Andrea Kelly

Arizona Daily Star

November 5th, 2010

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will continue to represent Southern Arizona in Congress after new voter totals showed her lead over Republican Jesse Kelly continuing to hold.

After the Pima County elections office released the results of some 14,000 early ballots, Giffords expanded her earlier 3,000-vote lead to more than 3,800 votes.

The remaining early ballots in Cochise County split nearly equally between the two candidates.
Surrounded by about 50 enthusiastic supporters at her campaign office, a visibly relieved and excited Giffords declared victory about 90 minutes after the results posted.

While complimenting Kelly’s supporters on their passion and patriotism, Giffords thanked her own volunteers, and attributed her success to Democrats, Republicans and independents pulling together. She said that’s going to be increasingly important with the immense challenges continuing to face the district and the country.

“I’m not elated to be in the minority,” she said in a reference to Republicans taking control of the House, “but my job isn’t to be in the majority. It’s to do the work and I’m looking foward to doing that starting next week.”

She pledged to continue to work on securing the border, strengthening Social Security and public education, and helping Arizona tap into emerging jobs in new technologies.

Kelly could not be reached for comment but released a statement. “I would like to thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, my wife Aubrey, who has been by my side this entire time, my family, for their unwavering support, and the thousands of warriors who fought with me in this campaign,” he said.

“While we fell short here in District 8, Tuesday was a resounding victory for America,” he said, saying he is proud of the campaign he waged. “We are blessed by God to live in a nation where we get the government we deserve and the government that we chose. The voters of Southern Arizona have spoken and I respect their decision.”

There will be no more ballots counted until Monday, said Elections Director Brad Nelson.

He estimated there are roughly 3,000 early ballots left to count, along with potentially 13,000 provisional ballots, which are those that need verification of identification or registration. With provisionals trickling in over the weekend — the recorder’s office turned over about 600 Friday night — Nelson said he’ll wait to run a larger batch.