NEWS

Hard-fought Barber, McSally race goes down to the wire

Dan Nowicki
The Republic | azcentral.com
  • Democrat Ron Barber and Republican Martha McSally are locked in one of the nation%27s tightest races.
  • Arizona%27s 2nd Congressional District covers the area once represented by Gabrielle Giffords.
  • Barber%2C Giffords%27 former district director%2C is up against McSally%2C a retired Air Force pilot.
  • Both candidates are touting their independence from their political parties in the swing district.

It is a testament to the enduring influence of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District that national Republicans used her to attack her Democratic successor, Rep. Ron Barber. The National Republican Congressional Committee's campaign commercial criticized Barber for lacking Giffords' maverick spirit on border security and failing to stand up to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Ron Barber and Martha McSally are locked in one of the nation’s tightest House races.

Giffords, the survivor of a near-fatal assassination attempt, responded with an ad of her own, touting Barber, her former district director, as independent, courageous, and "Arizona through and through."

The soft-spoken Barber, who was wounded in the same Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting near Tucson as Giffords, probably would prefer to avoid constant comparisons to his predecessor, but he needs all the help he can get in one of the fiercest congressional races in the country. He faces an aggressive challenge from Republican Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and fighter pilot who nearly beat him two years ago. Barber edged McSally in 2012 by 2,454 votes out of more than 292,000 cast. Their rematch is among the most closely watched races of the 2014 midterm elections.

Historically, the president's party loses congressional seats in midterm elections, and Republicans are hoping to not only pick up seats in the House but retake the Senate. President Barack Obama's job approval ratings — hovering around 40 percent — are not helping his fellow Democrats. Barber's centrist Southern Arizona district, which includes part of Tucson and Pima County plus Cochise County, appears ripe for a flip.

Giffords, D-Ariz., represented this part of the state from 2007 to 2012; before that, the area repeatedly elected veteran Rep. Jim Kolbe, a liberal-to-moderate Republican. As of the August primary, there were 126,619 Republicans, 122,875 Democrats and 121,963 independents.

McSally has consistently out-fundraised Barber this cycle.

However, a bruising ad blitz may be taking a toll on McSally, whose increasing negative numbers have caused some political analysts to cool on her once red-hot prospects. More than $7 million in independent money has been spent by outside groups such as Giffords' anti-McSally Americans for Responsible Solutions and the anti-McSally House Majority PAC as well as the anti-Barber American Action Network and Americans For Prosperity.

"This is a district that in this electoral environment should be looking pretty good for Republicans, but Ron Barber is still very much in the game," said Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the non-partisan, Washington, D.C.-based Rothenberg Political Report, which rates the Arizona race a pure toss-up. "If this was a neutral political environment, I think Congressman Barber would have a slight edge. But because almost everything else that we are seeing is good for Republicans nationally, it is tough to give him a significant advantage in a district that is so competitive."

Things get personal

The race between Barber, 69, and McSally, 48, has become personal and bitter.

During a recent appearance before The Arizona Republic's editorial board, the rivals emphasized their independence from the parties while taking shots at each other.

Barber pointed out that he has bucked Democrats by voting with Republicans to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking scandal and to establish a commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Barber conceded he has a reputation as "a quiet guy," but said he has gotten things done for his constituents.

"I said when I ran in 2012, 'Don't expect me to go and be a party-line guy.' And I've done my best to hold up to that commitment," Barber said. "I've taken an independent look at what's right for the country, at what's right for the people I represent and have voted my conscience."

He ripped McSally as a phony trying to downplay conservative "tea party" positions she took in her 2012 campaign. McSally does not believe in "a woman's right to be able to make her own health-care decisions" or in marriage equality and in the past expressed support for a controversial House Republican budget plan, Barber said.

"We've seen a real metamorphosis ... in my opponent," Barber said. "In 2012, she was a straight-line party and straight-line, quite frankly, tea party. ... And now, ... weeks before an election, all of a sudden she wants to appear moderate and independent?

"I don't think voters of Southern Arizona are going to be fooled, because I think they know what's going on. These are positioning for an election, not true beliefs."

'I'm not an extremist'

McSally countered by saying Barber and his campaign are trying to create fear "by trying to paint me as someone who is an extremist" instead of running on his record.

She acknowledged, "as a novice candidate," expressing a preference for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's spending plan, but stressed that she does not support elements such as turning Medicare into a voucher system, privatizing Social Security or cutting Pell Grants for college students. There has been no metamorphosis, she said.

