Martha McSally eyes running again in 2014

TUCSON Sixteen Girl Scouts and their families were packed into the Tucson Public Safety Academy to celebrate the teens’ graduation from a summer camp designed to inspire them to pursue police, fire and military careers.

At the ceremony, among the women there to encourage them was a retired Air Force officer who years ago made history as the branch’s first woman pilot to fly in combat.

“I decided to become a fighter pilot because they told me that I couldn’t,” said Martha McSally, to cheers from the crowd. “Strength, teamwork, leadership, passion: None of these things have to do with what gender you are.”

McSally’s message has become fine-tuned after a grueling year on the congressional campaign trail in 2012. The Republican’s biography and work ethic elevated her from a newcomer to Arizona’s political scene to a serious candidate, defying political odds to nearly seize Democrat Gabrielle Giffords’ former seat in Congress.