PHOENIX — Marking the completion of her first year and the start of her second year, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs is opening up to ABC15 about lessons learned on the job during her first 12 months as Arizona's 24th governor.
She sat down with ABC15's Nick Ciletti recently for a one-on-one interview to also preview her State of the State address as the new legislative session kicks off.
And it turns out, the governor's first year in office was a record-setting one: she vetoed 143 bills - the most ever in a single year by an Arizona governor.
Nick Ciletti: What do you make of the criticism you got for those 143 vetoes?
Gov. Hobbs: I'm not sure it's criticism. I told Arizonans I would be a backstop to legislation that did not protect our freedoms or move us forward on the big problems we have to solve. I think I kept that promise. I will continue to do that. I am hopeful the need to exercise the veto pen will be more rare but I am ready to do that if needed.
Ciletti: What would you say to legislators on the other side of the aisle who have labeled you as an "obstructionist?"
Gov. Hobbs: I made it very clear in my State of the State that I was focused on solving problems and I would work with anyone to do that - I would put it back on them and why they keep sending me bills that I was very clear I would veto.
Gov. Hobbs is also ready to do things her way. Last year, after the Republican-led Senate refused to confirm more than a dozen agency nominees, she appointed them as executive deputy directors instead – all as a way to bypass the blockade legislators had put into place.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican from Gilbert, is now suing Gov. Hobbs to block the move, claiming it's illegal.
"We knew that was a possible consequence of the actions we took when we withdrew the nominations," explained Gov. Hobbs. "The fact is Arizonans sent me here to do a job. Agency directors are an important piece of doing that job. They have created a circus and gone far beyond their responsibility to confirm my nominees and I am not going to let them slow down or let them stop our agencies from delivering for vets and small businesses and do the job Arizonans elected me to do. So we're going to continue down the path."
Ciletti: In divided government, how optimistic are you really? Because from our vantage point, it seems government is more divided than ever before.
Gov. Hobbs: I have said that. It is more divided than ever. But we did some things last year that show if you can put division aside, you can get things done. The bipartisan budget that had supermajority support in both chambers. People put odds on us being there past July 1st but we got it done in May. That's because we realized we needed to buckle down, compromise, and do that.
And it's maintaining that optimism Gov. Hobbs says has been her biggest lesson in her first year.
"I always knew when you put partisan politics aside, you can get things done. I was able to do that in the legislature and despite how divided it gets, if we remember why we are here...that we can get those important things done. I think it's something I knew, but it was reiterated for me over and over again."
And even though she's just beginning her second year in office, Ciletti asked if she had already made a decision about running for a possible second term in 2026.
Gov. Hobbs said she will definitely run again.
