Barber's win tilts AZ delegation to Dems

By Dan Nowicki and John D'Anna 

 The Republic | azcentral.com 

Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:03 AM

Ron Barber, the Congressional aide who was shot alongside U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and then won her seat in a special election earlier this year, has won the right to represent her district for a full term after a hard-fought race against former Air Force combat pilot Martha McSally.

“I’m really proud and honored that I’ve been given another opportunity to serve,” Barber told the Associated Press on Saturday. “I never expected to be in Congress. When I won the special election I was thrilled about that and now I have two years to get some work done, and I really understand what the issues are nationally and locally and I’m going to be working hard on those.”

Barber said McSally called and congratulated him at midmorning, and conceded the race.

McSally planned a Saturday afternoon press conference in Tucson. Her campaign manager could not be immediately reached Saturday morning.

The race for the 2nd Congressional District had been too close to call for 10 days, but on Friday an Arizona Republic analysis determined that McSally would not be able to muster enough votes from the remaining uncounted ballots to surpass the thin lead Barber had held in recent days.

Most of the remaining provisional ballots in the Southern Arizona district are from heavily Democratic precincts in Pima County, which have trended toward Barber throughout the election.

The race is the last to be decided in Arizona and tilts the state’s delegation to the Democrats for only the second time in 45 years.