Senate President Tim Bee’s exploratory efforts in the 8th Congressional District have attracted two Republican bigwigs from southern Arizona.
Auto dealer Jim Click and former National Rifle Association President Sandra Froman have joined the Tim Bee Exploratory Committee as chair and co-chair, respectively, within the last couple of weeks.
This development “sends a signal that there’s a support and momentum towards the exploratory committee,” said Meg Econ, manager of the Bee team.
“Having known Sandy for over a decade, I am extremely fortunate to have a leader of her stature join my team,” Bee said in a statement. “I know from my years in the Legislature and just from visiting with voters in CD-8 that issues relating to the Second Amendment are extremely important to folks in this part of the state.”
Froman, a prominent Harvard-educated lawyer, is the second woman to serve as president of the NRA in the organization’s 136-year history.
“Tim represents the best of southern Arizona and I am going to do all I can to help him as he explores a possible run to serve the people of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District,” Froman said.
“He knows southern Arizona and he knows District 8,” Click said earlier. “We need someone like Tim Bee who knows how to work with people and accomplish big things.”
Click pushes fund-raising
Last month, Click, noting that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had raised just under $1 million during the first six months of the year, urged supporters to donate to Bee’s exploratory team.
“I know that if Tim Bee has enough money to get his message out that he can take back this district for the Republican Party,” Click said.
Econ said the exploratory efforts, including fund-raising, are “going very well.”
“We are getting very positive support from a lot of people across the district,” she said, adding that Bee has been meeting with folks and reaching out, listening to their concerns.
The Tucson-based state senator is spending between 12 and 14 hours a day exploring, and doing his official duties, which Econ emphasized come first.
“He wears me out. He is the hardest working public official I have ever known,” she said. “He gives it his all. For him, this is normal. This is what you do. You wake up in the morning, you get to work and you work until you go to sleep at night.”
Democrats sure Bee will run
But for Democrats, the explicit support Bee is getting from major fund-raisers like Click, and the fact that no other Republican appears to be seriously considering challenging Giffords, not to mention his fund-raising activities, all indicate he is the GOP’s man in the 2008 race.
“In all of the other potentially competitive congressional seats in the 2008 cycle, you have a whole slate of Republican candidates vying to get those nominations,” said Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily Bittner. “In CD-8, you have one person, and that’s Tim Bee.”
If he later decides not to run, that leaves Republicans “completely empty-handed,” she said.
“At this point, it strains credulity to think that Tim Bee is still undecided about this race,” said Bittner. “He’s doing exactly what a declared candidate would be doing right now — raising money, lining up supporters, traveling through the district — except that he’s pretending that he hasn’t decided yet. At a certain point, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, you have to say it’s a duck.”