Tucson has jumped on to the international stage with the shooting of the Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway supermarket.

Arizona really only has three urban areas in the state. Phoenix is the largest with a population of about four million. Tucson is next largest with around one million people in its boundaries and Flagstaff is the final one and the smallest with one hundred and thirty thousand.

Phoenix and Tucson are the only cities of any size and Tucson is pretty small even by that marker. The nearest analogy I can think of is that; as Wollongong is to Sydney, Tucson is to Phoenix. The two cities are not contiguous, you have to travel for an hour and forty five minutes down Route 10 at 75 mph to get from Phoenix to Tucson.

With the establishment of the Maricopa development in between the two cities the two regions are starting to blur economically. Both cities have large universities, Arizona State University and University of Arizona which help define their economic success. The two are similar enough economically and culturally that they are thought of as part of a growing mega-region.

Politically Arizona is much like the modern politics of the North-Eastern regions. The urban areas tend to do well with Democratic candidates while the suburban and rural areas trend heavily Republican.

The Governor in Arizona used to be Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who took a Secretary position in the Obama cabinet. She was replaced by the Republican Jan Brewer, making Arizona unusual in having three female Governors in a row of which Jan Brewer is the fourth female Governor in United States history.

The Arizona Republican Party sided heavily with the rhetoric of the Tea Party movement and managed to produce the SB1070 legislation. This makes not having the correct visa documentation a misdemeanor. Additionally, local and state police are required by the law to enforce federal laws which previously had been done by Border Patrol.

These methods had been employed by the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County (not the Urban parts), Joe Arpaio. Unfortunately, his SB1070 like tactics have produced the only increase in crime in the region where everywhere else in the state it is dropping. It makes good politics but poor policy;

Not all of Maricopa County is doing so badly -- just the parts under the jurisdiction of the sheriff's office. The local police departments watching Maricopa's cities and towns are doing just fine. Phoenix, as Dickey notes, is a veritable success story, with a 14% drop in violent crime since 2002; other municipalities in the county, like Scottsdale (15% drop) and Mesa (30% drop), have been even more effective. It's just the unincorporated parts of the county -- the region under Arpaio's purportedly iron fist -- where violent crime has spiked so alarmingly.

One of the economic anchors of the Arizona economy, and especially in Phoenix and Tucson are the snowbirds. These are out of state older people, usually from the snowy and cold MidWest, who buy a second home in Arizona and migrate in for the mild Sonoran winters before flying off back home to avoid the hot desert summer.

Many simply retire to the warmer climate of the sunbelt and never return back to the northern states. Older people tend to care more about issues like SB1070 and love electing hard nosed - but poor performing Sheriffs - like Joe Arpaio.

As a result the Tea Party style of violent rhetoric is also popular in Arizona. Socialism, second amendment solutions etc. All the irresponsible language of the Tea Party and the US Republican Party that de-legitimizes an elected representative are present in the state.

Giffords was caught up in the rhetoric of the Tea Party and in particular Sarah Palin, who was Vice President on the Arizonan Senator John McCain's presidential bid of 2008. Giffords was one of the twenty Democrats who appeared in a graphic with their districts identified by cross hairs. That image is still on her facebook page but was removed from her TakeBackThe20.com website immediately after the assassination attempt.

It appears the young man who attempted an assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, and was successful in killing Judge Roll and five others was a deeply disturbed individual. His online presence is one of schizophrenia. I doubt anyone would assume him rational. As James Fallows points out the motives of these types of killers is usually as confusing as the state of mind that would lead one to commit such an act.

Several things stand out. Politics in Tucson are not much different to Phoenix which are in turn the same as Arizonan politics. The Maricopa Sheriffs office and the Arizona legislature have been pushing the heavy in rhetoric style of politics for a long time in the state. SB1070 is a local outgrowth of that and it is not surprising the Tea party found a quick foothold here.

It does not appear at this stage that this overheated, irresponsible, and often violent rhetoric lead to the shooting by Jared Lee Loughner, however, just about everyone assumed it was. Further, Palin scrubbed parts of her website quickly in response to it which speaks volumes as well. It is sad if it takes the shooting of what appears to be a decent hard working politician from a small district in southern Arizona to make the Republican Party and Tea Party to act like adults who have a civic duty to be responsible members of a democracy.

Aside I am an Australian green card living in Arizona. SB1070 can be stressful for me as well. If I leave my greencard at home I can run afoul of that law, especially as accent is one of the non-racial methods that local law enforcement uses to determine whether they should ask for proof of visa, residency. I do not like the law personally.

More This is a break down of the House Of Representatives electoral map for the national elections in 2010. The two Senators for Arizona are John McCain and John Kyl, both Republican. McCain re-won his Senate spot in 2010. The two blue seats in the lower part of Arizona went Democratic. The one on the lower right - Arizona 8 - is the one that Giffords re-won election in.

I live in Scottsdale - Arizona 5 - which was previously held by Democratic Representative Harry Mitchell but went Republican in 2010 electing David Schweikert. Two Arizona Democrats lost their House seats in the 2010 elections.

More The whole "Maricopa" thing is kind of confusing. Maricopa is a large county in Arizona. It envelopes most of Phoenix, including the cities of Tempe, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Cave Creek, Mesa, Apache Junction, Surprise, Wickenberg (which is way north) and a big chunk of land to the west of Phoenix including Gila Bend.

Additionally there is the town of Maricopa. This is a new development that was dropped half way between Phoenix and Tucson. It was built out during the boom and no development is around it, so it is an isolated outpost of falling house prices at the moment. Some of the folks I work with commute in from Maricopa (the town) to Tempe in order to work.

Joe Arpaio does not run, or control the police operations of all of Maricopa County. He only has jurisdiction over the non-incorporated parts. This means the areas that do not have towns or cities. So Arpaio's authority does not appear in places like Scottsdale, Tempe, etc; even if his influence and politics do. However some places contract with the Sheriff to have law enforcement provided for. These include Carefree, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, Gila Bend, etc.