Heading into his fourth session as Senate president, Ken Bennett found himself a veteran of negotiating budgets and other bills with Governor Napolitano.

Since 2003, he and other Republican legislators have reached compromises with the governor over three regular and two special sessions, but also have sued her over line-item vetoes and accused her of breaking a budget deal this year and, some said, lying about her reasons for vetoing English language learner and corporate tuition tax credit bills.

Mr. Bennett, who is considering a run for governor in 2006, was interviewed in his office June 8.

The budget process this year was quite an adventure. Would you say it is a Republican or bipartisan budget?

Both. It’s a Republican budget with a lot of bipartisan buy-in.

Democrats say most of the budget struggle came from the majority’s 31 and 16 strategy. In the end, it received support from most Democrats, but they say they were excluded from the process, despite promises they would be involved. What’s your reaction to that?

This is one of the few legislatures that has done two budgets in one legislative session, and both of those budgets went through the appropriations process in both houses with even, for the first time, three appropriations committees — two in the House. Both parties were represented proportionally in the appropriations process and obviously in the body as a whole. I don’t accept the notion they were left out. I can accept that they feel left out because they have not gotten more of their specific priorities funded in the way they wanted. Even if you sit down and look from the standpoint of that, there is quite a bit of evidence it was a balanced budget where everyone gave and got some things, and the overall package at the end was a very good product. Obviously I was frustrated with the veto on the scholarship tax thing.

Another question on bipartisanship: Of the 392 bills Governor Napolitano signed this year, only 25 were sponsored by Democrats. In the Senate, 63 of 80-some Democrats bills were not even heard in committee. Democrat Leader Linda Aguirre said partisanship always shuts out the minority, but you have said in the past that everyone should have an opportunity to have their bills heard. Is there a disconnect there?

As both parties clearly understand, the Legislature really works through the committee structure. And committees are chaired by chairs appointed by the majority. If you were to look back at the percentage of bills sponsored by minority members, I’d bet a pretty nice dinner that percentages were very similar, and perhaps even better this year, than in years when the Democrat Party controlled one or both bodies. What you probably have is some leftover feeling from the 15-15 Senate of a few years ago, where part of the agreement was that all bills got heard. If you compared this Legislature with the ’91-92 [Pete] Rios president Senate, I’d be surprised if we actually didn’t improve on the percentage of minority bills that got heard and got through the process.

Some letters to the editor from Republican supporters have said things went too far with the “She Lied” bumper stickers and t-shirts. Do you agree or disagree?

I haven’t passed out any and don’t have any on my car. I would characterize it as she broke her word, as opposed to lied because, to me, a lie is something that someone knows is wrong at the time they said it. When we sat in here and agreed on [budget bills], I believe that she intended at that time to do what she said she would do.

Do you know who paid for those items?

No, I don’t.

Someone has organized a telephone campaign where Senator Linda Gray — I don’t know if other members are involved — goes after the governor for her veto of the corporate tuition tax credit. Who is behind that, and do you support it?

First of all, I don’t know who’s behind it. Second of all, I think the integrity of public officials is about the most important thing this state should be able to rely on. I don’t have a problem with people bringing out what they feel is a lack of integrity.

What factors made you willing to compromise on the AIMS bill, and what’s your reaction to a statement from a member of your caucus that you sold out on that one?

The primary factor that caused me to negotiate a compromise is the possibility of the test being eliminated altogether [by another bill repealing the requirement that students must pass the AIMS test to graduate from high school]. That would have had such a devastating impact, I believe, on the accountability of our education system, it would have taken one or two decades to recover from.

The only time I recall hearing the sell-out [comment] was when people made the incorrect assumption that I had done what I did on AIMS to get votes on the budget. That was not the case.

Want to get your reaction to some other statistics: Sen. Jorge Garcia holds the record this year for the most “no” votes, with 156. Not surprising from a Democrat, but Ron Gould from your caucus had 153 and Karen Johnson had 124 no votes, both far more than most Democrats. What’s your reaction to that?

In the case of Johnson and Gould, they are very strong legislators who, in many cases, point out by comment and by their votes, where the scope of government probably expanded upon its original intent.

Was this your toughest session as president?

No. It wasn’t the easiest. In different ways, it was harder in some respects, but some of those were replaced by easier things in other areas. The previous two years, where we effectively had a 15-15 Senate, although on paper it was 17-13, presented some real challenges. This year the 16-31 [majority votes in the Senate and House] commitment the speaker and I made was a different type of challenge — keeping the caucus together and making sure the majority caucus acted, to the extent possible, as a majority.

Republican candidates for governor are not coming out of the woodwork. When is your go, no-go date?

I don’t have a date, but it’ll be in the next—it’ll be the summer, probably.

Which way are you leaning?

[Smiles and doesn’t answer]

Have you heard a rumor that Speaker Jim Weiers is considering a run for governor?

Hadn’t heard that rumor. —