The Arizona Chamber of Commerce honored Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Dist. 8, and Rep. Steve Huffman, R-Dist. 26, with Winged Victory Award statues on June 26 as state senator and representative of the year respectively.

Mrs. Allen’s leadership on unemployment insurance legislation and her past championing of air quality and health care legislation were among principal reasons for her receiving the award, the chamber announced.

In presenting the award, Robert Shuler, the chamber’s senior vice president for public affairs, said he wanted to add something else: Mrs. Allen’s ability to calm choppy waters with civility and wit.

He said he was up early one morning during session, preparing to meet with her, when he was stung by a scorpion. Four hours later, he said, he was in her office, tense and fretful and apologetically telling the senator why he was irritable. Not long after that, he was in another meeting with her, this time in the House speaker’s tiny conference room, waiting for the start of a tense meeting in a cramped space packed with important legislators, staffers and lobbyists.

Ms. Allen, Mr. Shuler said, surveyed the potentially unpleasant situation and said, “Before we begin, let’s have Robert tell us his scorpion story.” Everyone laughed, and the tension evaporated.

Allen Lauded For Attempts To Save Unemployment Bill

Ms. Allen, chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, was the prime sponsor of 13 health care and three environmental bills, all of which were signed by Governor Napolitano.

But her bill (S1009) to increase maximum weekly unemployment benefits was vetoed by the governor, and her strenuous effort to revive the legislation, which was supported by the chamber, failed in final week of the session.

At the time, she said she wasn’t going to put herself through that again, but she told the chamber at the awards ceremony the bill will be back next year. After the legislative session adjourned, she said, she got three solid nights of sleep that she hadn’t had during the negotiations, and now “I’m feeling feisty, and I’m going to do it.”

Huffman Honored For Committee Leadership

Mr. Huffman was honored for his leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee and his championing of corporate income tax sales factor legislation and a politically difficult issue, school desegregation funding reform.

The sales factor provision, which provided a tax-reduction option for manufacturers and other companies with Arizona facilities and large out-of-state sales, was stripped by the Senate from a budget trailer bill.

Mr. Huffman’s award was presented by the chamber’s public affairs manager, James Tunnell, who told the crowd, “The sales factor is cool. You may not know it yet, but it is.”

In accepting the award Mr. Huffman said, “Thank you for working with us and helping us with our legislation. I’m glad to hear the sales factor is cool. Maybe next year we can get that message through to the Senate.” —