Set to begin another legislative session, Gov. Janet Napolitano delivered her sixth State of the State speech Jan. 14.
During a personal interview prior to the beginning of session, the second-term governor said a big agenda is set for the state of Arizona in 2008. Upcoming agenda items she considers top priority during this year’s legislative session include education, transportation infrastructure, and state trust land reform.
The governor also discusses the art of public speaking, conquering stage fright and her favorite American political speeches.
Issues in Arizona tend to remain static, so as you prepare for your sixth address, was it difficult to find something new to say?
No, I think we have a big agenda for Arizona. It’s transportation infrastructure. This Legislature needs to take it up. It’s state trust land reform. It’s time to make another go at that. It’s education, our continued fight to educate the next generation and all the things that are happening there. So, absolutely not, and when you say static it seems to suggest that on the issues there’s no movement within these issues, which we will always have, there’s been a lot of movement. So it’s going to be about where we’ve come and where we’re going.
You take your State of the State speeches on the road, customizing them for local communities. Why do you do this, and are you the first governor to do so?
I don’t know the answer to the second part. Maybe, but I just don’t know the answer to that. I do it because I think it’s important for Arizonans to hear about the state of the state from the governor in the area in which they live and hear some particulars about how it will affect them where they live. That’s been well-received. So, this year the calendar has me going to northern Arizona on Tuesday — I’ll do Kingman, Cottonwood, Flagstaff and Prescott. On Wednesday, I’ll do Tucson and Casa Grande. On Thursday, I’ll do the West Valley and the East Valley. In the meantime, I’ll obviously be doing interviews and the like, but it lets people around the state know I’m not just the governor of Maricopa County, but this is really about the entire state.
What have you learned over the years about speech-making in general?
What I’ve learned is — and this has never been my problem — I’ve never given overly long speeches. But there’s a certain balance that has to be struck between wanting to put a lot of content in the speech and the ability of the audience to absorb it all. So you’ve got to strike that balance.
Have you ever gone off-script in your State of the State addresses?
Not in the formal address at the Capitol. That’s one of the few speeches I give in the year that’s on a TelePrompTer and I follow the TelePrompTer. Now, when I go out and do the regional variations, sure — absolutely. But the formal speech, it’s a formal speech because it’s a formal setting forth for the Legislature. Here’s the agenda. Here’s what we need to be working on and we spend a lot of time crafting that so it’s not a good time — it’s not a good place to ad lib. Here’s the deal, here’s what we need to be doing.
How much political strategy is contained in your State of the State speeches?
I most focus on what can we realistically get done and what is the vision that we need to enunciate. Those are kind of the two things.
What would you say to people who suffer from stage fright?
They probably don’t want to be in politics, because you give a lot of speeches. (Laughs) They might want to find another line of work. I think often times people think of a speech and they think of a very formal set-up. Most of the time, 95 percent of time, I’m having a conversation with whomever my audience is. It’s a little bit of, here’s our three points, boom, boom, boom. Now let’s have a conversation. To me, that is a very productive use of time and so people can actually raise with me what their concerns are and I can hear them. Then, if it’s something I haven’t thought through, I can bring it back and think about it. So it’s an opportunity for a dialogue. For those who are afraid of making speeches I’d say don’t make a speech. Have a conversation.
Isn’t the State of the State just as much pomp and circumstance as it is an important event?
There is a ritualistic quality to it. You have the ritualistic quality of the houses, the delegation from the Senate over to the House, the appointment of the people who are going to walk down the aisle with me. But I think there’s a role for ritual. I think there’s a role for saying, ‘This is the formal start of the legislative session. This is how we do it and this is the part that the governor plays in it.’ But in that part is a very important function. That important function is for the governor to say where we are and where we’re going to go.
What will your political opponents jump on in this year’s speech?
It’s hard to say. They’ll find some things. That’s part of the process too. That’s part of the ritual.
What was the best political speech you’ve ever heard?
That I personally ever heard?
Heard or heard of in history — any politician’s words that may have inspired you?
Well probably the most impactful speech was the speech that Lincoln gave at Cooper Union. The Gettysburg Address may be the best speech, but it wasn’t impactful at the time. But Cooper Union was very impactful.
In history, you have to look at FDR’s first and second inaugural speeches. You have a country that’s in a depression, just a sense of absolute chaos and a leader who comes forward and says, ‘There is hope, there’s a plan and we’re going to get there.’ So those are two in history I would point to. There are several in history I would point to.
In terms of my lifetime, one that was impactful to me was Barbara Jordan’s speech on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings on Richard Nixon when she talked about the role of the Congress and the importance of the Constitution of the United States. I heard that as a youngster — that’s when I first started thinking about being in public service and political life.
In terms of ones I’ve personally heard, I would point to two. They were both keynote addresses at Democratic conventions. One was Ann Richards in Atlanta and the other was Barack Obama’s at the last convention.
You’ve always stressed moving Arizona forward in a number of your speeches. Given the immigration and budget problem, has there been any slippage in the forward progression or direction of Arizona?
We keep moving forward. Sometimes we move forward in slightly different directions, but progress is being attained in all the areas — education, infrastructure, public safety — I can point to major achievements in all of those. So we keep moving Arizona forward. Yeah, there are different directions that it takes. It’s not a straight line. It’s just a forward-moving line.
In describing the state of affairs in one of Arizona’s critical areas (transportation) you used the word “unconstipate.” Did that just fall out of your mout
h?
Yeah, that’s when I go off script. That occasionally happens. It was a colorful word. People get it. I’ll tell you that. People remember that and they say, ‘You know you’re exactly right, governor. That’s what we need.’ It was probably not my most elegant phrasing, but it got the point across.
People paid attention…
They kind of woke up, you know. Yeah, so occasionally when I’m out there I like to talk very frankly with my audiences. I like that conversation. Sometimes, it’s not, like I said, the most elegant phrasing.
What’s the one thing you’ve always wondered about when it comes to the news media?
I don’t know that side of the world too well. I will tell you, as I shared earlier, sometimes what reporters pick on as an issue I find remarkable in light of everything there is out there. I think a lot of reporters are really challenged to get accurate information because they’re asked to do so much with very little by way of resources or background in sometimes very complicated areas. That can be a frustration for somebody like me who may know all the multiple areas and how this works and how it intersects with the feds and all of that. A reporter simply does not know and cannot be expected to know, and so how do you bridge that communication gap?