Kelly gets Giffords’ position in Senate

I’d guess that for years Mark Kelly pictured himself standing on a stage on election night before a group of jubilant supporters – only not as the victorious candidate.

But as the victorious candidate’s husband.

Don’t get me wrong. Kelly earned his spot in the U.S. Senate.

Statewide political campaigns are long and hard and ugly. He did the work, put in the time and made the sacrifices. He seems eager to get on with the job he’s been hired to do.

That wasn’t the plan, however, until sometime after that awful day in January 2011, when then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and18 others were shot during a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway store outside of Tucson.

Giffords then represented Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. She was shot in the head at point-blank range and nearly died.

At the time Giffords was a rising star in the Democratic Party. When The Arizona Republic endorsed her for reelection in 2008 it called her “the Energizer rabbit with a brain,” touting her work for military families and on immigration issues.

The editorial board said Giffords was “a principled, hardworking congresswoman who does her district proud.”

Early in her career in Congress, before Giffords and Kelly were married, an article in The Republic noted that Giffords’ “posts on the Armed Services and Science and Technology committees mean she technically oversees all aspects of her fiancé Mark Kelly’s career as an astronaut and a naval aviator, which is a coincidence that she teases him about frequently.”

Giffords’ political career seemed fated.

Then, fate stepped in.

After the shooting, however, she persevered. They both did. Dealing first with her long recovery, then moving on to work on the issue of sensible firearms legislation, among others.

On Tuesday, when Kelly found himself standing on stage in front of jubilant supporters he said in part:

“I want to start off by thanking a few people.

“Gabby. My best friend. The ultimate partner through this campaign, and in life.

“Gabby is the person who taught me about this side of public service, and what it means to use public policy to improve people’s lives, and who taught me to never, ever give up.

“She also has a lot more experience path

at this stuff than I do – so thank you for your advice – especially the tough advice.”

One of the six people killed in the rampage that left Giffords wounded was a well-liked member of her staff named Gabe Zimmerman. I spoke back then to Zimmerman’s dad, Ross, whose strength, grace and depth of forgiveness was more than I could imagine.

He spoke of the need to forgive and to move on.

On the fourth anniversary of the shooting Ross Zimmerman told The Republic, “We can’t choose the life we’re given or the world we’re born into, only what we do with it. I never would have imagined this happening to me. But here I am.”

Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords didn’t choose the life they were given.

They could not have imagined what happened to them.

But after a long and difficult road there they were.

Standing on that stage. Together.

ed.montini@