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The race, which has been under way since April, is between Republican nominee Jesse Kelly, a former Marine who ran against Giffords in 2010, and Ron Barber, Giffords’ former district director. Barber himself was injured in the shooting outside the Safeway grocery store on Jan. 8, 2011. He was shot in the leg and the cheek. Giffords has not been very present in Barber’s campaign. She was featured on a mailer paid for by the Democratic Party of Arizona, and she will be campaigning for the candidate this weekend. However, regardless of Giffords level of involvement, the race was never...

— Updated at 12:46 pm ET with a statement from Jesse Kelly's campaign. See end of post. — A PAC supporting Jesse Kelly, a former Marine running to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a special election on Tuesday, is using an image Kelly's campaign has avoided thus far — the candidate holding a gun. Kelly, a Republican, ran against Giffords, a Democrat, in 2010. Giffords resigned in January, just over a year after a shooting spree left six dead and the congresswoman critically wounded. Kelly's opponent this time is former Giffords aide Ron Barber, who was shot twice during the...

When it comes to President Barack Obama and the special House election to succeed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, there’s the personal and then there’s the political. The personal: Days after bullets pierced his thigh and cheek in the shooting rampage last year that nearly took Giffords’s life, Ron Barber was paid a special bedside visit by the president and first lady Michelle Obama. But as Barber seeks the seat of his onetime boss in a June 12 special election, the Democrat is loath to mention Obama’s name let alone tout any bond they formed in the dark days after the shooting...

Arizona special election candidate Ron Barber, who talked around a debate question about who he's supporting in the presidential race, released a statement clarifying that he's an Obama guy. Here's the statement from spokeswoman Jessica Schultz: Ron’s point last night was that the election on June 12 isn't about president Obama, or any other national figure--it's about who is going to do the best job fighting for middle class families in southern Arizona. While Ron does not agree with the President on everything, of course Ron has supported and will support President Obama in the election. His primary focus as...

Voters in southern Arizona's 8th Congressional District on Tuesday night chose Republican Jesse Kelly to face former Gabrielle Giffords aide Ron Barber in a special election to replace the wounded ex-congresswoman.........

If we are to gauge the level of respect and honor in our civil society, we need only look to those we - or our elected representatives - consider deserving of special hero worship. Some of these high honors include the flying of Old Glory at half-staff, the honor of having Naval vessels named for an individual, or perhaps being the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Considering several events of late, I can not help but think that the standards that our society deems iconic have hit some unacceptable lows. Three examples of late have had me shaking...

Retired Rear Admiral George Worthington, former commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, told The Daily Caller that there are many people more worthy of a ship bearing their name. “Here is the issue. There are a lot of dead Marines out there whose names could go on anything that appears to be an amphibious ship,” he said, explaining that a past recipient of the Medal of Honor, Dakota Meyer, might be a good candidate. Worthington added his email “inbox” has been filled with messages from military friends who are “shocked and angered” by the decision. “We think fallen Marines...

The Secretary of the Navy announced on Friday that a new littoral combat ship will be named after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The announcement comes the same day that President Obama signed the last piece of legislation sponsored by Giffords, a bill aimed at reducing drug trafficking along the American borders with Canada and Mexico. Giffords, who recently stepped down from office, was the target of a shooting rampage in early January 2011. “The name this ship bears and the story represented by that name will inspire all those who come in contact with her,” said Navy Secretary Ray...

Ron Barber, an aide to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), will run for the House seat she just left. Barber, 66, was Giffords’ district director until she retired last month. He was shot twice, once in the face and once in the leg, in the massacre that left six dead and nearly killed his boss. “Our community needs someone who will put politics aside and solve problems for the people of Southern Arizona,” he said in a statement. “My commitment is to be honest with the people of this district and help restore civility to our public life.” The special...

President Obama is eyeing Arizona as one of the few Republican states he might flip in November, but to do that he might need the help of its brightest star: former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D). Whether Giffords will lend her considerable clout to the president’s reelection campaign remains an open — and exceedingly delicate — question.

