Representative Giffords Announces Transistion Team

A fairly important document, which has gotten only pro forma coverage from the traditional media, and a little more coverage in the local Douglas Dispatch, recently landed in my in-box: a press release naming the members of Gabby’s transition team tasked with creating a staff for the new Congresswoman. Their actions and decisions will have tremendous impact on the effectiveness of Gabby’s representation of our district. A weak staff can be the difference between an efficient, responsive office which supports the Representative with timely research and fact-finding and wise counsel and an unprepared, ineffectual Representative surrounded by yes men.

Congresswoman-elect Gabrielle Giffords has announced her Transition
Team, a group of eleven community, business, and government leaders
from across Congressional District 8 who have extensive experience
achieving results through consensus-building, listening, and
collaboration.

"The people of Southern Arizona spoke clearly last Tuesday:
they want leadership that rises above party lines and focuses on
getting the job done for the families of Southern Arizona," said
Congresswoman-elect Giffords.  "I’m pleased to announce our Transition
Team, a group of people who have broad experience in achieving results
for Southern Arizona.  This team will enable my Congressional office to
transition seamlessly into performing the same high quality
constituency services for the people of the Eighth Congressional
District for which Congressman Kolbe was respected."

The Transition Committee will be chaired by Ron Barber, Former
District Program Administrator of the Arizona Department of Economic
Security’s Division of Developmental Disabilities.  Barber also served
as Giffords’ Community Outreach Director during her Congressional
Campaign.

The Transition Committee will also include:

Art Chapa — Former District Director, Rep. Mo Udall; Former Member, Arizona Board of Regents

Judy Gignac — Former Member of the Arizona Board of Regents; Former Chairperson, Cochise County Board of Supervisors

Gene Karp  — Former Chief of Staff, Sen. Dennis DeConcini

Fred DuVal — Member, Arizona Board of Regents; Former White House Deputy Chief of Protocol

Ana Ma  — Senior Advisor, Rep. Raul Grijalva

Morris Farr  — Former Arizona State Senator, resident of Sonoita

Michael McNulty  — Campaign Chairman, Giffords for Congress; Water rights and technology attorney; son of Rep. Jim McNulty

Jim Woodbury, Ph.D — Retired business owner and physicist; resident of Green Valley

Terry Babcock-Lumish, Ph.D  — President, Islay Consulting, an economic, policy, and political consulting firm;  resident of Sierra Vista

Margy McGonagill — Former Director of Federal Relations, University of Arizona

There is a good bit to add to this spare listing of qualifications, and there are some interesting facts to highlight about some of these team members. First, though the team does "rises above party lines," it only rises high enough for a challenging limbo contest. Only one of the team members is a Republican. And that one may not be the best choice – but more on that later.

Ron Barber was a key member of Gabby’s campaign, and I’m glad to see him at the helm of the transition team. I’ve met him a few times, but it is his sterling reputation from his 32 years at the Division of Developmental Disabilities which recommends him as both a compassionate advocate for those in need, and as an able administrator, capable of creating profound institutional changes.

Art Chapa has been a lobbyist for Pima County and Pima Community College, a member of the Arizona Board of Reagents, and serves on the Raul Castro Institute advisory board as the representative of the Castro family. Mr. Chapa will bring a great deal of experience and institutional savoir-faire to bear on building Gabby’s team.

Judy Cignac is part of Gabby’s effort to reach across party lines. Ms. Cignac is long-time supporter of Jim Kolbe in Conchise County and a prominent Republican. In addition to the positions noted in the release, she was a member of the Ft. Huachuca 50 and leader of it’s Team Cochise. She was past Vice
        President and General Manager of Bella Vista Water Company and the General Manager of Bella Vista Ranches Limited Partnership in Sierra Vista. She has held positions on numerous boards and committees including the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Sierra Vista United Way, the Sierra Vista Citizens’ Advisory Committee, the University of Arizona South Foundation, and the Upper San Pedro Partnership. She also served as a member of the statewide Riparian Area Advisory Committee, co-chair of the Water Issues Group for the Sierra Vista area, and director of the Water Utilities Association of Arizona.

