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.

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.

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.

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.

House and Senate approve Medicaid expansion, ending months of debate

After a bitter and prolonged debate that ripped apart Republican majorities in the House and Senate, Arizona lawmakers approved Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion proposal and sent it to her for her signature.

Gov. Jan Brewer forcefully declared that her proposal to expand the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to hundreds of thousands of new patients is a pro-life plan. As a pro-life governor, she said, she will not sit idly by while people suffer. Since then, opponents of her plan have taken up the pro-life mantle in the Legislature.

A trio of union-busting bills considered by a House committee on Tuesday met a varied fate: One passed, one was tabled to stave off a likely failure, and another was killed but later resurrected and approved when two Republican lawmakers changed their minds.

Former Apache Junction Mayor Doug Coleman and Tea Party candidate Kelly Townsend of Mesa took the lead in a four-way House Republican primary Tuesday in House Legislative District 16.