Entering her third year as minority leader, Sen. Katie Hobbs must juggle something new — Senate President Steve Yarbrough, the first new leader of the chamber in four years — with something old — the same 13-vote minority that Democrats have held for three of the past four years.

House Minority Leader Eric Meyer came to the Capitol eight years ago almost as a fluke. In 2008, another Democratic lawmaker was kicked out of the Legislature following his arrest for domestic violence, and Meyer stepped in.

After 14 years as a state legislator, Senate President Andy Biggs won’t be returning to the Capitol next January, and instead seeks higher office in Congress. The Gilbert Republican has much to reflect on after another chaotic session and years in the Legislature, where he went from a stubborn no-voter in the House to the leader of a Senate chamber that’s grown more conservative over the past decade.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s second legislative session did not go quite as smoothly as his first. Whereas 2015 was the shortest session in decades and a budget agreement was reached with legislative leadership in record time, 2016 dragged on into May as Ducey and lawmakers negotiated the budget.

A few hours before he sat down for a Q&A one humid August afternoon at a coffee shop, former Mesa mayor and one-time gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith had flown a plane, delivering a supply of blood to northern Arizona.

Sen. Katie Hobbs was one of many new leaders at the Capitol this session. She was tasked with leading an entirely-new Democratic leadership team in the Senate while dealing with a new governor and a veteran Senate president in Andy Biggs.

The most challenging task for Democrats at the state Capitol is to stay relevant in a place where you’re greatly outnumbered.

That job fell to Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, whose caucus shrank to only nine members following the 2010 elections.

Sitting for an interview can often be an uncomfortable situation, especially if you're talking about yourself. A lot of questions can run through your mind. Is the reporter going to ask fair questions? Am I going to be portrayed fairly? Am I going to sound stupid?

Bob Burns' first year as Senate president was trouble-ridden, to put it mildly. His task was to balance a budget that was billions of dollars in the red by rounding up 16 votes for a spending plan that nobody was going to like.

Despite the challenge of erasing budget deficits estimated at $5 billion for the next two fiscal years, House Speaker Kirk Adams said lawmakers now are more fully equipped to handle the problems.