All we need to know to know that tax reform will be a prominent part of the president’s speech tonight is that Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, will be in a box with the First Lady. Bosanek says she couldn’t sleep last night because she’s so excited — even though she knows she’ll have to wake up in time for a dawn flight tomorrow morning to be sure to report to work on time. Bosanek isn’t the only interesting guest on the list, though. The First Lady has also extended invitations to: Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs; outgoing Rep. Gabby Giffords’...

IT TOOK A MATTER of seconds during a gathering with constituents at a Tucson shopping center for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s (D-Ariz.) life to be profoundly transformed. Ms. Giffords was one of 19 people wounded or killed there last year, allegedly by a deranged young man who inflicted unspeakable damage with the help of a semi-automatic weapon and an extended magazine clip. The bullet that pierced Ms. Giffords’s head left her clinging to life; hers has been a remarkable rehabilitation over the past 12 months, during which she has learned to walk and speak again. * Ms. Giffords did not refer...

WASHINGTON -- Brady Campaign Acting President Dennis Henigan today issued the following statement in response to U. S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ announcement that she would resign her seat in Congress this week. "We understand but are deeply saddened by the news that Rep. Giffords has decided to resign her seat in Congress because of the demands of her continued rehabilitation from the gunshot wound she suffered a year ago in Tucson. Congress and the American people now have lost the service of another devoted public servant because of gun violence. It is sadly reminiscent of the nation's loss of Jim...

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will step down from Congress this week to focus on her recovery, her staff announced Sunday. "I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week," Giffords said in a video message. Giffords, a third-generation Arizonan who served five years in the state Legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2006, will not seek re-election this fall. Giffords vowed to return public service. "I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country," she...

Once again Liberal Democrats are trying to blame some of the violence that is going on in our nation on the Tea Party movement. Democrat Party Chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is the latest example. She “has refreshed the false and disgraceful meme that the Tea Party is at fault for the tragic Tucson shooting in 2011 that resulted in the death of six people,” The Washington Times reports. When Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said “Let’s take these son-of-a-bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” a reference to the Tea Party, she didn’t offer one word of protest....

Politics: The DNC's chairwoman, a champion of Occupy Wall Street, once again associates the tragedy in Tucson with an end to civil discourse caused by the grass-roots Tea Party movement. Has she no shame? There she goes again. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla, head of the Democratic National Committee and the "Debbie Downer" of American politics, has repeated the canard that somehow the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., a year ago at a Tucson event is somehow linked to hatred spawned by the Tea Party. "We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of...

Tea Party and Republican leaders are blasting the Democratic Party chief after she invoked the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords while scolding the Tea Party for its "lack of civility."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., speaking in New Hampshire this morning, reminded her audience of the tragic Tucson shooting last year -- and also insinuated that the Tea Party, which she said regards political opponents as "the enemy," has enhanced divisiveness in Congress and had something to do with the shooting, at least indirectly. "We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords -- who is doing really well, by the way, -- [was shot]," Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee...

An elderly, former Marine who lost his wife of 54 years in the Tucson mass shootings expressed his anger at fellow victim and Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords. George Morris, 77, was shot in the leg and back in the attack just over a year ago as he tried to protect his wife from the gunman. Dorothy Morris, 76, was killed after the couple had gone to the Safeway supermarket to quiz Ms Giffords' political opinions. Mr Morris, who describes himself as 'ultra-conservative', even refused a visit from President Obama while he recovered in hospital following the shootings in Arizona. The couple...

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head last Jan. 8, but the White House is downplaying the likelihood of any White House campaign-trail effort to restrict gun ownership. “I don’t have anything new for you,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday when asked about the anniversary. “It’s a solemn occasion. … It’s a remarkable recovery that Congresswoman Giffords has made, but we can never forget the lives lost on that day,” he added. President Barack Obama’s poll ratings are low, especially in swing-states, and he’s shown no willingness to publicly challenge or antagonize gun-owners or other critical...