By Jeremy Duda
Arizona Capitol Times
The growing field of candidates eying the Ninth Floor in 2014 almost certainly can’t include Gov. Jan Brewer, say election attorneys and other experts.
ewer has repeatedly floated the idea of seeking re-election, saying the Arizona Constitution is unclear about whether the partial term she served when former Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned in 2009 bars her from running again.
The Constitution limits executive officers, including the governor, to two consecutive four-year terms, including “any part of a term served.” The governor, who was elected to full term in 2010, said she may challenge that provision in court.
But election and constitutional experts say there’s likely no chance she would prevail. And privately, many denizens of the Capitol say they don’t expect Brewer to actually try to run again, with some viewing the idea as a way to avoid being viewed as a lame-duck governor.
Assistant Secretary of State Jim Drake, who served as House rules attorney before joining the Secretary of State’s Office, commented in an email on the term-limits provision in the Arizona Constitution: “In my previous role, I read every single piece of legislation for 10 years and rendered opinions on constitutionality. I can’t find even a scintilla of ambiguity in Article V, §1.”
Attorney Paul Eckstein, who frequently represents the Arizona Democratic Party in election cases, said there’s no chance Brewer is eligible for a third term.
Attorney Joe Kanefield, who served as Brewer’s elections director at the Secretary of State’s Office and as her general counsel at the Governor’s Office, said the Constitution is unclear. Kanefield said he doesn’t think the voters’ intent in 1992 was to limit governors to one elected term in office or penalize secretaries of state who inherited the office through succession, as Brewer did.
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