WHEN IS LAST TIME BREWER SAT FOR AN INTERVIEW?

posted by Michael Chihak

Gubernatorial Communications Director Matthew Benson set up Arizona Week's interview with Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday. The governor and Benson were generous with her time, giving us a good half-hour on a busy day.

Timing couldn't have been better. Brewer walked into the interview room minutes after the Arizona Senate had approved the Arizona Competitiveness Package, a 214-page strategy for growing quality jobs and overall economic improvement.

She was ebullient over the passage, saying she hoped the bill would be transmitted to her quickly for her signature. That occurred Thursday evening, and the bill with its big tax cuts for businesses and other incentives is now law.

As we settled in for Wednesday's interview with the governor -- adjusting microphones and sound levels, checking camera angles and warming under the bright lights -- I told her that the cameras would begin rolling momentarily and not be stopped for the entirety of the interview.

"We'll make adjustments in the editing if I screw up," I said jokingly.

Her immediate response: "Will you cover me, too?"

We did. Late in the interview, Brewer began coughing, and we had to stop so she could sip water. We restarted, and she responded to the question at hand in the same way she had begun to before the break.

The unabridged version of the interview to be posted on our Website later today will be without the coughing episode. But everything else there is as it occurred.

When the interview ended, I thanked Brewer and told her I would look forward to future interviews. She expressed openness to the idea, saying, "Yes, do you want to talk about the budget? How about the border?"

Indeed. We shall be back. Communications Director Benson allowed afterward that we could count on "regular" interviews with Brewer; he defined that as meaning every couple of months.