Napo-latina?

SMART ABOUT ISSUES

"I’m hearing a lot of Latinas saying her agenda are things they care about: All-day kindergarten, higher salaries for teachers, more jobs. These are issues that matter to their families," says the Democrat from House District 14.

If vetos were chanclas, he adds, Gov. Napolitano would win the title of Arizona’s toughest mujer.

"If you look at the things she’s vetoed, most of them have been aimed at Latino immigrants," Meza says, "but they will affect legal Latinos."

Rebecca Rios, a Democrat in Senate District 23, agrees that Napolitano is in touch with her "inner Latina."

Rios, who is raising her first child, says the governor displays the qualities that Latinas learn from their mothers and abuelas: a quiet courage, a desire to go beyond personal goals to serve the greater good, and action in the face of adversity.

"She does champion the Latino family," Rios says. "Reforming Child Protective Services, for example. Her agenda resonates with Latinas because they help the family. At the end of the day, the governor is protecting our kids, our education, our health care."

Mari Alvarado, deputy director of District 1 of the League of United Latin American Citizens, adds that the governor’s fiscal concerns also echo those of Latinas. Napolitano is being fiscally responsible, she says, when vetoing Republican non-funded proposals from the Legislature, like building a border wall.

"Janet Napolitano is a smart mujer," Alvarado, a grandmother, says. "Like me, she watches where the dinero goes, and stretches every dollar for the good of the Arizona familia."

Napolitano laughs when told what Latinas are saying about her. Smiling, she says the comparison is flattering, and adds that what Latinas want is the same thing most Arizona families want.

"I lay out an agenda that I think speaks for all of Arizonans," she says. "And it’s a very family-supportive agenda. It’s school. It’s more job opportunities. It’s higher wages for teachers. It’s reform of Child Protective Services. Adult services, for our seniors. That was a big part of the budget this year, seniors and veterans."

"And I think that those are issues that many Latinos can relate to because they are pushed by low-wage jobs and kids in school and elderly parents that they are making difficult decisions about in terms of health care. And those are the things that we are fighting for," she adds.

Napolitano addressed other issues:

LPM: You have said in the past, "The world is changing much faster than our education system. We need to take it up a notch." You’ve won fully funded all-day kindergarten for the state’s children. Now, you head the National Governors Association, a powerful seat from which you can push a nationwide campaign for school reform.

In the upcoming national forums with the governors, how will you make sure that the educational opportunities of Latinos and other minorities is fully addressed?

Your case for school reform strong, but is it strong enough to transcend bi-partisan politics?

In your view, what can Latino leadership do to help push school reform?

JN: Let’s start with the third one first. Latino leadership can be very helpful in pushing the education message, and support that students stay in school. That they progress in learning, that they are active with the students, with their children. Make sure that the education of the Latino student becomes a family activity. And they make sure Latino students are encouraged to take the kinds of classes necessary to be able to go beyond high school, to college, to the university. So that they able to compete, particularly in technology. That answers question one.

Question two, the way we deal with this is on a bi-partisan basis. The education of the next generation is not, to me, a Democrat or a Republican issue. It is absolutely essential if our country is going to maintain its world-class ranking. And that’s why having the National Governor’s Association as a platform is good, because that’s all governors, Democrat and Republican alike, and we proceed on a bi-partisan basis.

LPM: On the ballot this year is the Public Program Eligibility measure that would make illegal immigrants ineligible for adult education classes offered by the state, in-state or county residence status for college tuition, waivers, grants or financial aid from state funds, among other assistance.

If this measure should pass, how will you combat its impact on your campaign to invest more in education?

JN: Well, we will have to go to non-taxpayer funded means. I think that referendum is a product of Washington D.C. not having a comprehensive immigration reform creating an immense sense of frustration, and legitimately so amongst Arizonans. And so we want to make sure that particularly students who have no responsibility for how they got here, to make sure they still have access to universities. We’ll have to go to the private sector.

LPM: The Republican strategy in the 2006 election is to win two state Senate seats and one in the House to create the opportunity to override your vetos.

If they achieve their goals, how would that affect your leadership strategy?

JN: Oh, I think I’m far from saying they are going to achieve their goals. I encourage your readers to really focus on these state legislature races. I would prefer not to have to govern by veto. I would prefer to govern by consensus. But I view it as a responsibility to review every bill and if I don’t think it is in the best interests of Arizona, to strike it down. It would be a shame to lose that ability, but we are a far cry from that.

LPM: Latina Democrats are running in two of the Senate seats: Rebecca Rios in Dist. 24 and Amanda Aguirre in Dist. 24.

Will you make an extra effort to stump for these Latinas to help them keep or win their seats to block the Republican strategy?

JN: I’m clearly going to be spending a lot of time in Pinal and Yuma counties. To the extent I can help Rebecca or Amanda, I intend to do so. Rebecca has been doing wonderful work in the Senate, Amanda in the House. They have been good strong advocates for a population that, in some respects, has been underrepresented in the state Legislature. So I’d like to see them back.

LPM: Speaking of stumping for Latino candidates, we heard that during the Heritage Dinner at the Wyndham Hotel you said, "I want you to re-elect me as your governor. I want you to elect Israel Torres as Secretary of State so that when I am out of the state I’ll know the state is in good hands."

