Election 2008: BEE launches campaign GOP State Senate president challenges Democrat Giffords

TUCSON — State Sen. Tim Bee, surrounded by family and friends, opened his campaign for Congress on Saturday, saying he’d work to cut taxes, get government off the backs of the taxpayers and that he would work with both political parties.

And, on an important Southern Arizona issue, the Republican from Corona de Tucson said amnesty isn’t the answer to illegal immigration, but that “securing our border is.”

More than 100 well-wishers, several from Green Valley, frequently applauded Bee at his press conference at Tucson’s Palo Verde High School. Bee graduated from Palo Verde as valedictorian.

So far, he’s the only announced Republican seeking the seat for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, now held by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords.

Demonstrating his GOP credentials, one of the supporters he introduced was Jim Kolbe who, for more than 20 years, held the congressional seat Bee seeks.

Adding to the festive atmosphere, there were several hand-lettered signs of support in the room, “We Beelieve in You,” “Tim Bee Is #1” and “Mr. Bee’s Going to Washington.”

He said he learned the values that guide him while living in Southern Arizona.

“Everything I have, I owe to this part of the state,” he said.

Bee is the first Southern Arizonan to be Senate president since 1974. State legislative leaders generally come from Republican-rich Phoenix and Maricopa County.

Kolbe, Bee’s honorary election chairman, said in Phoenix the candidate is “willing to work across the aisle, and across the patio,” meaning both parties and both houses of the state Legislature.

Taking note of the current split in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kolbe said, “This election is extraordinarily important” to the country.

Ray Carroll, Pima County supervisor who represents the Green Valley district, in a short interview called Bee “ a model” for unifying and building consensus.

Tucson auto dealer and party faithful Jim Click said, “If you care about your country,” support Bee.

Bee was joined at the front of the room by his wife Grace and their six children, Anneliese, Esther, Victoria, Patricia, Bentley and Sterling, all dressed in their best including the boys, who each wore a tie.

On his ability to reach consensus, Bee told the audience that he can find solutions to the problems the country faces, adding, “I have worked to set the example that we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

He added, “Being a leader is not always easy. Standing for principle in the face of partisan pressure is not always easy.

“But it’s what must be done.”

He also said that terrorists are “at war with America, and we must defend our people, our freedoms and defeat the enemy.”

He said he’d be a tireless campaigner and that he’d travel “every corner of the district, meet with families, seniors, small business, ranchers and veterans to talk about how we can bring about honest change that puts people before politics and solutions before partisanship.”

Bee said he fought for the largest tax cuts in Arizona history, the largest funding increases for Arizona classrooms and children, and worked to get improvements to Interstate 10, that important thoroughfare that runs through much of his district.

He said he wants to help the elderly continue to live at home by expanding in home services.

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