As Rep. Debbie McCune Davis enters her 26th year of service as a lawmaker, she reveals how losing a Corporation Commission race helped her career and the issues that keep her coming back to the Legislature, even when she’s at odds with how it’s functioning.

As Sen. Linda Gray’s final term at the Legislature winds down this year, she fondly recalls the friendships and accomplishments she will take with her. What she isn’t fond of is being forced to go.



“It’s the only ‘profession’ in which when you become good at it, you’re asked to leave,” Gray says.

As Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor discusses her 14-year career in the House and Senate with pride in her accomplishments, she reveals that it all almost didn’t happen. She nearly quit after her first term.

When Rep. Russ Jones moved into his office in the Arizona House of Representatives, his predecessor, Rep. Jim Carruthers, told him to beware of the “trains” that he could see, but perhaps would not hear coming.