"I'm not an extremist — I've actually been fighting extremism my whole life," McSally said. "It's very frustrating to see that he is just repeating these attacks."

McSally said she does support women's rights to make their own health-care decisions, which is why she opposes Obama's signature 2010 Affordable Health Care Act. On abortion rights, she described herself as "pro-life" except in instances of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger, and does not support "using taxpayers' money in order to pay for abortions."

Anti-McSally ad pulled

McSally stressed that, because she was in the military, she wasn't politically active. But while in the Air Force, she fought the Pentagon brass to overturn a policy that forced U.S. servicewomen in Saudi Arabia to wear Muslim abayas and headscarves, an episode that she said demonstrates her "moral courage" and backbone.

She said she continues to back the fundamental tenets of the Republican Party, such as personal freedom, limited government and equal opportunity, but has "great frustrations with my party right now."

One major disappointment in the GOP, McSally said, is on Obama's health-care reform law. Republicans talk about repealing it but have little to show in the way of a "replacement option that would actually address the complexities of the rising cost of health care to help bring it down and make it affordable, available in a way that's not a one-size-fits-all."

"I support equal pay for equal work, which is something that most people in our party do not," she added. "I don't support shutting the government."

McSally also pushed back against a TV ad aired by Giffords' Americans for Responsible Solutions. The spot featured a woman whose husband and daughter had been murdered by a stalker. It accused McSally of opposing making it harder for stalkers to obtain firearms, a charge she denied. Americans for Responsible Solutions pulled the ad off the air, saying it was satisfied McSally had changed her position. McSally maintained she had never articulated her position.

Her campaign called on Barber to say the commercial was inappropriate. "But you didn't do it. You stayed silent," McSally told Barber at The Republic meeting.

Common priorities

Barber and McSally are aligned on some of the 2nd District's priorities, such as protecting local military installations such as Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and preserving the Air Force's A-10 Thunderbolt II, whose pilots train at Davis-Monthan.

On border security and immigration reform, differences emerge even though both candidates focus on border security. Barber supports the Senate-passed 2013 bipartisan immigration-reform package, which the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would not take up. The legislation attempted to balance an unprecedented surge in border-security spending with reforms such as a 13-year pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants who are already in the country.

"It's a reasonable way to get the job done," Barber said. "Unfortunately, my opponent has said that that bill is the 'Obamacare' of immigration. Couldn't be more wrong."

Barber also noted that he has a good rapport with ranchers in his district. "The people I represent should be safe in their homes," he said.

McSally said she wants to secure the border and acknowledged the need to modernize and revamp the legal immigration system, suggesting the United States will need immigrant workers as the Baby Boomer generation retires.

"The reason why I called that (Senate legislation) the 'Obamacare' of immigration reform is because it was a massive bill that tried to do everything all at once," she said. The bill "threw more money at the border issue as opposed to addressing a failed strategy."

Asked for a definition of a secure border, McSally struggled.

"It's a challenging thing to try to measure," she said. "It's one of those things like pornography. You know it when you see it. ... You'll know the border is secure when you can sense, and you get input from the local ranchers, that they feel that their safety is not threatened."

A close race

Most observers who have been following the 2nd district race note that it has been tight for months and predict that it likely will finish that way on Nov. 4.

"It's one of the closest, if not thee closest, in the country," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the Democratic National Committee chairwoman. "Obviously, it took a long time to even determine the outcome (in 2012) and I think this cycle is going to be no exception. Really, it's all going to boil down to one question: voters are going to ask themselves, who has my back?"

Wasserman Schultz believes voters will conclude that person is her House colleague Barber, who she talked up as independent-minded in the Giffords tradition.

"She (Giffords) knows him very well, and now his constituents do," Wasserman Schultz told The Republic during a recent visit to Phoenix. "They've seen the kind of job that he's done. He's fought hard. He's been a leader who's reached across the aisle, just like Gabby did. You don't want someone who is going to just be an automatic vote for the tea party and be in lockstep with them. You want someone who is going to be an independent thinker, like Gabby was."

But Daniel Scarpinato, the NRCC's national press secretary, said the district is ready to make a break from Barber.

"No one fits this district better than Martha McSally, and that's why she's keeping this race extremely competitive," he said. "After three years of Ron Barber's failed leadership, Southern Arizonans are ready for a new voice and a fresh start."

Arizona Voters Guide

For more information on candidates and ballot initiatives, visit Azcentral Politics 2014 Voters Guide, at azvotes.azcentral.com.