Always the diplomat Alfredo Gutierrez, former Arizona state senator and 2019 Arizona Historymaker wrote this Letter to the Editor about Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Arizona Republic Newspaper. December 10, 2023.
"She was the first woman to serve as majority leader of the state Senate. I sat immediately behind her on the Senate floor. We became friends in that term.
We often disagreed on policy, but nonetheless she taught this freshman 25-year-old senator the arcane ways of the Legislature. I would succeed her as majority leader.
She was precise and indefatigable; her husband John, like her was brilliant, but unlike her was a social beacon with an extraordinary sense of humor.
Together they were a power to behold in Arizona and soon they became a power in Washington.
That overused phrase, 'the passing of an era,' is true today. A powerful Republican mentoring a Democratic progressive fireball with whom in policy there was disagreement but humanity and decency nonetheless overwhelmed partisan politics?
Not now, not today. And that forebodes nothing good for this country."
Alfredo Gutierrez, former Arizona state senator
