Brody's Notes... Openly Gay Arizona State Legislator Announces Run For Gabrielle Giffords' U. S. House Seat

Dr. Matt Heinz, (D-Pima)

By Brody Levesque | TUCSON, ARIZONA -- Arizona State Legislator, Dr. Matt Heinz, announced Tuesday that he is officially entering the race to fill the congressional seat that was vacated by U. S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords who resigned last week.

Dr. Heinz- a Democrat- told reporters that he's similar to Giffords, politically.

“Moving forward I believe the best thing that we can do is to honor her strength, and conviction, and her leadership, by getting somebody, quickly, because we don’t have much time, into that seat who is going to carry forward in the tradition of moderate, bipartisan, common sense governance that she did so well for Southern Arizona," Heinz says.

Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer declared a special primary election to fill Giffords seat on April 17th, with the general election scheduled June 12.

Dr. Heinz, a staff physician at the Tucson Medical Center, balances his work as a physician with his job in the legislature told the media outlets that he has not committed to a decision whether or not he’ll resign his state House seat during the race for the congressional seat.

Heinz told reporters that he plans to run for a full term in the fall in the new Congressional District 2. But said he would dropout of the spring special election race if Giffords’ former district director, Ron Barber, decided to run to finish Gifford's remaing current term.

“I would be very supportive of him and in fact I would even direct my staff to gather signatures for him in the special election, at which point I would divert my focus to the Aug. 30 primary," Heinz says.

Heinz is one of four openly LGBT members of the Arizona State Legislature, alongside Senators Robert Meza (D–Phoenix), Paula Aboud (D–Tucson) and Jack Jackson (D–Window Rock).

According to Arizona Media outlets, other potential candidates have indicated they’ll make a decision soon. If they decide to run, they have less than a month to gather signatures to qualify for the ballot.