REPUBLICANS, TEA PARTY AND RINOS

posted by Michael Chihak

Read a good rundown from the Arizona Capitol Times' Caitlin Coakley here on the potential appearance of cracks in what has been a pretty solid wall of Republican majority rule in Arizona state government.

The vitriol between Democrats and Republicans in the Arizona Senate last week at the opening of the special session on extending unemployment benefits was but a sideshow to that perhaps bigger issue: that GOP legislators aren't all in lock step.

It showed when GOP Gov. Jan Brewer called the special session despite several of her party's legislative leaders saying they opposed the benefits extension.

It came clear into the open when both houses of the Legislature recessed quickly Friday without taking any action on the governor's proposal. That's despite Brewer's claim that she went into it thinking she had the votes needed for passage and that she specifically had a deal with Senate President Russell Pearce.

What happens today -- and perhaps continuing this week -- when the Legislature reconvenes will be of high interest in relation to governance of the state.

LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION

posted by Christopher Conover

According to a study in The Chronicle of Higher Education 34% of Arizona’s elected lawmakers have a Bachelor’s degree while only 16% of all Arizona residents have a Bachelor’s degree. According to the survey 16% of the Legislature has no college, 41% of Arizona residents never went to college.

The survey also shows that 45% of the Legislature attended a college or university in Arizona. Not surprisingly, most who did go to school in the state went to either ASU or UA.

When compared with legislative bodies across the country Arizona lawmakers are slightly less educated than other groups of state lawmakers. The survey shows that 27% of the Arizona lawmakers have either no college or did not earn a degree. Nationally, that number stands at 17%.