One of the more surprising results of this year's election was in Tuscon based AZ-02, where Martha McSally (R) defeated the incumbent Ron Barber (D) only after a month long recount. Even when I expected Team Blue to perform well this year in the House (hell, back in 2013, I thought we'd seats), I thought that seat was the first to go, so when you see other districts where Dem incumbents got blown out of the water (see: Dan Maffei vs John Katko), you would have expected Barber to do far worse than he did.
For those who aren't familiar, Barber served as an aide to beloved ex-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (who needs no introduction), and replaced her in a special election back in 2012 before being elected to a full term November of that year. He narrowly defeated McSally two years ago and lost to her by an even narrower count last month. McSally has "rising star" potential in the GOP so defeating her next cycle would be excellent for us, as I can't be the only one who shudders at the thought of Republicans using her as an example of the female Air Force veteran as "diversity in the party". Barber running again is unfortunately unlikely due to his age (he'll be in his 70s by 2016) so Democrats should begin looking elsewhere for our challenger. We have a few options, but after some searching, I think I found just the person we need:
Incoming State Rep. Randall Friese (D-HD9)
Incoming Arizona State Rep. Randall Friese (D-HD9)
“Randall Friese” sound familiar? It should;
he was one of the many talented surgeons who operated on Congresswoman Giffords after her shooting. Giffords still has plenty of residual support in this district so his profile would be an enormous asset if he chooses to run for the seat.
Randall Friese in 2011, then only a surgeon, speaking to the press about Gabby Giffords' condition, which was critical at the time
Having a personal connection to the ex-Congresswoman isn’t the only feature he shares with the outgoing Rep. Giffords; their electoral history also shares a striking resemblance. While this year’s ballots in the Barber-McSally race were being reviewed way past election date (with an unfortunate result of course), Friese had his first race go to a recount. When they finally tallied the results, how much did he win by?
233 votes.
And, if he doesn’t want to run for Congress, he’d have plenty of other options: Governor in 2018 against the newly elected village idiot Doug Ducey, who’s bound for failure in his new job, or Senate in 2016 to replace the senile John McCain, who’s ripe for replacement. Another idea is to run for lower statewide office, such as Secretary of State or Treasurer, or the upper house of the state legislature, the State Senate, but, in my opinion, the 2nd Congressional District should be where he runs next cycle.
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