From AZCentral.com's Political Insider -
Pamela Gorman made it official Monday, becoming the first Arizona lawmaker to resign the Legislature in pursuit of the District 3 congressional seat.
Gorman, an Anthem Republican, sent a brief and straight-forward letter to Senate President Bob Burns -- a marked departure from some of her earlier and somewhat preachy missives to the Senate GOP leadership.
{snip}
Gorman's departure, one Capitol wag observed, probably puts her back on Gov. Jan Brewer's Christmas-card list. Gorman held out against one-on-one lobbying from Brewer as the governor pressed for Gorman's "yes" vote on a sales-tax hike.
Gorman's opposition to that tax hike put her at odds with the direction of Senate leadership, prompting her to resign her majority-whip position last year.
The timing of this actually isn't a surprise.
A vacancy in the Senate during this part of the session of the lege doesn't mean much as there probably won't be any significant votes (aka - "budget stuff") any time soon. Her replacement will be from a list of three nominated by the Republican PCs in her district and approved by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who will most likely just rubber-stamp the choice of the supe from that part of the county (Andy Kunasek, I think).
Expect similar moves from the other sitting officeholders running in the CD3 Republican primary (State Sen. Jim Waring of LD7, State Rep. Sam Crump of LD6, Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker, and possibly State Rep. Adam Driggs of LD11, whose name was floated by the AZRepublic this weekend.)
1 comment:
Ordinarily you'd probably be right, this would be a routine vote. But after Gorman throwing her proverbial wooden shoe into the machinery last year, I'm sure that Senate President Burns and for that matter Governor Brewer will be very interested in seeing that her replacement is somebody who will play ball on the budget.
Probably not a good thing for the budget (they might be able to get that sixteenth vote they needed for a GOP-only budget last year) but you can be sure that Burns and Brewer won't stand by if it looks like the replacement might be a Gorman clone.
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