“She really was one of those unique congresspersons who had a lot of crossover appeal and could work across the aisle with a lot of different Republicans and there really aren’t that many in Congress like that,” Rogers tells The Range. “We’re just so partisan and so divided that there are very few, rare individual who can do that.”

Rogers hopes that Giffords will return to public service.

“All of us hope and pray that after an extended recovery period, she’ll be back,” Rogers says. “Before the shooting, my only question was: Is she running for Senate or is she running for governor?”

As The Range reported earlier, Giffords’ resignation sets off a political dash to replace her in Congress. A special partisan primary election will be in April and a special general election will be in June.

At the same time, candidates will be preparing to run in an August partisan primary for the new Congressional District 2 (which covers much of the same ground), with the winners advancing to a November general.

Rogers anticipates that there will be “a good half-dozen people who will probably consider” a run in the upcoming special election.