Sierra Vista Herald Editorial Board

October 24, 2010

Substance over style.

That’s the essence of the Giffords-Kelly race.

We have many acquaintances who have embraced Republican challenger Jesse Kelly’s heartfelt, though mostly slogan-focused, campaign.

America’s problems, according to Kelly, can be solved in two ways — by less government and by giving corporations and the super-wealthy as many tax cuts and breaks as possible. And his demeanor suggests that if any of
his constituents don’t fully agree with that premise, they are going to be shown the door.

Democrat Gabrielle Giffords does
not think along the same lines. She has been our Congressional District 8 representative through probably one of the more economically difficult times in this nation’s history.

These times mean hard decisions, and Giffords has shown she can make them. That has made her, at times, unpopular with those who wish things could be solved as easily as Kelly’s broad visions would suggest.

But what are the nitty-gritty details of Kelly’s solutions?

At a recent forum in Sierra Vista, there were plenty of sound bites, but little of substance. What to make of a candidate who equates the serious issue of creating “green jobs” with that of a person who has a job riding a John Deere tractor? Sounds clever, but really shows a shallowness of addressing just one major issue impacting the nation.

Giffords answered the same question by offering thoughts on the need to move toward and nurture solar power and the job opportunities that industry could present not only to District 8, but to all of Arizona.

Kelly exhibited almost no knowledge of our area’s most important issue — the linkage between the San Pedro River and Fort Huachuca. Kelly’s answer to what he would do to help preserve the fort was that it’s a great place, it’s needed, we’re proud of it and I’ll protect it.

Giffords, on the other hand, knows the fort-river linkage. She knows the fort’s missions and described in detail the heavy lifting it requires to keep selling the fort’s mission and importance to our national defense to not only Congress but the Department of Defense, as well.

In listening to most of the answers to the questions at the forum, whether about illegal immigration, education or taxes, that dichotomy was ever-present in their answers — superficial versus informed.

When asked about bipartisanship, Kelly’s answer basically was he’d be interested in crossing the aisle and supporting anyone as long as that person’s position was for smaller government, less federal intervention in our lives — in other words, only if the person agrees with him. In reality, bipartisanship means the ability to compromise. It means working with others, even if there are basic disagreements.

Kelly has skewered Giffords on two of the major votes in this past session -— health care and the bailout of Wall Street. Yet, to have done nothing but let the free market decide would have made the current economy much worse. And to have done nothing on health care means that the problems with the current system would continue to go unaddressed.

Giffords has served the southern part of her district well. Despite Tucson’s much larger population base and therefore much stronger political power, she has been to our area many, many times. She has become involved with and addressed local problems and has been much more visible than her predecessors.

We think Giffords brings grace under fire and measured thinking to the problems facing our district and the nation. Kelly offers slogans and a “me against you” philosophy.

Congressional District 8 voters would be smart to elect Giffords to a deserved third term in the House of Representatives.