You're not a star when you win by 167 votes in a republican tidal wave election. Enough said.
Well.. to call 2014 a "tidal wave election" seems exaggerated. It was a great Republican election, but not a tidal wave by any means.
The largest GOP majority in the House since Coolidge was president, a nine seat gain in the Senate, the reelection of several unpopular incumbent governors as well as new Republican governors in several very liberal states. If that's not a "tidal wave" then you're just arguing pointless semantics about terminology
Mittens and McCain (yes, I know McCain was a favorite son), both carried AZ-02 in its current configuration, FWIW. In my view, Barber was a relatively strong incumbent - likable and moderate. Barber got in initially, because the Pub opponents were either terrible or lame. Whatever, JMO. I will revisit this thread after the next election. 
I wouldn't call her a "star", but she's doing the kind of things that can cause her to run ahead of the GOP ticket in her district and get elected. She's kind of a Republican Patrick Murphy (D-FL) who did the sort of non-partisan schtick and won over a toss-up district that was slightly Republican and got solidly reelected in 2014 over a respectable GOP opponent (former State Rep. Carl Domino). Now, Murphy is running for the Rubio Senate seat and is, at this writing, the most likely Democrat to be nominated, and probably a slight favorite to be elected.
