Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was in a tight race to maintain her seat as Arizona’s 8th District Representative, has defeated her Republican opponent Jesse Kelly by winning 48.6% to Kelly’s 47.6% with 100% of the vote counted. As Chairwoman of the House Science & Technology Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee, Rep. Giffords has been a leader in the fight to put the brakes on the Obama Administration’s proposal to outsource our nation’s human space flight program. While Rep. Giffords will no longer be the Subcommittee Chairwoman in the next Congress, the title of Chairman likely going to Rep. Pete Olson, as Ranking Member she will continue to play a critical role in ensuring that the national human space flight program is put back on track after the distractions of the last eight months.
Rep Giffords also went along with the administration on every spending bill they pushed through. She also voted for the Obamacare bill. Seems like she also spends most of her non Washington time in her Houston home instead of Arizona.
No, Rep. Giffords did not go “along with the [A]dministration on every spending bill they pushed through”. Most notably, she was a strong and consistent opponent of the President’s desire to defund our national human space flight program, the proceeds of which the President wanted to give to commercial space entities who, unlike Scaled Composites, seemingly cannot function without billions in gov’t subsidies.
As you can guess from our sites name, we report about space and aerospace–period. And in space, Rep. Giffords has been a strong supporter of our nation’s human space flight program. As to her other votes in other areas, that is beyond the scope of this site.
Rep. Giffords might be in Houston quite a bit when she’s away from Washington because her husband, Astronaut Mark Kelly and commander of STS-134. Surely you don’t begrudge her being with her husband?
Giffords is a waste, and a puppet of Obama and Pelosi! Thankfully, she will now just be an ineffective waste!
Rep. Giffords stood-up to the Administration and its folks as they tried to end our nation’s human space flight program. Many in the Administration considered her an easy roll, but they’ll be the ones spending more time with their families.
Giffords’ inquiry into how the Aerospace Corporation generated data on future costs of commercial crewed launchers on behalf of the Augustine Committee was one of the first holes in the dike that showed the Augustine Committee’s conclusions were biased by GIGO. And since the Administration’s justification for outsourcing our nation’s space program was based in large part on the Augustine Committee findings, Rep. Giffords was one of the first to bring down the Administration’s proposal.
A puppet? Not sure for whom, but Rep. Giffords certainly wasn’t for the Administration. Maybe…just maybe Rep. Giffords was voting her conscience?
I begrudge her not living in the district she has been elected to represent. I know all about her husband and gee maybe that is why she is supportive of NASA???
Obviously, a large number of her constituents believe she has represented her district well, despite being away. At least, enough so to be re-elected.
When was the last time you wrote Representative Giffords to express your desire that she spend more time in Arizona’s 8th District, where I assume you live? What did she say in response?
Could it not also be the case that perhaps her support for NASA predates her marriage to Kelly?
We got it Jim….you love Gabby.
Absolutely! Without her early and strong opposition to Obama’s human space flight disaster, we, the nation, might be looking at a decade or more to get back into low-earth, never mind beyond-earth, orbit.
Apparently, preserving our nation’s human space flight program isn’t that important to you. But to many, it is part of what makes America the great nation she is.
Jim,
I was an engineer on the ISS long before this blog was around and have many friends in the MSFP. Currently moved from AZ to work at Goddard for the Sciences and Exploration Directorate so don’t start that “I care more” stuff. I happen to care about the overall safety of my country and it’s Constitution which I have seen trampled on by the people in DC. I still own a home in the Tucson area and if I had stayed would have voted for Jesse Kelly, a combat veteran.
I complement you on being an engineer on ISS and your past work on human space flight. By your own account, for you, the Constitution is more important, more of a focus, than space. I’m not saying that is bad.
For the purposes of this site, America’s human space flight program and its aerospace pre-eminence is number one. From what we know, Kelly was not particularly pro-space and would have come in with none of the seniority that Giffords has earned. To this site, that would be doubly bad.
Did you know the NRA regularly endorses Dems as well as GOP candidates, adhering to what it calls “an incumbent-friendly” policy, which holds that if two candidates are equally supportive of gun rights, the incumbent gets the nod. Frankly, that makes a lot sense to us.
AmericaSpace is about space and aerospace alone, not about other issues, especially those so far from our scope, as Constitutional law certainly is.
If you want to know the personal views of anyone here, you’ll have to approach them about that on the side.