Garret's district has a considerably more GOP lean than AZ-8, and he ran against a flawed Dem opponent.
Is it ? I thought both these seats were only a point or two difference in GOP performances (at least at the Presidential level). I don't have the '06 Almanac of American Politics to confirm that for '04, however, so I looked at the '00 statistics as applied to the '02 redistricted lines.
In any event, unless the seat had a more Dem lean to it, one might say that running a more liberal Republican would be prudent, but the district simply isn't. I tend to think pro-Republican districts that have RINOs such as Kolbe place us often at greater jeopardy for losing the seat, as many GOP Conservative base voters won't bother with them, and there's a lot more of those than RINO voters.