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What Does a Brewer Governorship Mean?

By Howard Fischer

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-817508.mp3

Phoenix, AZ – If Republican lawmakers think that finally having a member of
their own party as governor means they're going to get everything
they want, they could have a rude awakening. Arizona Public
Radio's Howard Fischer explains.

It hasn't been all that long ago since there was an all-
Republican administration. Before Democrat Janet Napolitano was
elected in 2002, Republican Jane Hull was governor. And Hull, who
had been a lawmaker, said she found there were times she had to
veto bills passed by her former colleagues.

(I think it's the difference in jobs. And I think a whole lot of
it is just the tension that has to be there between who makes the
laws and who administers the laws.)

Hull said those vetoes don't mean she wasn't sympathetic.

(When you deal with Republicans as a Republican governor, a lot
of what they want are things that you would want. But, on the
other hand, as a governor you've got a broader and probably much
more technical idea of what's going on.)

Fife Symington, her Republican predecessor, agreed that conflicts
between lawmakers and the governor are inevitable because there's
a different point of view.

(The veto doesn't have to be malevolent. It just can be a veto
saying, well, I disagree and I've got the veto pen. And don't rub
it in.)

So far Brewer doesn't have any bills on her desk to sign -- or
veto.

For Arizona Public Radio, this is Howard Fischer.