How would having Israel, a Democrat, in the Secretary of State’s Office help you in running state government?

JN: Every time the governor is out of the state, the secretary of state obtains the power of the governor. I know Israel, I made him the registrar of contractors. He is very qualified and I know if I were to be gone he would carry out my policies in a good way. So people need to go out and vote for him.

LPM: Some feedback we’re heard from Latino Democrats going door-to-door for candidates is that you are very popular with Latina voters. They say that they consider you an honorary Latina because of your quiet strength and leadership, your perseverance in the face of opposition, and the way you out-think and out maneuver your male opponents.

Why do you think Latinas relate to you so well?

Are you a role model for Latinas?

JN: I don’t know the answer to the second question. I think that I try to govern in a way that I lay out an agenda that I think speaks for all of Arizonans. And it’s a very family supportive agenda. It’s school. It’s more job opportunities. It’s higher wages for teachers. It’s reform of child protective services. Adult services, for our seniors. That was a big part of the budget this year, seniors and veterans. And I think that those are issues that many Latinos can relate to because they are pushed by low wage jobs and kids in school and elderly parents that they are making difficult decisions about in terms of health care. And those are the things that we are fighting for.

LPM: The next question speaks to the quality of life for Latino and all residents of Arizona. In 1993, the New Mexico legislature created a Hispanic Culture Division within the state’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Legislators approved funding for the design and land acquisition for a center to showcase the arts and culture of the state’s Latino population. By 2000, the state had approved more than $20 million for the establishment of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

Has the issue of a Arizona Latino Cultural Center been discussed at all in your office?

Do you see such an initiative happening in Arizona in the near future?

JN: It has not been raised in this office or by any of the members of the Legislature. In part because our attention has been so focused on issues like English-language students for our Spanish-speaking students, raising the education capabilities, and so forth. I hope at a point in time in the future we can discuss things like that. It would be a respectful way of acknowledging the contributions of a major part of our population.

LPM: A recent USA Today story focused on women governors. The article differentiated female governors from male governors by the following qualities:

Women governors stand out as better than their male counterparts at drawing crossover voters, dealing with the opposition party and winning re-election.

The article said female leaders tend to be more consensus-building, more interested in getting input from other people and less interested in taking credit. Less need to be macho, in other words.

How does your personal leadership style mesh – or not – with these qualities?

JN: I try to build consensus. But you have to have two to play. And if necessary, when I have to veto something, I’m now shy to do that. My job is to get things done. At the end of the day, we measure our success by what we gotten accomplished.

LPM: In November of last year, Time magazine named you one of the five best governors in the U.S. In January, the most powerful woman in television, Oprah Winfrey, picked you as a possible presidential candidate in an O Magazine article. In February the WhiteHouseProject.org named you one of its "8 in ’08," a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.

How does it feel to be viewed as a possible presidential candidate, whose name is mentioned along with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice?

JN: Oh, it’s flattering, to say the least. It’s kinda cool to be in O Magazine. But I’m focused on being the governor here. We have a lot to do.

LPM: Do you think 2008 will be the year that female leaders will clean house, so to speak, in American politics?

JN: Well, it depends on who they are, but I certainly think that 2008 will be a watershed year for politics. Certainly at the presidential level there is no designated successor to Bush. Both parties will have robust primaries. It will be a very important time, and it will to a large degree dictate the future of the country. just think about how difficult the last six years have been.

LPM: Do you see Latinas as part of that wave IN 2008?

JN: Oh yeah. I think so. I think the whole Latino vote is going to be energized. The immigration debate has helped do that. And I think Latinas increasingly recognize that who they’ve elected to the state Legislature, to Congress, to the Senate, to the White House, has a direct effect on the quality of their lives, and their ability to take care of their families and do the things they want to do. And I think we will see more Latinos running. I think we will see more Latinos winning. And I think we will see more Latinos voting.

LPM: During your campaign, and when you entered office, one of the aims you mentioned was initiating a disparity study to determine whether minority businesses were getting a fair share of state contacts.

What is the update on that disparity study?

JN: It hasn’t happened yet. We started with a equity of state contracting initiative. And part of this was that I met with every procurement officer to talk about broadening the number of minority and women-owned business that have contracts with the state. We enlarged – this is legislatively – the contract amount where contracts don’t necessarily have to be part of the normal procurement process but can be done more informally. That helps to stagger the smaller contracts which are very numerous so they can kind of get their feet wet. We created a minority and women-owned business inventory and index across the state and put it on a database so that we know what our capacities are. The end result of that is that we have significantly increased the number of minority and women-owned business with contracts. Next year, using money we are getting through the federal government, we will instruct to start a disparity study. We’re going to start with contractors with the Arizona Department of Transportation because that’s one of the largest contracting agencies that we have, as you might well imagine. So the design of that is underway. Disparity studies if you do them are very expensive, and my view is if you are going to do it, let’s do it right. So like I said we have the federal money and the process is underway.

LPM: Do you have a message for our readers that you’d like to get out?

JN: I just want to say to your readers that Arizona is a great state to be in. We all have a role to play because our state is our home. And to engage. To engage fully.