Representative Susan Williams Gifford said that she is running for reelection to a fourth term because, despite the challenges of the recession, she's still having fun.

"I love what I do," Williams Gifford said.  "When I don't love what I do, then I'll stop."

It's good she has fun on her job, because it certainly keeps her busy.  She is a full-time representative, which she said keeps her priorities undivided... but it also means that she's always on the go.

She currently serves as the ranking Republican member of two Joint (made up of members of the Senate and House) Committees:  The Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture; and the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development.   She also serves on Joint Committees on Financial Services and Health Care Financing and the House Committee on Steering Policy and Scheduling.  And fending off a re-election challenge from Democratic newcomer David Smith adds another task to her plate.

But the biggest part of her job remains providing services for her constituents in the 2^nd Plymouth District, which encompasses her hometown of Wareham, where she lives with husband Mark Gifford, Maintenance Director for the town, Carver, and the first three precincts in Bourne.

"When you can help make something happen that really helps somebody, that makes me happy," Williams Gifford said. "When you can help make something happen that really helps somebody, that makes me happy," Williams Gifford said, providing an example of a veteran who was facing "months of paperwork" and a changing set of caseworkers before he was eligible for medical treatment, until she took up his case and ushered it through the bureaucracy.

Williams Gifford's is guided by her priorities of smaller state government, increased local control, and lower taxes.  Her legislative fillings have also been remarkably consistent.  Williams Gifford has filed a bill to redefine the 40-B law to include mobile homes as affordable housing in every legislative session since she was elected, and she has co-sponsored bills in multiple sessions to allow town's to restrict 40-B development based on its detriments to municipal infrastructure.  She also has been working to allow "above-quota" liquor-licenses in Wareham (each town is allocated a certain number of liquor licenses based on its population) since 2004.

But her constituents' needs have changed since her first term.

"I'm seeing more and more hardworking people who have done everything right but because of a lost job, fall between the cracks and are having trouble feeding their families...but who don't know how to access [relief] services" Williams Gifford said.

Williams Gifford said that one of her key issues is trying to "tighten up" the budget process so that local towns have more certainty about the revenue they will receive from the state and more control over how to spend it.

But she said that the State and the district have some difficult choices coming.

She said she "will support the position taken by the voters," on whether to cut the sales tax to 3 percent, but she said that she is not convinced that this is the most effective way to demonstrate voter frustration with higher taxes in the state.

She said she supports the repeal of 40B, which she described as an "outdated, "a one-size-fits-all approach to mandated housing" that favors developers over local municipalities.

Meanwhile she wants her constituents to know that she has a "well-documented record of service, and that while she is kept busy by her responsibilities, she is always available, and accessible to constituents needs.

"I shop here, I dine out here," she said.  "I prioritize my calendar [not on duties in Boston but] based on events in my district."

Meanwhile, she is constantly on the go...which has been a little problematic lately, after her dog Bosco (a chocolate lab mix who weighs in at 100 pounds) stepped on her foot.

"It's so embarrassing," she joked, showing off the bruises.  "I'm going to these events with a swollen, bruised foot, and I can only fit into flip-flops."