Gov. Jan Brewer had admitted she and her allies explored the option of ousting legislative leaders in order to pass her Medicaid expansion plan, the Yellow Sheet Report (YS) reported Friday.
At the impromptu media briefing, Brewer confirmed a plan to remove Sen. President Andy Biggs and Speaker Andy Tobin as leaders. She said, however, the action was never taken because the two Republican leaders “did the smart thing” and did not try to stop the bipartisan coalition from bringing the budget up for a vote.
“We did [discuss removing the leaders],” Brewer said. “I think that we were prepared to have [coalition members] go back and speak to them and tell them that this was what was going to happen, and that we had our numbers. I think they very possibly could have been rolled by the majority of the members,” Brewer said.
YS reports the governor said that when Biggs and Tobin “realized” they had the votes to “do the people’s work, that they did the smart thing, as any leader would do: do their job and preside over their respectful houses and do the process . . .”
Related: Pinal Legislators split on Medicaid: Pinal’s Shope, Pratt two of nine …
