- Jim Nintzel
- Ron Barber’s priority: Catching up on family time with his wife, Nancy.
Sitting in his home a few hours after a Maricopa County judge declared the results of a recount that determined he wouldn’t be returning to Congress next year, Ron Barber reflected on his two-plus years representing Southern Arizona.
“I want to make sure that the people of Southern Arizona know how grateful I am for the trust they put in me to serve them,” Barber said. “It has been an absolute joy and incredible honor to serve this community.”
Barber, whose loss to Republican Martha McSally by 167 votes was made official yesterday following a recount mandated by the state because the race was so close, ran through some of his accomplishments: Protecting the A-10 combat jet from cuts that the Air Force and Obama administration tried to push through. Finding funding for mental-health first aid programs that help people intervene before tragedy occurs. Turning a showdown between the EPA and a Cochise County power plant into a “win-win” for both sides. “We ended up with a better environmental outcome and were able to save 250-plus good jobs,” Barber said.
He wishes he could have done more, but the current Washington gridlock stood in the way. Still, as part of a group of congressman who worked together on bipartisan issues, he said Congress often gets a bum rap.
“There’s a lot of cynicism about Congress, but I think that if people actually saw what some of us were trying to do and did do, they would realize that it’s not universal,” Barber said. “Dysfunction in Congress boils down to a relatively small number of people who are essentially holding Speaker Boehner hostage because of their ideology. But there are a lot of good people.”
Barber raised more than $3 million for the 2014 campaign, but he said the expense of his race—more than $13 million between him, McSally and the outside groups—was a “sad and disappointing development in our democracy. … It should never be that expensive to run for Congress.”
In the case of some outside groups, “we don’t even get to know who’s spending it,” he added. “The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court is a huge backwards step for democracy.”
Barber, 69, was always an unlikely congressman. He had dedicated himself to public service for his entire career, but was more of a behind-the-scenes guy. He worked in the state agency tasked with helping the developmentally disabled for more than three decades before stepping down to help Gabrielle Giffords run for Congress in 2006 and, later, became her district director, frequent companion and close friend.
Barber isn’t flashy. He’s not the kind of guy you’d expect to see raising millions of dollars from campaign contributors. He had even promised his wife, Nancy, that he wouldn’t ever run for public office.
“Mmm-hmm,” Nancy confirmed with a note of mock impatience while sitting in on an interview in the couple’s modest midtown home. “Several times.”
“And I was true to my word, until Jan. 8 came along, and it changed everything for a lot of us,” Barber added.
In the wake of the mass shooting that killed six and wounded 13, including Giffords and Barber, he found himself running to finish out Giffords’ term and serve another full one of his own. But in a year that saw a GOP wave wash over Democrats across the nation, Barber was one of many casualties, albeit by the narrowest of margins.
McSally was gracious to Barber in her prepared statement after the recount results were announced on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
“I sincerely thank Congressman Barber for his service over many years to Southern Arizona,” McSally said. “I’ll be seeking his input to continue strong constituent services and help ensure a smooth transition.”
Barber said he had spoke to McSally earlier in the day and shared her concern that the office’s service to constituents continued smoothly through the transition. “From our conversation,” his said, “I believe she agrees that comes first.”
His advice to McSally: “Listen to what the voters—those who didn’t vote for you as well as those who did—want you to do, because that’s the only reason we’re there.”
There are things he’ll miss: Friends he made in D.C. His hardworking staff: “A guy couldn’t ask for a better people.” The ability to help people, whether it aid in navigating the new health-insurance exchange or tracking down medals for aging veterans.
“Being able to award a medal to some of these folks who served in World War II—I’ll remember a lot of them, but one in particular I’ll never forget: One of the few remaining living survivors of the Bataan Death March,” Barber said. He was in his early 90s and we were able to pin a whole bunch of medals on this gentleman and he was able to regale us with a lot of stories from that era. It was very moving to see this guy who not only survived the war but survived one of the worst episodes of the war. To be able to say ‘Thank you’ to him was particularly poignant to me.”
There are also things he won’t miss, particularly the long flights back home every weekend. He said it was necessary to get back to Southern Arizona: “You have to keep in touch with the community.”
Barber expects to stay engaged in the community, although his top priority right now is spending time with his family over the holiday. He’d spent the morning that his fate was officially decided at visiting at one his grandkids’ schools.
“The first thing I’m going to do is spend a lot of time with Nancy, my grandkids, my daughters,” Barber said. “We’ve got lots of holiday traditions that we’d like to enjoy together.”
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2014.
Jim Nintzel makes the same mistakes most graduates of our dumbed-down schools produce. Look Jim, if you use a dollar sign in front of some numbers, you do NOT put the word “dollars” after the numbers. To do so is redundant If you do not use the dollar sign ($), then use the word. You don’t use them both in the same sentence. Got it? Write it down and post it next to your computer screen. Otherwise, you will be demoted to being the Chief Administrative Leader Boss Jefe of the Department of Repetitious Redundancy Department.
