GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO (LEFT) ANSWERS A QUESTION MONDAY AFTER CERTIFYING THE NOV. 4 ELECTION RESULTS WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JAN BREWER (RIGHT). (Photo by Capitol Media Services).
There’s a growing drum-beat among Republican activists and bloggers that Gov. Janet Napolitano should step down immediately now that she has been formally selected to run the Department of Homeland Security when Barack Obama becomes president. The cheerleaders include radio talk show host Austin Hill on the Tribune’s Opinion 2 page, Len Munsil, who ran against Napolitano for governor in 2006, Greg Patterson at espressopundit.com, and the team of pro-life activists at Sonoran Alliance.
The consistent theme is that if Napolitano truly cares about Arizona’s future, she will give Secretary of State Jan Brewer an opportunity to get up to speed on all of the challenges facing state government before the start of the 2009 legislative session in January. There’s also talk in practical terms that state lawmakers and other politicians will simply ignore the Napolitano administration for the next few weeks as they wait for Brewer to take charge.
There’s a tiny flaw with this analysis. Napolitano likely will call the Legislature into special session within the next few days to start addressing this year’s budget deficit that already has reached $442 million. In the past when things didn’t get done on budget issues, Napolitano was a master at shaping public opinion and media coverage to make it appear that the Legislature was almost exclusively at fault. Republicans always cried foul because Napolitano and her Democratic allies usually worked behind the scenes to delay or trip a majority plan that Napolitano wouldn’t support.
But many people who don’t work at the Capitol look at the process this way: it’s the Legislature’s job to pass a budget for the governor to sign or veto. If lawmakers can’t approve a package for her to even consider, it’s their fault, not hers.
And when Napolitano does veto a budget, she always makes sure to pin her action on protecting hot-button issues such as education and health care. That way, it’s still the Legislature that tends to looks bad if it doesn’t meet her demands.
So, if Republicans go into a special session expecting to ignore Napolitano’s agenda in her waning days, they could be the ones who end up looking foolish.
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