Within a mile radius from the Arizona Capitol there is just one cafe that politicos and other capitol dwellers frequent and it is commonly referred to as “the Mexican Starbucks.”

The coffee shop in Arizona’s Old Capitol is now serving Starbucks drinks and may soon have televisions showing legislative hearings.

In the early 1990s, Doug Ducey’s career at Proctor and Gamble was on the rise. Just a few years after starting out with a sales and marketing territory in Los Angeles, he was in charge of the company’s food service distributorship for the entire state of California. But Ducey was looking for something different.

Almost daily, Arizona politicians face an army of lobbyists who are ready to spend money on dinners, drinks, parties and travel, aimed at currying favor and eventually bending the public policy agenda toward the will of their sometimes deep-pocketed clients. ...