By Dan Nowicki, Alia Beard Rau and Mary Jo Pitzl, The Republic | azcentral.com
When Doug Ducey takes the oath of office Monday as Arizona’s 23rd governor, it will represent the passing of the torch to a new generation.
Ducey, a Republican and former CEO of the Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream chain, has promised to bring a business-like approach to state government. Unlike his predecessor, outgoing Gov. Jan Brewer, who spent decades in elected office, his experience in government is limited to a single term as state treasurer, making him a relative newcomer to the State Capitol. He also has signaled that he intends to be more accessible than Brewer.
“The style, in contrast to Brewer, is going to be enormously different,” predicted Bruce Merrill, an Arizona State University professor emeritus, veteran political scientist and senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy.
But many of the issues that confront Ducey, at least in the short term, are the same ones Brewer grappled with as her tenure came to a close: budget deficits, immigration policy, education funding and Common Core, and the governor’s relationship with the Legislature.
