GOP Shuns Immigration Hardliner in Ariz.

Democratic candidate for the Arizona Eighth Congressional District, Gabrielle Giffords, speaks during a debate at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006. (AP Photo/John Miller) (John Miller - AP)

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Randy Graf is a tough-on-immigration Republican in a district that is fed up with people pouring illegally across the border and hasn't elected a Democrat to the House in two decades.

Yet Graf's national party is turning its back on him, the retiring Republican congressman he wants to succeed has disavowed his candidacy and he's finding trouble getting traction beyond the most secure GOP voters _ and a border militia that's backing him.

Voters such as Sue Malusa, a mother of four from Tucson, think Graf and his supporters go too far. Graf is backed by the Minutemen, self-appointed border-watchers. Malusa will vote for a candidate who supports "a humane and fair way of controlling the border," she said. "That's important."

Arizona's 8th District, which stretches from Tucson to the Mexican border, has returned moderate Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe to office for 22 years, faithfully backing him even after he revealed in 1996 that he was gay.

Now a rift in the Republican Party over immigration is playing to the benefit of the Democratic candidate, former state Sen. Gabrielle Giffords, 36.

Giffords, like Kolbe, backs more enforcement on the border but also wants a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

Graf made waves last week defending a state lawmaker who endorsed reinstatement of a 1950s federal deportation program called "Operation Wetback" and sent supporters information from a white separatist group.

In a candidates' debate, Graf said the lawmaker, state Rep. Russell Pearce, is a friend and they agree on how to control the border.

Arizona is the nation's busiest entryway for illegal immigration, with thousands making it across each year. Many border residents live uneasily with the migrants, sometimes seeing their livestock disturbed or killed, their homes broken into and piles of trash left behind from the illegal flight. City residents complain about the strain on schools and other government services.

Last year, Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano declared an emergency on the border because of the costs of fighting crime and dealing with immigration. She has maintained that securing the border is the federal government's job.

That climate helped establish Graf's career.

A golf pro-turned state legislator, Graf became one of the Tucson area's best-known politicians as part of a group of conservatives pushing for an immediate crackdown on immigration. He won a five-way Republican primary focused on that issue.