By Mark Z. Barabak | Los Angeles Times
Not long ago, when the tea party was in full boil, Jan Brewer became a heroine to conservatives across the country with her finger-jabbing defiance of President Obama and the signing of Arizona’s tough, show-me-your-papers immigration law.
But lately the state’s Republican governor has confounded many and angered others by moving decidedly leftward, proposing a Medicaid expansion under Obama’s healthcare overhaul — financed by a new tax — and tempering her tone as Washington debates the combustible issue of immigration reform.
For longtime observers, it is a fitting close to a lengthy political career that has defied easy pigeonholing — if, in fact, the end is near. Contrary to the overwhelming weight of legal opinion and even the counsel of some of her own advisors, Brewer has refused to publicly rule out a run for reelection in 2014, despite Arizona’s voter-passed term-limits law.
(As the next in line, then-Secretary of State Brewer became governor when Democrat Janet Napolitano left office in January 2009 to join Obama’s Cabinet. Brewer won reelection in 2010 and suggests she might be eligible to run again because her first term was less than four years.)
Brewer may be recalibrating as the tea party’s influence wanes and Latinos gain political strength. Or she could have an eye on her legacy as she quietly prepares to leave public life after more than 30 years in office. Either way, her moves have proved Brewer to be a far less predictable politician than the caricature — accidental governor, ditzy ideologue — would have it.
