Rep. Gabby Giffords’s (D-AZ) husband gave both sides something to be happy with in his first response to the special election that saw former Giffords aide Ron Barber defeat Repbulican Jesse Kelly. Marin Cogan caught up with Giffords’ husband Mark Kelly and got this response to the special election:
[H]e rejected the idea that there was a larger meaning—either about the down-ticket drag on Obama if Barber lost, or the goodwill voters have towards his wife if Barber won—to be taken from the race.
“I don’t think there are any valuable lessons. I don’t know how any of that translates into votes for Ron. I think the selection is a clear and distinct choice between two candidates who are very different. Whichever way it goes it doesn’t say anything about the national mood. And don’t think anybody outside Arizona can infer anything from it,” he said.
National Democrats say that the race was about Kelly and his conservative views on entitlements. They’ve suggested the messaging they used against Kelly in the run-up to Tuesday’s election foreshadows the campaign rhetoric they’ll be using against Republicans in the fall. When Kelly says the election was “a clear and distinct choice” between Kelly and Barber, he’s speaking the Democrats’ language. But when he says “[I] don’t think anybody outside Arizona can infer anything from it, he’s hinting at the Republican take on the race which is that it was more about voter sentiment toward Giffords than anything else.
