Get to know: Senate Minority Leader-elect David Bradley

The legislative session will start in January, and with a new group of legislators comes new leadership in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Minority leader-elect David Bradley (LD-10) will be representing the Senate Democrats in the 54th legislature.

Question: How does it feel to be chosen as the Senate Minority Leader?
Answer: “Well it’s always a privilege to be in service to your fellow members. So, that’s kind of how I see the role, is that everybody is a leader and my role is to make sure they can be the best leaders they can be. So, I work for them. I’m very honored.”

Q: What do you see being the biggest issues this year?
A: “It’s always a host of issues, I mean, the main reason we’re sent here is to do a budget and so, that frames everything and the philosophy of the budget will frame discussion and where resources are to be allocated. As a global issue, that’s probably the number one thing.

Specifically, I’m hoping we have a lot of common ground upfront with all members, not just the Democratic members or the Republican members and the governor, in terms of charter school reforms, sentencing reforms or criminal justice reforms, water issues. I hope that we can get to consensus on those things pretty quickly. I think those will be, upfront, the kind of main issues and we’ll see how things develop, of course.”

Q: What is your biggest goal for this legislative session?
A: “Well, to do the best we can for the people of Arizona. I mean, I think the message from the election, for me, was that people have to stop screaming at one another. I think folks have had enough of that and they want us to work together for the betterment of this state. So, we have some extra resources that we’re going to have to allocate this session and I think we’ll have discussions about how we do that. I think that we can come to consensus relative to those issues. I think the main thing is that we work together to do the best for this state.

What I like to have people keep in mind is that we are here for those who follow us. Arizona is going to grow, inevitably. Inevitably. So, I think having a transportation system that’s functional, having a business climate that is attractive to people to come here, having an education system that’s functional and works well for folks, a health care system. All those things that we have to think about those who are coming, so, I make that my focus.”

Q: How do you plan to work across the aisle to get bipartisan bills passed?
A: “Senator Fann and I are friends and I would dare say even close friends. We’ve been working together for many years already. So, I’m looking forward to working with her this coming session. I think we’ll be having regular meeting relative to the various topics that we just discussed in the coming weeks to kind of set the stage for a collegial approach to the problem solving, I hope that’s our goal.”

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
A: “I’m looking forward to working with the various stakeholders in the state. The chamber is an important player among those stakeholders. So, I look forward to working with folks from both the Arizona Chamber and local chambers throughout the state because, again, the common ground is that we want what’s best for Arizona and our citizens. So, I’m hoping that can be our goal.”