(JTA) — Gabrielle Gifford’s neurosurgeon says that the Arizona congresswoman could run for re-election.
Peter Rhee, the doctor who operated on Giffords’ brain after she was shot in January, told the NBC affiliate KVOA Tuesday that Giffords’ mental faculties had fully recovered.
""There’s no real reason she wouldn’t be able to hold office," Rhee said. "It’s not about her capabilities. It’s purely [a decision] that is personal and what her desires are. I’ll support her in whichever way she goes."
Speculation over a possibly re-election campaign by Giffords has risen since the Tucson-area congresswoman appeared on the U.S. House of Representatives floor this week to vote on the contentious deal to raise the debt ceiling.
Giffords’ spokesman, C.J. Karmargin, told KVOA that no decision had been made yet. The deadline to file for a re-election campaign is in May.
Giffords, a Democrat and the first Jewish woman elected to statewide office in Arizona, would be running for her fourth term in Congress.
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