Construction
ROR Construction
Residential Framing Carpenters Production and Manufacturing
Industrial Tool, Die & Engineering Co.
CNC Lathe Lead Education
Yavapao College
Nursing Instructor Health Care
PAINTED HILLS PEDIATRICS
LPN, RN, MA Legal
McBan Law Offices
Legal Secretary Health Care
RN - FT Health Care
ALLIANCE IMAGING
PRN MRI TECH

It's time for Tim Bee to quit wavering and tell voters whether he is or is not going to run for Congress in the Southern Arizona district represented by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Bee, a Republican and president of the Arizona Senate, has been mentioned as a possible challenger for the CD 8 seat almost since the moment Giffords, a Democrat, was elected to her first term in 2006.

But all Bee will say is that he's formed an exploratory committee to test the waters and determine whether he should or should not run in CD 8. As of July 1, the district had 128,941 registered Democrats and 148,006 Republicans.

On a personal level, it's easy to understand why he would move cautiously. Bee is married and has a large family in Tucson. If he ran for Congress, it would disrupt his family life. If he won, he'd either have to become a commuter between Washington and Tucson, or move his wife and children into a world very unlike the one they know in Tucson.

So, some angst is understandable.

But Bee is not exactly a novice in the world of politics. He is, after all, the Senate president, and it's clear that he can be decisive when circumstances require a firm hand. Within days of being elected Senate president, for example, he took a big broom and swept out some of the most influential and fractious members of the Senate staff.

By delaying a decision, Bee does a disservice to his Tucson constituents and to the Legislature. The Legislature convenes in January and strategists for both parties already are discussing issues — from the state budget shortfall to revamping operating procedures within Child Protective Services — that will require intense negotiations.

Bee should either plunge into with both feet or step aside and allow the party to make a smooth transition to new leadership.

Democrats already are treating Bee as though he is a candidate. They've accused him of violating the state's "resign to run" statute, which says an office holder can't start running for a new position until he's in the last year of his term. If he acts like a candidate before that time, he has to resign his elected position, which is what Giffords did when she ran for Congress last year.

Don Bivens, the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party, accuses Bee of "trying to have it both ways." He was quoted in the Arizona Capitol Times as saying, "Tim Bee needs to stop stockpiling money in an exploratory committee to evade Arizona's resign-to-run law."

Nobody would expect the Democratic leader to say anything less. And nobody was surprised to hear Republican spokesman Brett Mecum fire back that Bivens' comments were "obviously Giffords' attack machine, coming out and trying to make an issue out of nothing."

It's all political buncombe, tedious and hollow grandstanding without much substance. The substantive issue, however, which Bee needs to address, is whether he can continue to do his noncampaigning, or whatever he wants to call it, and remain fully engaged in the work of the Arizona Legislature.

At this point, he should either get in the race or get out.