Democrats Honor Their Own
Art Hamilton, right, reminisces with other former Democratic House leaders in a ceremony to honor them. Hamilton is joined by current Minority Leader Phil Lopes and former House Democratic leaders Jack Brown (currently a House member) and Larry Bahill.

Visitors to the House of Representatives have long been able to see a visual record of Republican leaders, as paintings of various speakers have lined the wall near the first floor’s committee rooms.
With a plaque on the third floor near the entrance to the gallery, there will also be a record of Democrat leaders.
On May 23, House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-27, unveiled the plaque displaying the names of 36 House Democrats who led their party. Some even ran the House itself.
“For those of you with no gray hair,” Lopes told the nearly three-dozen Democrats and family members who gathered for the ceremony, “we were speakers in this chamber.”
Gov. Janet Napolitano joined Lopes as past leaders told stories about dealing with the Republican opposition, which has been in the majority since 1967. The last Democrat speaker of the House was Andrew Gilbert, who presided from 1965-66.
Other former Democrat leaders joining Napolitano and Lopes were Larry Bahill (1977-80), Art Hamilton (1981-98), Bob McLendon (1999-2000) and John Loredo (2003-04). Current Assistant Minority Leader Jack Brown, D-5, who served as minority leader from 1969-72, was also in attendance.
Loredo told the gathered crowd the secret to the Democrats being effective in the House despite being in the minority for so long was their ability to stick together and oppose Republican measures as a bloc.
“Working together with people in unity really is the name of the game,” he said.
Lopes said he expects Democrats to continue the momentum from the 2006 elections, in which they gained six House seats, and sees a future in which the parties reverse roles and Democrat leaders once again will preside over the chamber.
“The last one to be called ‘speaker’ was in 65-66. We’re going to repeat that [in 2008],” he said.
But the best line of the ceremony belonged to Bahill’s mother who, after the former lawmaker praised her and his wife for helping him win his campaign in 1972, shouted from the crowd, “We were just glad to get him out of Tucson!”