There is no doubt that Ms. Cignac is an accomplished and knowledgeable person with considerable experience in county government, education, and water issues. Part of Gabby’s challenge as U.S. Representative, and a key campaign promise, is working to save the San Pedro river and preserve Ft Huachuca’s mission. Ms. Cignac certainly has relevant experience to that mission. However, no matter how well-intentioned an individual, I question whether someone who makes their living developing real estate, bringing ever more people to Cochise County, and then selling ground water to those people, is the best person to be taking advice from on how to save the San Pedro from those very activities.

It is laudable that Ms. Cignac is deeply engaged in so many self-regulatory private initiatives to deal with the issues of development and water in Cochise County, and that she has a great deal of experience in government, but none of those efforts have yet created significant progress toward sustainability and conservation in the region. It is, I hope, not too cynical to suggest that maintenance of the status quo is the true aim of people who have clear conflicts of interest as has Ms. Cignac. Though, in principle, I think Gabby’s attempt to bridge the partisan divide is laudable, I suggest she choose her lumber more carefully.

Gene Karp is one of Tucson’s political hierophants and a partner in the actively Democratic firm of Karp, Huerlin & Weiss. He served contemporaneously as DeConcini’s chief of staff and chief legal council for 17 years. Gabby could hardly have chosen anyone better to serve as an institutional anchor of her transition team.

Many of us political junkies are familiar with Fred Duval. I don’t know why the capsule bio in the release doesn’t state Fred’s most immediately relevant experience; he ran for the Democratic nomination to Congress himself in CD1 in 2002 and was defeated by George Cordova. In fact, his campaign website is archived at Minerva if you’re interested.

Ana Ma is, of course, Rep. Grijalva’s gal Friday, political mastermind, and, reputedly, the agent of Grijalva’s early endorsement of Gabby, which considerably smoothed her path to the nomination. Ana directed the state co-ordinated campaign in 2004. I can only see it as a good thing that Ana will be injecting Grijalva’s political DNA into Gabby’s Congressional egg.

Morris Farr is on the Board of the Sonoita Crossroads Community Forum, which advocates for issues of concern to Sonoita Valley communities in Santa Cruz county. He is also the Chairman of Arizona Borderlands Democrats.

Dr. Jim Woodbury, I don’t know much about, but the more advanced degrees a Congresscritter works with, the better I like it.

Dr. Terry Babcock-Lumish is an interesting choice for the team. She holds a doctorate in economic geography, is an Associate Fellow of Geography at Oxford, a senior research associate at the Harvard Law School’s Labor & Worklife Program, and a visiting scholar at UofA living in Sierra Vista, and is President of Islay Consulting. She has been named by the Tucson Citizen as one of our 40 under 40. Her academic profile indicates a very interesting research focus:

Terry Babcock-Lumish’s research interests involve decision-making in
financial innovation, the ways in which trust sustains venture capital
and angel investment processes, and the extent to which shared
experience – including gender, ethnicity, education, language,
interests, etc. – factor into high-risk decisions involving information
asymmetry. She is particularly interested in how an improved
understanding of recent years’ successes and failures in major
financial centers, such as London and Boston, may shed light on
improving the formal funding of scientific and technological
innovation, particularly in information and communication technologies
and biotechnology.

Dr. Babcock-Lumish is also involved in a program to study best practices in investing pension funds in urban renewal projects. This is one of my own pet preoccupations: how much more could we do to improve our urban environments if pension fund managers and beneficial owners could direct the hundreds of billions invested with pension funds toward improving our cities, rather than chasing the highest rate of gain in the financial markets? I’m glad to see Gabby taking advice from someone who is interested in this topic, and in fostering the growth of a vigorous entrepreneurial environment in Arizona.

Margy McGonagill, in addition to her work with the University, is serving on the Judicial Performance Review board. She is a state coordinator for the Parkinson’s Action Network and Margy worked for Michigan Democratic Congressman William Ford as his Chief of Staff. Margy sits on the Board of Directors of ImmuneRegen BioSciences Inc. of Scottsdale, a biotech pharma developing drugs for radiological and chemical weapons exposure. She brings a wide array of experiences and competencies to Gabby team.