LIGHTS! CAMERAS! POLITICIANS!

posted by Michael Chihak

Much of the time when the Arizona Legislature is in session, the members make themselves available for news media interviews in a wide range of ways.

Some will take a few minutes between committee meetings and votes on the floor. Some won't talk before the end of the day's or even the week's work.

Some are hardly available at all, camera shy or otherwise not in tune to the sometimes breathless needs of we in the media.

But on what turned out to be the final day of the 2012 regular session on Thursday, there was a lot of interest in the lights and cameras the AZPM crew set up in the House majority leader's conference room.

We had scheduled interviews with three legislators, and we got those. But betwixt and between, we got one more from an assertive Democratic representative who said he had something to say on the topic -- state educational funding.

Others wanted to know what we were up to, asking me or the video crew who we represented and whom we were speaking with.

Our crew having made several trips to the Capitol during the session this spring and having worked sometimes gruelingly to get good interviews, this was a mixed blessing.

We were happy to have smiling legislators ready to give us their thoughts. But we have just a half hour a week, after all, so the "extras" who came by offering their opinions were a bit perplexing to deal with.