State Senate staff shakeup could mean different things

From the East Valley Trib, a shake-up in the Arizona State Senate staff:

New Senate president fires 4 top staffers

Newly chosen state Senate President Tim Bee fired four top staffers Tuesday, promising “a culture change” at the Capitol in how laws are made.

Gone are Greg Jernigan who had been chief of staff, operations manager Rob Dalager, senior policy adviser Mark Swenson, and Nick Simonetta, who had been in charge of publicity.

Bee said the changes are consistent with the message sent by voters nationwide, where voters wanted lawmakers who make responsible — and responsive — decisions. He said bringing in new staff will help that occur at the state level.

The problem, Bee said, is partly a function of term limits: Legislators can serve no more than eight consecutive years in the House or Senate.

By contrast, staffers got to stay for years. In fact, Jernigan started working for the Senate when Bill Jacquin was president in the early 1970s, though his tenure includes an interruption of several years.

The result, Bee said, is that staffers sometimes were the ones setting policy rather than implementing what the Republican leadership and individual legislators proposed.

Okay, so we have the new Senate President Bee letting four top staffers go. That could be a positive thing if he is cleaning house as a harbinger of a more inclusive, bipartisan governance culture, to which Bee alludes.

Of course, it could just be a step toward consolidating power by bringing in his own staff. Staff that will be more amenable to and supportive of his agenda.

Or, it could just be an effort to blame the Republican malaise on staffers, rather than the Party having to take responsibility for their governance style.

Or a combination of all three: house cleaning, shoring up power and scapegoating. Only time will tell.