After two years in the “super-minority,” when his caucus was unnecessary for even a two-thirds vote by Republicans, House Minority Leader Chad Campbell is ready for Democrats to have a voice on the budget.

As one of only three representatives in their fourth and final term in the state House, Speaker Andy Tobin, a Republican from Paulden, has more institutional knowledge than most. He has risen through the ranks from freshman, to the majority whip, to majority leader, to the top position in the House. Tobin, who because of term limits is unable to run for re-election to the House, has seen the state through surplus and deficit. Looking back on his time in the Legislature, he is determined to leave the state in better condition than it was when he was first elected.

After the years of tough times, things are getting better for Arizona. Now, Gov. Jan Brewer is looking to improve on the recovery she’s so proud of.

Brewer has big plans for education and health care and economic development. And despite the continued economic growth Arizona has seen for the past couple years, the governor wants to do more to stimulate the economy in 2013.

Gov. Jan Brewer’s bombshell on Medicaid expansion in her State of the State speech Jan. 14 led many Democratic lawmakers to give her proposal a standing ovation for the first time in her four years at the dais.

The large number of provisional ballots cast in November has two lawmakers so far proposing ways to address the issue. Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, the House minority leader, said he is drafting legislation to form a committee to study election problems and recommend legislation.

Sen. Rich Crandall, a Mesa Republican, jumped into the school security fray today by announcing a proposal to raid extra Clean Elections funds to pay for more cops in schools and provide training for armed teachers and training school counselors to identify mentally unstable students.

With a fiscal crisis that forced billions of dollars in state government cuts mainly over, the Arizona Legislature enters its 2013 session Monday with a budget surplus but little appetite among majority Republicans to loosen the purse strings. The state has socked away about $450 million in a rainy day fund and has more than $1 billion in total surplus going into the budget year that begins July 1.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell’s ideas for preventing a mass school shooting in Arizona include more cops in schools, more money pumped into the public-health system and stricter gun laws.

With a school resource officer and an award winning school counselor to help him make his case at a Jan. 9 press conference, Campbell said the cost of his 12-point plan would be $261 million. That would come from cutting a prized school-choice program favored by Republicans - the School Tuition Organization tax credit – as well as changes to tax laws and money from a $676 million budget surplus.

Arizona’s answer to the Newtown, Conn., massacre could be an infusion of guns next year on school campuses, either in the form of more cops, heat-packing principals or patrols of retired police officers and military veterans carrying concealed weapons.

While the mood at the state Capitol this past year might be best described as riotous, 2012 — the Chinese Year of the Dragon — was marked with fewer gaffes, catfights and over-the-top name calling among Arizona’s political elite.