Thank you for your astute and brave (… you’ll catch hell – like I often do – as a smartass, know-it-all, etc, etc, etc). willingness to stand as a Thesaurus-waving warrior for literacy and avowed enemy of the idiocy being doled out for around $20,000 a year in a state-sponsored school.
You can also gauge the embarrassing level of ignorance (are teachers just ignoring it or are students to dumb to understand grade-school concepts???) and lack of grammatical rules being passed off as “educated” by listening to how come/go, bring/take are thoroughly abused and apparently assumed now to be interchangeable.
WHEN YOU PROMOTE YOURSELF AS A “PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST” YET DEMONSTRATE, AT BEST A MEDIOCRE MIDDLE-SCHOOL COMMAND OF YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE, YOU HAVE LOST ALL CREDIBILITY AS A WRITER AND GIVE ME A MERE, LOWLY, RETIRED DISABLED NON-COMMISSIONED ARMY OFFICER, COMBAT MEDIC NOT SMART ENOUGH – OR WILLING – TO DUCK (THREE TIMES) WITH BUT ONE PUBLIC COLLEGE BACHELOR’S AND ONE STATE-SPONSORED (NAU) MASTER’S THE RIGHT TO CRITICIZE, “SHARPSHOOT,” CORRECT, EVEN RIDICULE YOUR NASCENT, EMBRYONIC WRITING SKILLS!
Now for those who did not get the message – – – this “writer” lost the right to be assessed on reporting factual material as understood at the moment. The primary, over-riding, and, frightening reality is, if they cannot communicate above a sixth grade (sorry kids, had to fit him in somewhere) level with the editing, formatting, writing tools and applications available, to what degree am I supposed to fantasize accurate, informed, probing, and INTELLIGENT skills were remarkably present then and “poof” disappear.
SargeDude
Should not that have been P-20,000 ruble?
Sorry Rat – thought the US Dollar sign gave it away. I’ll try to be more specific and detailed next post.
I don’t know what all this other jive is with the above posters. I would like to say that I consider myself a right wing Republican, but I have a great deal of admiration for Mr. Barber. He is an honorable man and I agreed with him on a few issues during his short tenure. I wish him and his wife the best and Via con Dios! I also am of the opinion that we might have made a mistake putting the Col. in there. Having said that, Feliz Navidad!
(It is, btw, called tautology.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wish Mr. Barber the best. First, he took a bullet and then, without planning it, carried on conscientiously for Rep. Giffords and demonstrated soft-spoken professionalism, decency and distinction. Rep. McSally also seems quite decent, and I look forward to watching her at work. If she blindly follows the Hastert Rule and refuses to ever vote, we will have all lost a real legislator.
Thank you, John Brown, for pointing out the typo. I fixed it.
Sarge, I appreciate your feedback as well, although I’m not entirely convinced you should be lecturing anyone on clarity in writing.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Sorry sarge but it was a reference to yesterday’s collapse of the ruble to the dollar. Something got lost in the translation.
It’s too bad the decency displayed in the exchange between McSally and Barber AFTER the election results were formalized, were not part of the campaign process. Somehow this asymmetrical display of dignity seems hollow and false to me, even though I am confident these are two genuine, good and decent people. Politics is corrupt in what is touted to be the best country in the universe.
I respect the comments of avowed right wing Republican mrbigshotno1 even if we would most likely disagree on most, if not all political and social topics. I was unhappy with Barber’s voting record, but he replaced a moderate, and is himself a moderate. He was gerrymandered into my district and I wasn’t happy about that, but he’s done something that most of us have only read about. He was the victim of a mad gunman, he survived, and seems to have his emotional faculties in tact. I respect and admire him, as well as often disagree with him.
McSally claimed she will work across the aisle, and work against deadlock. As a female freshman Rep. those are lofty and difficult goals, especially with a myopic and ignorant good ole boy majority. We’ll see how she competes. My guess is the brutal campaign ain’t nothin’ compared to the wave of ultra conservatism she’s about to get caught up in. Perhaps she’ll be “right” at home. No need to forgive the pun. Good luck America, we’ll need it.
Don’t be so fast to pass judgement. I had lunch yesterday with an avowed Democrat who is ashamed to say that he believes he is living in the wrong city. And that is based on the Mayor, Council and County Sups.
He and I agreed.
Cordial, of course. McSally will continue Barber’s role sticking up for a bloated military budget, including the two unnecessary military bases in this district and feeding the fears of the militant border defenders in Homeland Security, while allowing them to continue to trash the environment and escape accountability for unnecessary roughness. Will she also suck smoke for the coal-fired power producers in the district? Probably. Plus whatever the Koch Bros ask for next…
Good riddance to the obmanation/pelosi lap dog.
SargeDude needs some grammar lessons. Improper sentence structure, run on sentences, missing punctuation, and even incorrectly capitalized and hyphenated words (Thesaurus-waving?). Sarge gets an “F” for his butchering of the english language.