Bipartisanship: Some embrace the B-word

(PNI) Rep. Ron Barber called him the "young man who shot us." He didn't have to say: Jared Loughner. We all knew.

"Had people really understood what they were seeing," Barber said of the young man's descent, "he might well have gotten into treatment and not committed that act."

Barber didn't have to define the act, either. We all knew he was talking about Jan. 8, 2011, when an untreated mentally-ill young man killed six people and wounded 13, including Barber and then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

As the Democratic congressman from District 2, Barber spoke at a recent Saturday-morning breakfast hosted by the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, a regional behavioral-health authority based in Tucson.

I met Barber and his communications director, Mark Kimble, crossing the parking lot on the way in. We chatted briefly -- the usual small talk above asphalt that was already radiating too much heat.

I thought about how parking lots and public places have a very different significance for Barber. It takes a great deal of personal courage to remain a political figure after being shot at a political event.

Barber was at the breakfast to celebrate Arizona's approval of Medicaid restoration and expansion, which will bring in billions in federal funding to provide health care and mental-health services to more than 350,000 people.

It took another kind of courage for state lawmakers to make that happen: political courage.

Rep. Ethan Orr is one of the Republicans who voted with the Democrats for Medicaid expansion.

That got him named on a T-shirt -- available on eBay -- that identifies Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as a "traitor" and features a bloody knife splitting the sentiment "another conservative stabbed in the back by Ethan Orr." Or Steve Pierce. Or John McComish. Etc.

Orr told the gathering that his vote was a matter of putting the community "above personal and partisan interests." This third-generation Arizonan says that's the history of Arizona politics.

The partisan stuff -- the bloody knives and the threats of primary challenges from the right -- do not reflect the spirit of cooperation that built this state, Orr says.

"That's the anomaly," he said. "Arizona is about bipartisanship."

At this point, you may think you've slipped down a rabbit hole.

Reality check: Medicaid expansion and the budget were bipartisan only because the governor was forced to rely on Democratic votes to get her legacy program passed.

It was a Kumbaya nanosecond. It ended on a shrill chorus of "Yes, you did! No, I didn't!" Democratic Sen. Steve Gallardo accused Brewer betraying the Democrats' trust by signing an election bill they hated. She said she'd never promised not to.

The snap back to partisan conflict felt normal. Predictable. Pathetic.

But wait.

Orr and Rep. Victoria Steele, his Democratic seatmate in District 9, were still committed members of a mutual-admiration society during the breakfast appearance with Barber.

This bipartisan pair orchestrated the other legislative accomplishment that was being celebrated that morning: added funding for Mental Health First Aid.

The program involves training people to recognize signs of mental illness. Sort of like emergency CPR training, but for disorders of the mind. People learn how to get help for friends, students or children who are at risk of hurting themselves or others.

Barber is pushing this in Congress.

In Arizona, Orr and Steele pushed for $250,000 to expand the program, which has trained thousands of people statewide since 2011. Their bill easily passed the House and got stalled in the Senate. It was resurrected in the final hours of the session.

"The secret to this was bipartisanship," Steele said.

Holy mackerel. There's that B-word again. Steele also says the current image of the GOP in Arizona isn't a reflection of the Republican Party, it's just "a loud minority."

"I think most Republicans are like Ethan," she said. Nice. Reasonable. Able to disagree on some things and work together on others.

There's that seemingly irrational faith in the system again.

Is it possible? Could the extremists be assigned to the Flat Earth Committee while moderate people from both parties run things?

"I firmly believe that if you reach across the aisle, you will find willing partners," said Barber.

Some will suggest he should have his head examined.

But just imagine if that way of thinking catches on.

Reach Valdez at linda.valdez @arizona republic.com.

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