TUCSON — For several months, state Senate President Tim Bee has been seen as the likely Republican challenger against Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords for the 8th Congressional District seat.

On Wednesday, Bee said he would make “an important announcement” on Saturday morning — presumably to say just that.

The freshman Congresswoman Giffords, when asked this week by the Wick News Service about Bee as a prospective adversary, said she anticipated he would enter the contest very soon.

On Wednesday, Bee did not return a phone message left for him by the Wick News Service. The Green Valley News and Sun also tried to contact him on Tuesday, but he was busy in Phoenix with State Senate business.

Arizona has a total of eight congressional districts. Two of those, the 7th and the 8th, run along Arizona’s entire section of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 8th covers all of Cochise County and chunks of Santa Cruz and Pima counties. The bulk of the 8th’s constituents live in the high-population, greater Tucson area.

Bee said that he would make his announcement at 10 a.m. in the heart of his district, at Palo Verde High School library, 1302 S. Avenida Vega, Tucson.

Bee was the valedictorian of his senior class there.

He is serving his fourth consecutive term as the state senator from Arizona’s legislative District 30, which covers a slice of Cochise County including the northwest half of Sierra Vista (including Fort Huachuca) and pieces of Pima and Santa Cruz counties.

During his third term, Bee’s Senate colleagues handed him the majority leader position, the first Southern Arizonan to hold that job in more than 16 years. He was elected president of the Senate following his victory in November 2006.

For months, Bee has been exploring the possibility of running for Congress. If he wanted to keep his Senate seat, he could not officially declare until his last year in the Senate started this month, under Arizona’s “Resign to Run” provision.

Bee is known for his loyal camaraderie with District 30 Republican state Reps. Marian McClure and Jonathan Paton. Bee spent much of the 2006 campaign season helping Paton successfully run for state representative while 1st Lt. Paton was busy fighting a war in Iraq with the U.S. Army.

If Bee runs for Congress, he will try to win back the district for Republicans. Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe held the district that covers much of Southeast Arizona for more than two decades before retiring two years ago.

Giffords won the seat in a victory over Green Valley’s Randy Graf in 2006.

Bee, who operated the family Bee Brothers Printing Co. before entering politics, helped to elect his older brother, Keith, to the state Senate. Later Bee ran a successful campaign to succeed him.

Important and sometimes divisive issues that wrack the district are border security and helping provide military funding to important military installations, Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and a large veterans installation and hospital, also in Tucson.

When he was elected state Senate president, he was the first non-Maricopa Republican to hold that job since 1974.

One of the first things he did when elected was to fire many of the majority staff members, a move that surprised many. He was concerned, he said, that they often exerted more authority than the elected officials who were limited in the numbers of years they could serve.

He said he was once appalled to hear a staffer once trying to tell a senator how to vote on an issue.

The Tim Bee congressional campaign exploratory committee on Wednesday announced that its fundraising efforts have eclipsed the $300,000 mark, as the voters of Southern Arizona are making clear that they believe in and support Tim Bee and want him to throw his hat into the ring for Congressional District 8.

Bee continues to travel the district and visit with voters under the auspices of a congressional exploratory committee.

The committee has received contributions from over 600 individuals.

Bee said he has not contributed any of his own money to the exploratory efforts.

“I am excited and grateful for the level of enthusiasm our exploratory committee has generated,” Bee said. “Clearly this outpouring of financial and grassroots support for my candidacy says the people of southern Arizona support the leadership I have demonstrated and how strongly the desire to change the partisan tone is throughout the district. This early and unprecedented support and success will be a major factor in my decision whether to enter the race for CD-8. I look forward to making my plans known soon.”