O'Connor cast two votes that were regarded as pro-choice on abortion - decisions that became part of the debate during her Supreme Court confirmation process. O'Connor allowed the state Senate to delay voting on the ERA, mostly because she worried it would fail, according to an account of that period in "First," her authorized biography by Evan Thomas. Constitution to broadly guarantee equal rights between men and women that drew opposition from many conservatives in the 1970s.
She largely supported the Equal Rights Amendment, an effort to amend the U.S. She questioned the effectiveness of the death penalty. She fought to make family-planning programs universal and opposed state funding for private schools. O'Connor established herself as a moderate, a key swing vote on social issues. "She had frustration in the state Legislature, to some degree, at the skill some of her colleagues occasionally lacked," her son, Scott O'Connor, told the Washington Post in a 1989 interview. While O'Connor relished the nuances of making laws, she bemoaned the apparent lack of diligence shown by some fellow lawmakers. "She saw it as her obligation to make the system work." "She always seemed to have, I know it sounds cliche today, a real appreciation for the majesty of the law and the Constitution," Hamilton told The Republic. He said she was "fair to a fault" and he would later testify about O'Connor's respect for the American political system during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Art Hamilton, who was the Democratic leader in the Arizona House for 18 years, met O'Connor when he was a freshman lawmaker in 1973. "What's turned out here is too important to be rushed through."įormer state Rep. "So much is left out sometimes because of the great pressure and the lack of time," O'Connor said, according to a newspaper account from the start of her freshman session.
She pressed lawmakers to make the process more intentional. In the Senate, O'Connor quickly made it clear that she wasn't impressed by the sometimes-haphazard method of writing legislation.
The editorial also noted O'Connor's selection would "retain the present balance of the sexes in the Legislature, where women have long carried a major portion of the load." The Arizona Republic's editorial board praised her appointment at the time, noting her legal career and her background as a third-generation Arizonan, which it called "quite a distinction in itself." She was much more reserved than other members of the leadership." "But she was not a backslapping politician. Alfredo Gutierrez, a Democrat who served with O'Connor and succeeded her as majority leader. "Often when debate got heated, she was the adult in the room who would calm things down. "She was tougher than nails," said former state Sen. She was a deft debater, but friendly with Democrats and more conservative members of her own party. She was dogged about facts, but congenial. She was a Republican, but far from ideological. O'Connor's time as lawmaker would foreshadow her career as a judge.
In the Legislature, O'Connor rose to the rank of Senate majority leader, making her the first woman in the nation to hold that position. O'Connor served as an Arizona state senator from 1969 to 1974, the start of a 37-year career in public office that led to the nation's highest court. In October 1969, O'Connor was appointed to the Arizona Senate by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors after the senator in her east Phoenix-area district resigned to take a federal post. Then, a political appointment marked the beginning of her life in the public eye.
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