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Arizona lawmakers adjourned this year’s legislative session on June 13, marking the last day for the Democratic Sen. Lela Alston.
With 34 years under her belt, Alston has served in both the state House of Representatives and Senate on and off since the 1970s.
Political reporter Camryn Sanchez sat down with Alston to talk about her long career in the Legislature and how things at the Capitol have changed over time.
Transcript
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Hello, and welcome to Prickly! A podcast from KJZZ’s Politics Desk.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Thank you for listening. I’m Camryn Sanchez
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: And I’m Wayne Schutsky. Today we’re wishing a very fond farewell to Arizona’s longest serving legislator, Senator Lela Alston.
The end of session marks Alston’s unofficial retirement. After 34 years serving at the state Capitol, Alston has decided against seeking office this fall.
The old-timer, and we say that fondly, was recently celebrated by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Here’s Senator Priya Sundareshan reading a proclamation in Alston’s honor on June 1:
PRIYA SUNDARESHAN: Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Arizona that the members of the Senate honor Senator Lela Alston for her many years of public service, leadership, and dedication to the people of Arizona and extend their best wishes on her retirement.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: That same day, Alston gave a heartfelt farewell to her colleagues from the Senate floor.
LELA ALSTON: And it has been the honor of a lifetime to work with each of you. I love you all, even those bad boys across the hall.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Camryn sat down with Alston to talk about her time as a lawmaker and the changes she’s seen since first getting elected in 1977. Camryn, how would you describe Lela Alston?
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: She’s known as the dean of the Legislature and a tiny woman but she makes herself heard, and she’s impossible to miss at the Capitol. She’s always got a turquoise streak in her hair, and Alston is a well-liked legislator and got a standing ovation on the opening day of session from both her Republican and Democratic colleagues.
Governor Katie Hobbs gave her former seatmate — the duo served together a decade ago in the Legislature — a shoutout when she introduced her in January:
GOV. KATIE HOBBS: I want to begin by recognizing state Senator Lela Alston, who has informed us she will be retiring after this session. Lela has dedicated decades of her life to building a better state through investing in public education, protecting individual rights and freedoms and creating a brighter future for every Arizonan.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Alston first served from 1977 to 1994, and then took a break from the Legislature after running unsuccessfully for superintendent of public instruction. But she returned in 2010.
Her office in the Senate overlooks the Capitol mall on Washington Street, and she grew up right here, in the shadow of the Capitol. Senator Alston was born Lela Mulkey in 1942 and lived on 7th Avenue just north of Van Buren. She attended the Grace Court School a few streets over, and I asked her if the area has changed a lot since then.
LELA ALSTON: Well, of course. Except some things stay the same. My former husband asked me out on our first date at that little tire shop right at 17th Avenue and Van Buren. It used to be a Texaco gas station. And whoever owns the tire shop, I've been wanting to stop in there. I just haven't finally painted it this year. And I don't think it had a lick of paint since the late 1950s.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Why did he ask you out there?
LELA ALSTON: Because he was pumping gas and that's where he worked. And I was with a group of teenagers from the church, which was at 16th Avenue and Van Buren. And that's now part of the Capital School playground.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Lela and Buzz Alston had two children, a boy and a girl. And Alston started a career in education.
So, did you know that you wanted to be in politics?
LELA ALSTON: No.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: What did you want to be?
LELA ALSTON: Well, what I did, I wanted to be a teacher. And I taught for 36 years in the Phoenix Union High School District. I was a home ec teacher who doesn't cook.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Alston still can’t cook at all. She says she survives on microwaves and restaurants.
LELA ALSTON: I'll have to tell you a little story that many people know about me. …. I never cooked at home, I mean at my house in Maryvale, but I had remodeled my kitchen. I had a beautiful stove. One I wanted for a long time, and it was all one with the - I forget the brand.
Anyway, the microwave was above it. Whatever, but I never used it, so I went to Sears and I said, ‘do you have any phony models? Like a place saver that doesn't necessarily work? Because I just need a — I don't need a place for a stove.’ So anyway, they didn't have such a thing, so I had to buy a stove for my remodel. And to this day, that was 25 years ago, the twisties are still, the packing materials are still there. And it's filled with my brother's papers. It's like a filing cabinet. It's never been used.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Getting into the Legislature was not part of Alston’s plan, but her friend Marcia Weeks ran in a neighboring swing district and asked Alston to run as a decoy.
LELA ALSTON: They really didn’t think I’d win nor did I! Haha, but I surprised them, so.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: What was it like?
LELA ALSTON: Well, I was pretty timid, you know 'cause all these — not expecting to win, Camryn, and then being thrown in the mix with all these people who'd been here a long time.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Alston’s timidity didn’t last very long.
LELA ALSTON: One thing I found out about myself that I didn't know before. In the campaign, once I was in, I found I was really a pretty competitive person, and I never thought of myself in that way before. So, but I did because you know we were looking at many of the same issues we’re facing today that all kind of fit in with my home economics background.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Despite being in the minority for nearly her entire legislative career. Alston does have some accomplishments under her belt, including getting a West Campus built for ASU. Republicans needed one more vote on a sales tax bill, which Alston leveraged for that campus.
LELA ALSTON: Senator Lindeman, who was kind of my Republican mentor around here, said, you could give them that vote and we could get ASU on the ground. Because they'd already started classes, I mean, they'd already been established, but not the physical thing. Classes were meeting like at Thunderbird School and schools. I remember some were held at Alhambra Elementary. Some were in strip malls. I mean, they were just all over the place.
