After three years of jockeying over how to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised to construct a fence along Arizona’s border with Mexico, a state lawmaker is proposing to use those funds — and another $30 million — on a virtual fence to patrol the border.

When Gov. Jan Brewer used her 2013 State of the State address to announce she wanted to expand Arizona’s Medicaid program, she kicked off a clash that is still reverberating through the Republican Party.

When asked how his vote for Medicaid expansion could threaten his chances at another term in the Arizona Legislature, Senate Majority Leader John McComish points to an Arizona Capitol Times newspaper hanging in a frame behind his desk “The risk of defiance,” the headline reads. “What will GOP senators’ ‘no’ votes on immigration bills cost them?”

An orthopedic surgeon from the East Valley is poised to challenge Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa, in next year’s Republican primary.

Gov. Jan Brewer is following through on her promise to help out the Republican lawmakers who stood with her in the fight for Medicaid expansion.

Two shuttered power plants near the small eastern Arizona town of Snowflake have been purchased by a company controlled by Arizona state Sen. Bob Worsley, sending an economic lifeline to the town hurt by the job losses associated with the shutdowns.

Long before lawmakers took a vote on Medicaid expansion, Republican precinct committeemen across the state issued a warning to GOP legislators: If you vote for expansion, we will do everything we can to take you out in the next primary election.

Doug Cole, a longtime lobbyist and veteran of the Capitol, said freshmen used to simply fall in line with leadership and sit on the back bench to learn during a session or two.

Quiet about his thoughts on Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid proposal for most of the session, Senate Majority Leader John McComish emerged late as a key player in the push for AHCCCS expansion in the Senate.

Long before casting their votes for Medicaid expansion and a bipartisan budget proposal, Republican lawmakers who chose to support Gov. Jan Brewer had been issued a warning: Vote yes at your own risk.