Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 5 March 2003
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
PHOENIX - A funny thing happened on the way to Gov. Janet Napolitano's first veto.
She found her predecessor didn't leave a "veto" stamp.
Napolitano said she and her staff searched high and low in the desks, only to come up empty-handed. That left only one option: Get a new one.
As there is little demand for such an item, she said, the office supply stores didn't happen to have one in stock. So someone had to go to a specialty shop that could make one that same day.
"So then I had to, like, practice to make sure I got it right before I put it on the bill," Napolitano quipped. Armed with her new the $14 self-inking stamp, the governor stamped her message in bright red capital letters Monday on legislation to let state lawmakers decide how to spend federal money.
Napolitano said that while the stamp has been a tradition, all would not have been lost had the office supply store been unable to act that fast. She said nothing in the state Constitution precludes her from simply writing "VETO" on any bill she does not like.
So what happened to the old veto stamp?
"I don't know," said Francie Noyes, who was press aide to former Gov. Jane Hull. But Noyes said Napolitano's predicament was not unique.
"We had the same problem" after taking over following the 1997 resignation
of Gov. Fife Symington, she said. "We had to do exactly the same thing."