U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her staff have a bigger, brighter Tucson office.
There are still boxes to unpack, but staff members were busy at work in the new location Monday, the first day the new office was open to the public.
At any given time there are nine staff members plus interns and a few employees from Giffords' D.C. office working in Tucson. Giffords chief of staff Pia Carusone is dividing her time between D.C., Tucson and Houston, where Giffords, 40, is recovering from an assassination attempt that occurred Jan. 8 while she was doing a meet-and-greet at a northwest-side supermarket.
The new location is at 3945 E. Fort Lowell Road, Suite 211, on the northeast corner of East Fort Lowell Road and North Alvernon Way. The office's telephone and fax numbers will remain the same. Her staff says the location is more convenient to Giffords' northwest-side constituents.
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There's no permanent sign yet for the new second-floor office, so staff members have hung a temporary banner until they get one. There is free parking, including designated spots for handicapped drivers, and the office is accessible both by elevator and stairs.
The old office at the corner of North Swan Road and East Pima Street closed for good at 5 p.m. Thursday. It is about 2 1/2 miles away from the new location.
The new office costs 15 percent less per square foot and has 30 percent more space, which staff members say gives them more room to meet with constituents.
In addition to Giffords, the Jan. 8 shooting injured 12 others and killed six people, including Giffords' staffer Gabe Zimmerman, 30.
Zimmerman was Giffords' community outreach director, a position that remains vacant.
Giffords was shot clear through the left side of the brain. The Democratic congresswoman represents Arizona's 8th Congressional District and was re-elected to her third term in November.
Giffords' staffers say they began looking for a new location late last year in order to handle an increased number of constituents asking for assistance. The office has handled about 2,700 constituent requests per year, which is about four times the average handled by most U.S. representatives, her office says.
And constituent calls continue to rise. Communications specialist Mark Kimble said that since the shooting, constituent requests have spiked about 25 percent.
Giffords' office says the greatest number of requests for assistance come from veterans and active-duty military, seniors and constituents struggling to make ends meet. Her office says there also are numerous requests for assistance with passports, visas and foreign travel problems.
And the office is also responding to "substantially more" media requests than usual, Kimble said. Giffords' story has received international attention that was buoyed last month by her inclusion in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Giffords also has offices in Sierra Vista and Washington, D.C.
Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at sinnes@azstarnet.com or 520-573-4134.
