’s and volunteer on two of her campaigns. “And she had sort of made an existential decision that life was about helping other people, that life was about public service, and she was going to arrange her life around that idea.”
But it is her personality, more than her politics, that has attracted her many fans.
“When something bad happened to you, she is the first person that would show up and talk to you about it,” said Jonathan Paton, a former Arizona state senator whom Ms. Giffords defeated in 2000. Mr. Paton later won in another district, becoming her colleague.
“We would tease each other all of the time, her being a Democrat and me a Republican,” he said. “I remember when I won my primary the first time, she called to congratulate me. Let’s put it this way: you’ve got to be a pretty kind person if the person you once ran against and beat is as emotionally distraught as I am now.”
The mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, recalled seeing Ms. Giffords on Capitol Hill one day, when he was wandering aimlessly in the snow. “I was lost,” Mr. Gordon said. “She had only been there a year herself, and she grabbed me, despite the fact she was going to her office, and took me across the street to where I needed to go. Taking a lost mayor from another city that isn’t even in your district is not something many people would do.”
Ms. Giffords was born in Tucson, graduated from Cornell University and Scripps College and worked in both economic development and her family’s tire and automotive business before entering politics.
She served in the Arizona Legislature from 2001 through 2005. After serving in the Arizona House of Representatives, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate.
Tapped by her party in 2006 to run for the House of Representatives, Ms. Giffords, helped by her connections within her district and a weak Republican opponent, prevailed, becoming the state’s first Jewish congresswoman and the third woman ever to represent Arizona.
“It’s a conservative district, but she is probably one of the few people who could have won it,” said Jim Pederson, the former head of the Arizona Democratic Party. “She is an extremely hard-working person, a very able fund-raiser. Most of all it’s her personality. She is constantly on the phone. I get an average of a call every 10 days from her. Now I supported her and contributed to her campaign, but I do that with a lot of candidates. Not a lot of people who have that kind of loyalty and follow-through.”
Ms. Giffords, who was known around the Hill as Gabby, was far more likely to be found locked in a room with a book on solar energy — another one of her pet issues — than at one of the local watering holes.
Mr. Zoellner said he once left a six-pack of beer in her Washington refrigerator with a note, “Use only in case of emergency,” and found it, unmoved, two years later when he borrowed the place.
In 2007, she married a Navy captain, Mark E. Kelly, making her the only member of Congress with an active-duty spouse.
The two met in China, as young leaders selected by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and have spent much of their relationship apart, due to their respective professional lives. Mr. Kelly has been an astronaut since 1996.
“The longest amount of time we’ve spent together is probably a couple of weeks at a stretch,” Mr. Kelly told The New York Times in an article that talked about their wedding. “We won’t always live this way, but this is how we started. It’s what we’ve always done. It teaches you not to sweat the small stuff.”