Posted on 01/13/2015 1:20:22 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
C.J. Karamargin isn’t the first congressional staffer to cross the partisan aisle, but some Democrats are shocked this former staffer to Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is working for the new Republican congresswoman in Arizona’s 2nd District.
On Jan. 9, in a hiring coup, freshman GOP Rep. Martha E. McSally announced Karamargin as her new district director. Karamargin was communications director for Giffords at the time of the Tucson shootings before handling media relations for Pima Community College. The timing of the hiring — just one day after the four-year anniversary of the Tucson tragedy — also gnawed at still-raw wounds among Giffords’ allies.
“Yeah, that’s pretty poor timing,” said a Democratic source who hadn’t heard about the hiring until contacted by The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report/Roll Call. “It’s sad. But I’m bitter, I know.”
On Jan. 8, 2011, Jared Loughner shot and killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Giffords and then-aide Ron Barber, at a constituent event in a grocery store parking lot.
“We are like family, and this was uncharted territory,” Karamargin told The Washington Post six weeks after the shooting.
Giffords subsequently resigned from Congress, and Barber won the special election to replace her. After narrowly losing to Barber in 2012, McSally defeated the congressman by 167 votes in November.
Giffords’ political action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions, was active in the race for Barber and against McSally. Karamargin is a former journalist with the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star.
“I do know that yesterday he didn’t let anyone know that he was applying in McSally’s office,” a second Democrat said on Jan. 9. Karamargin attended some of the memorial events on Jan. 8, according to the source, but was conspicuously absent from the private dinner hosted by Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.
More than 50 people attended the event including survivors, first responders and virtually all of her former staff, except for a few who live out of state. Attendees also included former Giffords scheduler Pam Harrington, who served on McSally’s transition team, and Shay Saucedo, who now works for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“The residents of Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District have entrusted Congresswoman McSally with a tremendous responsibility — to be their voice and their advocate in Washington,” Karamargin said in the release. “It is humbling that she has entrusted me with the responsibility to serve as her District Director. I consider it a great privilege to be able to help the congresswoman make a positive difference in the lives of the people who sent her to Washington.”
Karamargin told The Arizona Republic he would not comment further. He did not return an email request for comment from CQ Roll Call.
“I’m not surprised she would try,” the second Democrat said about McSally, who read the names of the shooting victims from the House floor on Jan. 8. “But I’m surprised anyone would join [McSally’s] operation, yes.”
My question is why would a freshman congressman hire a democrat operative?
Perhaps she was sickened by post shooting dogmatism of Ms. Giffords and her husband, just like most of us.
I’m not in Arizona but will note that Karamargin had moved on to being Pima Community College’s Vice Chancellor for Communication 7 months after Jared Lee Loughner shot and wounded Gifford (6 killed, wounded 13).
A story at the Huffington Post (fwiw) quotes an anonymous friend of Giffords as saying that McSally is working to appear moderate (but they’re not buying it).
My question also. I wouldn’t hire a former Democrat politico to scrub my toilets.
I am aware Reagan was a Democrat. His conversion was years in the making and a result of a party departing with his ideals and conscience. I don’t see how any of that would apply in this case. The freshman is being lazy and trying to get a leg up on the inner workings of the system, I’d expect. He should find someone not tainted by Democrat scourge, learn, and follow conservative ideals - not “how things work” as they are.
They seem to be generic and interchangeable. All they have to do is change their hat.
That Republican judge wasca devout Catholic known as a judge of integrity. He was pro-life in contrast to Giffords.
A good HOR rep needs a staff that deals with the needs of constituents competently. I don’t have any problem with a rep choosing staff that is experienced and qualified at that.
The GOPe think stunts like this will get them votes from the Left. That’s who they want as their base.
Strange story. The dems seem awfully touchy about a fairly ordinary party switch. And to fuss about the timing ... sheesh. The world does not revolve around Gabby Giffords.
My thoughts exactly. Why would McSally risk having this new hire become a leak directly into the Rat cloakroom?
It sounds like she hiring him to do primarily constituent work, I imagine most of that stuff is non-partisan and non-ideological. He would be familiar with much of the issues that their constituents would have.
My congressman is an idiot, but I’ve called his office several times and been very impressed with the people he has working for him.
I never really had a problem I needed help with, so I can’t judge on that. But he does keep getting re-elected so my guess is his office is pretty good with that stuff.
What else is they good at? Carrying info back to their old (real) party?
Lazy? Perhaps.
Smart? Definitely. Better to have someone who knows the lay of the land in your office than sitting back at home.
I sure as heck wouldn’t trust this person. Not ever.
Damned good question!
Depends on how high up the strategy chain the operative is. When my district's House seat flipped D to R in the '94 Gingrich takeover (and has never looked back), the new Congressman hired some of the Dem committee staff for day-to-day functions, one of whom was a former student of mine. She was glad for the job, he was glad to tap into her insider knowledge, and she had enough integrity (well, she had taken my Ethics class :> ) not to undermine his efforts, until she could get a job more to her ideological bent. Incidentally, she ended up marrying a back-home lawyer, and is still on the wrong side of the aisle, in spite of some efforts to the contrary.
McSally came to DC and voted for Boehner.
Now she hires a Dem operative.
Two strikes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.