Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

The award for best legislative batting average for the session — the calculation of bills introduced versus bills signed into law — goes to Rep. David Livingston, a freshman Republican lawmaker from Peoria who has been vocally critical of the governor.

The most outstanding quips, gibes and utterances from the 2013 Legislative Session.

The bill moratorium that rankled lawmakers as Gov. Jan Brewer started applying pressure to pass her Medicaid expansion plan helped push her to a near-record number of vetoes in 2013.

Brewer vetoed 26 bills this year, the second highest total of her career, behind the 29 she rejected in 2011.

I didn’t talk to a single person who thought a special session was on the table in the days before it actually happened. Did you see the special session coming at all? You’re always aware that there’s a possibility of a special session. The question is, what triggers a special?

When the Republican-dominated Legislature stood firm against Gov. Jan Brewer this year, she pushed back like never before.

How did you pull off that coup (on Medicaid expansion)? (Laughs) I don’t think there was a coup, although that’s a funny term. At the end of the day I think that the leadership on the Republican side tried to overplay the hand they had.

How shocked were you that the governor pushed for Medicaid expansion at the State of the State? And are you surprised that she accomplished that? I’m going to admit I’m not shocked at all. The reason being is, when I first came in as leader, we set out to meet with [Brewer] to go over and have a chance to talk with her, and in our discussions, of course naturally the conversation of Medicaid came out…

On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the most effective, how do you rank your effectiveness as Senate president? I won’t give myself a numerical grade. I will say there are things I thought we did well, that I did well as the leader.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk has agreed to pursue campaign finance allegations against Attorney General Tom Horne and a top aide.

Arizona Solicitor General Robert Ellman, who reports directly to Horne, stated in a June 27 letter to Polk that he was referring the case to her office to avoid a conflict of interest in the case.

During the session, opponents warned lawmakers that Laws 2013, Chapter 62 (H2600: judicial nominees; minimum reqs; records) was going to wind up in court, and now it’s looking like it might be one of the first pieces of legislation from the session to be the subject of a lawsuit.