So I said, oh, OK. So I talked to Senator Turley, Stan Turley, and said, okay, if you will guarantee, because we're at sine die time almost, if you'll give me your word that ASU will go in the ground next year, I'll vote for it. And everybody said, ‘you shouldn't do that. You're in a swing district. You're going to lose your next race.’ And I said, well, having got my master's driving from Maryvale to main campus, you know, I had some personal skin in the game. And I said, ‘well, you know, if I can accomplish that for our West Siders, it's worth it. I can go back and do what I love teaching.’ And so I voted for it. Stan Turley was the man of his word, and it never came up in the campaign. Isn't that amazing?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: It sounds like, for Alston, it always comes back to education. Camryn, you asked Alston which job she likes better, being a lawmaker or a teacher.
LELA ALSTON: You know they each have their rewards and their frustrations, so I couldn't make a better, you know which one’s better. I think teaching since I left has become more and more difficult because of the lack of teachers and teachers being asked to cover you know other classes, not having prep time and just general overworking and salaries that haven’t kept up at all to inflation.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: It’s education which brought Alston back to politics 16 years after she first left the Legislature.
LELA ALSTON: I was on the Phoenix Union High School District school board and you know I kind of lost contact or focus or knowledge of what was going on in public education until I got on the school board, and it was a discovery that things were not all wonderful still so that was really kind of my motivation for returning in addition to caring and there being an open seat.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: As a lawmaker, Alston’s had her share of disappointments. Securing equity for kinship families has long been one of the senator’s top priorities. In Arizona, relatives who raise their children get a smaller stipend to help pay for children’s care than non-kin foster parents. And as a Democrat — serving for so long in the minority party at the Capitol — there's a relatively short list of bills she's passed and signed into law.
Ahead of retirement, Alston says she hopes another lawmaker will take up her causes. But in recent years, Alston warns it's become even harder to work across the aisle, which is a necessity for any Democrat trying to navigate legislative hurdles. And that’s in part because Republicans have sent fewer and fewer moderates to the Capitol, she says.
LELA ALSTON: They eat their own in the Republican Party. You know, all the moderates are not, were not taken out by Democrats necessarily, but by their own party. So it's sad.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Over all the time Alston’s been around, she sees the camaraderie fading away and the polarization increasing between Democrats and Republicans.
LELA ALSTON: Yeah. And I think that could be remedied somewhat if they would quit placing people physically across the aisle. I mean, I've developed those friendships because we sat next to each other on the floor.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Now, at 84 years old, Alston says she wants to retire and see her six grandchildren more often. Her former husband, Bud, passed away in 2024. Alston’s son and daughter both passed away unexpectedly in 2025.
LELA ALSTON: She passed on the 30th of May in 2025. But I'd been visiting her at the holiday before and when I got home to come back into session, my son hadn't been out of bed all day because he'd been sick. And I just thought he has the flu or something. But it had been the whole time I was gone with her for the Christmas holiday. And his friend took him to the hospital, the emergency. And they admitted him and he died of liver cancer on February the 16.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Alston has had a few health scares, too. The trademark blue streak in her hair is a symbol that she’s beaten lung cancer. She used to be a heavy smoker, going through three packs a day before quitting. And she’s had three recurrences but got through them all with chemo and surgery and radiation.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: I couldn’t end our conversation without asking Alston about her car. It’s a pink 1956 Ford Thunderbird, and the flashiest car in the Senate parking lot when she’s around. Although lately, Alston’s been driving her newer car, a green Thunderbird, around. It was a gift from her son in law. But the pink car is the star of the show.
LELA ALSTON: One year our DPS officer said, ‘Senator Alston, give me your keys.’ So I gave him my keys. I thought, you know, they needed to move the car for something. Well, he moved it onto the mall between the House and Senate. And that became a tradition, like the ice cream. So every year, on sine die night, the pink Thunderbird went into the mall.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: True to tradition, the Thunderbird did make an appearance at the Capitol for the last day of the legislative session this year. Democrats, Republicans, staff, former lawmakers, lobbyists, family and constituents threw a party on June 1 to sing Alston’s praises:
BARRY AARONS: She'll tell you where she stands on stuff. And she's just an enjoyable person …
KEN CLARK: I've been in several bruising campaigns with Lela, lost to Lela in 2010. And you know what? She's the most gracious person I've ever met …
ROSANNA GABALDON: She really taught me what it is to be a statesman ….
MARK CARDENAS: I remember going through these neighborhoods, and everyone kept saying the same thing. Oh, yeah, she was my teacher in high school. Oh, she taught my children. I love her …
SON-IN-LAW CHARLES KOOSED: She is by far the best person I know …
JEN LONGDON: You've taught so many of us how to be better public servants, how to serve Arizona, and your legacy is going to live on for generations …
And the pink Thunderbird even made its way into a farewell song, written and performed by former Republican Senator Ken Bennett.
KEN BENNETT: 34 years really isn't all that long. Won't you stay for some more thrills, Lela? Schools are on their knees, Lela. Begging darling, please, Lela. Who will get the funding they need? You came here when I was in high school with a T-bird and red hair. Everyone, they fell in love with you. Especially kids in foster care, Lela …
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Prickly podcast from KJZZ’s Politics Desk. Tune in to 91.5 to hear our coverage of elections, and more — or log on to kjzz.org.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: And please subscribe to the Prickly podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
