Ex-governor does about-face, endorses Biggs for AZ gov after criticisms

In fact, Brewer, who was highly critical of Biggs, her fellow Republican, when he was Arizona Senate president, said that if he was the GOP nominee for governor this year he would lose the November general election.

But Brewer now is backing Biggs as he hopes to oust Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November. And it comes down to the fact that he won the Republican primary election on Tuesday.

"He's our nominee,'' Brewer noted Thursday.

But Brewer, a former state lawmaker, Maricopa County supervisor and secretary of state before she became governor in 2009, said she still questions whether he is too far from the political center to defeat Hobbs, who has made a point of saying she has worked with Republican lawmakers.

"We've got some moderate Republicans and we've got the independents that we've got to bring on board and prove to them he's the right guy,'' Brewer told Capitol Media Services Thursday.

2013 fight over Medicaid expansion

Brewer has a particular knowledge of Biggs and positions he took as Arizona Senate president, which she said were not in the best interests of the state.

Most notably was the 2013 fight over whether to expand the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program.

At the time, the program provided free care to those with income below the federal poverty level. Brewer pushed to expand access to those making up to 138% of the federal poverty line, a figure that in 2013 would have been about $26,000 for a family of three.

What the then-governor had working in her favor was that the U.S. government, through the Affordable Care Act, derided by Republicans as "Obama Care,'' would kick in the $1.6 billion cost, with the state's $240 million share picked up through a new tax on hospitals. That, in turn, would save hospitals money and protect their financial stability by having fewer people show up at their doors without insurance.

Biggs refused to even bring the legislation to the Senate floor. So Brewer built a coalition of 12 Democrats and four moderate Republicans who went around the Senate president and adopted the change. Brewer has said she remains proud of that move.  

Foes, led by Biggs, had no better luck in their lawsuit challenging the hospital tax. 

"You have people suffering terribly"

More recently, the former governor was asked last year about the decision by Republicans in Congress — supported by Biggs — to curb Medicaid enrollment nationally as part of the "Big Beautiful Bill'' to balance the federal budget. Biggs, in a statement at the time, said the bill included "significant spending reductions and reforms to Medicaid'' as well as to food stamps.

But even before congressional action, Brewer made it clear she once again found herself at odds with Biggs.

"You can't allow that to happen because it's just cost shifting,'' Brewer told Brahm Resnik, a reporter at KPNX-TV, the Phoenix NBC affiliate, reflecting her continued view that reducing enrollment just results in higher costs for hospitals.

"And in the meantime, you have people suffering terribly,'' she said. "People dying is what happens.''

Brewer said this isn't the way to cut costs.

"You can't kill people to balance your budget,'' Brewer said.

And now?

In her written endorsement statement Thursday, Brewer said she and Biggs "always had our disagreements.''

"But I always knew he deeply believed in his principles and wanted the best for every Arizonan,'' she wrote.

Brewer credited Biggs with working with her to repair the state economy after the Great Recession that had blown a $3 billion hole in state government's $9 billion budget.

Will have to move to the center, she says

Still, Brewer told Capitol Media Services Thursday that Biggs will have to prove to be a different kind of person than the one he was when he was representing a congressional district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 2-1 margin in voter registrations.

"He came from a very conservative district,'' she said. "And it's easy to say 'no' and vote 'no.' ''

Brewer said she's a prime example of how political change is necessary when serving a wider constituency.

For years she represented heavily Republican areas of Glendale at the state Capitol.

"And I never voted for a tax increase in my life,'' Brewer said. That is, she said, until she got to the governor's office and "reality set in.''

Arizona found itself facing a $3 billion deficit, a huge chunk out of what was a $9.9 billion budget. So she crafted a plan to cut $1 billion in spending, borrow $1 billion through the sale-leaseback of state buildings — and make up the rest with a temporary one-cent hike in the state's then 5.6-cent sales tax.

She got voters across the state to approve the levy by a margin of close to 2-1.

"I put my foot down and bit the bullet and did get the state turned around,'' Brewer said.

She predicted that Biggs, whom she called "smart'' and "personable,'' will be a different kind of governor than he was a state or federal lawmaker.

"You will see that when he gets to the office that he's got to be the leader and for all people, not just for his district,'' she said.

Biggs, for his part, conceded his much narrower focus until now.

"It's no secret that I've represented very conservative parts of the state,'' he told Capitol Media Services.

But Biggs said he has gotten reelected even after he has worked with Democrats on issues such as trying to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to provide greater oversight, including requiring judicial warrants when the communications of Americans are inadvertently picked up. He also has backed federal "right to try'' legislation to let terminally ill patients have access to drugs that have not yet been fully approved.

He conceded that Brewer is right: if elected he will have to respect that he has a broader constituency "instead of a more compact electorate, both geographically and politically.''

Hobbs campaign calls Biggs "extremist"

But Michael Beyer, spokesman for the Hobbs campaign, said Arizonans shouldn't buy it.

He pointed out not only did Brewer say last year that Biggs couldn't win but that she was co-chair of the short-lived GOP gubernatorial bid this year by Karin Taylor Robson, saying she was not only a preferable choice but also had a better chance of beating Hobbs.

Beyer said voters should reject Biggs' claims that he will be a different kind of governor than he was as a legislator or member of Congress.

"He has been an extremist and built one of the most partisan records in Washington,'' Beyer said, something he said Brewer inherently knows.

"She told the truth about him last year,'' Beyer said.