A local Arizona Republican Party official resigned from his post after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot out of concern for his and his family's safety.

Anthony Miller, a GOP district chairman and former campaign aide to Sen. John McCain, told The Arizona Republic: I don't want to take a bullet for anyone."

Miller, the first African American to hold the post, was recently re-elected to a one-year term as chairman of the Legislative District 20 Republicans.

He told the newspaper that verbal abuse after his election and Internet postings by Tea Party supporters had him concerned for his safety.

Miller resigned in an e-mail to Arizona GOP Chairman Randy Pullen just hours after Giffords was shot in the head in a Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead.

Supporters of the small-government Tea Party movement had backed former congressman J.D. Hayworth over McCain in Arizona's GOP Senate primary last year. McCain easily defeated Hayworth and won his fifth term in November.

The full story in The Arizona Republic can be found here.

(Posted by Catalina Camia)