PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano is one flip of the wrist away from making state history.
And she's going to do it in record time.
Napolitano, a Democrat, has chalked up 114 vetoes since taking office in January 2003. That puts her in a tie with Bruce Babbitt.
It took Babbitt, a Democrat who for virtually his entire tenure also worked with a Republican-controlled Legislature, more than twice as long to hit that mark. He was in office more than eight years.
Napolitano's blazing pace is not entirely her doing.
Several years ago state lawmakers began breaking the budget up into multiple measures. That followed a state Supreme Court ruling that questioned the legality of putting the spending plans and all the conforming changes in state law into just one or two bills.
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So last year, Napolitano racked up 16 vetoes on a single day by vetoing the first budget proposal adopted by lawmakers. That's also what helped her get to a record 58 vetoes in one legislative session.
This year she's managed only 30 — so far. But she has not yet received any of the 14 measures in the Republican budget and tax-cut package, which has provisions she has said are unacceptable.
Napolitano, questioned about her soon-to-be-set record, sought to downplay its significance.
"I think that's a statistic that only you guys take account of," she told reporters.
"I view the bills as to whether or not they make sense, they're well-written, they accomplish the objective that they set out to accomplish," she said.
But the governor also suggested that some of the vetoes might have been avoided had the Republicans who control the House and Senate "simply negotiated ahead of time" about what she would sign before sending her some measures.
Some measures, though, were not subject to negotiation, she acknowledged. For example, Napolitano has declined to sign a series of measures that would alter state laws on abortion.
The bill that could set the record is probably already on her desk: House Bill 2577, billed by backers as a comprehensive immigration and border security measure, contains some provisions that Napolitano already vetoed earlier this year as separate proposals.
