Giffords’ Successor Holds First ‘Congress on Your Corner’
6/23/2012
Jonathan Gibby/Getty Images(TUSCON, Ariz.) -- Just days after being sworn in as Gabrielle Giffords’ successor, Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), is carrying on his old boss’ tradition by holding his first “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Tucson grocery store.
Barber plans to meet with his constituents at a Safeway this afternoon, although a different location from where a gunman killed six people at Giffords’ January 2011 event. In total, 13 people were wounded, including Giffords and Barber, who had worked as her aide.
“This event is the first of many I will hold so that I can be accessible to all of my constituents throughout Southern Arizona,” Barber said in a statement. “I will not become isolated in Washington. My work at the Capitol will be influenced by what I hear and learn here in Arizona.”
The event is scheduled to last an hour and a half.
Barber, who was shot in the face and leg, was sworn in Tuesday after a special election was held to fill the remainder of Giffords’ term. The newest congressman said he plans to run again in November.
Before she resigned on January 25, one of Giffords’ final acts was to finish the “Congress on Your Corner” event that had been interrupted by gunfire one year earlier.
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