Reznet

Mary Kim Titla waves to supporters on the campaign trail. Reznet photo by Candace Begody

Next Stop Congress?

By Candace Begody

TUCSON, Ariz.—Mary Kim Titla isn't running for Congress because she's a Native American. Nor is she running because she's a woman.

"I know what it's like to live in poverty," she said in a recent telephone interview from Washington, D.C. "I know what it's like to struggle as a young married woman. I know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, and I know what it's like to work hard just to make ends meet. I know those struggles."

That's why the San Carlos Apache, 46, of Bylas, Ariz., a Democrat, says she is the best candidate for election in Arizona's 1st Congressional District. The huge jurisdiction, whose population hubs are Flagstaff and Prescott, includes the Navajo Nation, the San Carlos Apache reservation and the northeastern suburbs of Phoenix.

Although Titla said she didn't have any ambition to run when friends and colleagues first proposed the idea, advice from an elder and prayer helped her to decide.

"I was told that something like this just doesn't happen," Titla said. "I care deeply about the same issues that people in my community care about, and I had prayed a lot."

Titla is among several candidates running to succeed incumbent Rep. Rick Renzi, a third-term Republican who decided not to seek reelection.

Since entering the race in May, Titla has been working with campaign manager Randy Camacho, a candidate to chair the state Democratic Party candidate, and others to raise $600,000 to finance her campaign.

Though this is their biggest challenge yet, she said, "I am very confident to run a strong campaign and a strong race."

Among Titla's priorities are quality education-"making sure our children are receiving tools they need to be successful"-strengthening families and the war in Iraq, specifically "working on a plan to bring troops back."

Her credentials include an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma, a master's degree in mass communication from Arizona State University, induction last year into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Hall of Fame at Arizona State and more than a dozen years in news reporting for NBC television affiliates in Phoenix and Tucson.

A wife and a mother of three children, "I understand that perspective, too," she said.

Titla left television in 2005 to pursue another passion, founding NativeYouthMagazine.com, which features news about Native youths. While she campaigns, she said, her job as publisher is on the "back burner," and the site is "being updated as much as possible."

Already Arizona's first Native television reporter, Titla said she is also the first Native American woman to run for Congress. Few Native men have been elected to Congress, and the only Native currently seated is Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., Chickasaw.

"I hope that race is not an issue," Titla said. "I think what matters is that I am qualified. I am willing to work hard, listen to people and advocate for them.

"I know I relate better to the people," she added. "We need someone who will truly represent the best interest of the people, and I believe I am that person."

Candace Begody, Navajo, is a student at the University of Arizona, Tucson. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2007 American Indian Journalism Institute and interned as a reporter at the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, Mont.