zs TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords was distressed when the glass front door of her district office here was shattered by a kick or a pellet gun last March, cheap uggs an act of vandalism that took place hours after she joined Democrats in passing President Obama's health care bill. "Things have really gotten spun up," she told a ugg classic tall boots television interviewer the next day. But tensions have long run high in the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona, a classic swing district that shares a 114-mile border with ugg classic short boots Mexico. Protesters chained themselves to the desks of Ms. Giffords's Republican predecessor, Jim Kolbe, 12 years ago. And over the past year, Ms. Giffords struggled in a brutal re-election campaign during which NFL jerseys sales on line her opponent appeared in a Web advertisement holding an assault weapon. The district has become a caldron of divisions over government spending, immigration, health care and Barack Obama. Cheap Jerseys Today, the Eighth District stands apart as one of the most emotionally and politically polarized in the nation. The rampage on Saturday that left six dead and Ms. Air Jordan 5 Giffords gravely wounded may prove to be an isolated act of violence by a mentally disturbed man. The suspect attended at least one of Ms. Giffords's town meetings before the event Saturday. Air Jordan 2010 Still, the shootings came after a disconcerting run of episodes in this district of mountains and desert, raising temperatures here in a way that some that some of cheap jordans Ms. Giffords's friends argue fed an atmosphere that might encourage violence. Several of them pointed back to the smashed door of her district headquarters at 1661 North Swan Women Jordans Street last March as a turning point; a time when a cloud of unease settled over Ms. Giffords and her staff. She and aides began expressing worry about Vibram Five Fingers Bikila what they saw as an escalation of threats after a year of brutal town hall meetings over health care. They began to take precautions. "When we did a swing through the district, Vibram Five Fingers Sprint we began telling the police what we are doing: We let them know where we were going to be," said Rodd McLeod, her campaign manager. And Ms. Giffords Christian Louboutin Sandals made no secret at that time of saying she owned a handgun. "She was extremely concerned about it," said Thomas Warne, a friend and fund-raiser. "She was concerned MBT Sneakers about various threats that the office had received: they were general threats on the office itself, on her life." There have been no arrests Cheap MBT Shoes related to the attack on her district office, said Sgt. Diana Lopez of the Tucson Police Department. It came after months in which Ms. Giffords, like other Democrats, found herself being battered pink ghd at loud town hall meetings on health care. At one of her public meetings on health care, a man with a gun showed up. "There was a sense, even in '09, that Christian Louboutin Pumps there was a real anger in the district," Mr. McLeod said. And in an interview with MSNBC the day after the attack, Ms. Giffords MBT Chapa said: "We've had hundreds and hundreds of protesters over the last several months. Our office corner has become a place where the Tea Party movement congregates and the Vibram Five Finger sale rhetoric is incredibly heated, not just the calls but the e-mails, the slurs." Last summer, Ms. Giffords found herself challenged by Jesse Kelly, a Republican candidate with Tea Jordan Shoes Party backing, who assailed Ms. Giffords on health care and immigration. He held a "targeting victory" fund-raiser in which he invited contributors to shoot an M-16 with him. This was playing out cheap uggs .