• Ideally, we would like one person who has all those characteristics ... [a criminal record] won't be an immediate disqualifer.
• Source: CNN   |   Washington state   |   February 4, 2013
• Mikhail Carpenter, the spokesperson for the Washington state Liquor Control Board, on the qualifications that candidates for a newly created marijuana consultant position should have.

• There’s a new word for retirement. It’s called work.
• Source: Governing   |   Nation   |   February 1, 2013
• Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president for AARP State and National Group during a panel discussion on baby boomers. More and more public-sector employees aren't retiring when they hit their pension age.

• After you eat the third pie of pizza, you get more reasonable.
• Source: New York Times   |   New York City   |   January 31, 2013
• John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of a grocery chain who just announced he will seek the Republican nomination to succeed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Catsimatidis' labor negotiation strategy involves a locked hotel room and frequent deliveries of pizzas.

• We cannot continue to elect politicians without management skills.
• Source: @Governing   |   Michigan   |   January 30, 2013
• Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, in the keynote speech at Governing's Outlook in the States and Localities Conference in Washington, D.C., this week.

• With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. ... You could beg for mercy from a violent criminal or you can fight back.
• Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   |   Wisconsin   |   January 29, 2013
• Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., in a radio ad in which he urged citizens to take a gun-safety course. His controversial comments quickly gained national attention and criticism.

• Fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our good intentions but the basis for realizing them.
• Source: Los Angeles Times   |   California   |   January 28, 2013
• California Gov. Jerry Brown, in his State of the State address.

• What's a pretty girl like you doing reading [campaign finance documents]?
• Source: DNAinfo.com New York   |   New York City   |   January 25, 2013
• Ed Hartzog, a New York City Council candidate, responding to a reporter's question about campaign finance documents that show he's raised nearly $8,000 -- about half of which has come from out-of-state donors.

• The negotiation model there is on steroids except nobody really quite knows the boundaries.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   January 24, 2013
• Federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Klein, on the uncertainty of Chapter 9 because judges have less authority than in Chapter 11 cases and there’s so little precedent for cities filing for bankruptcy protection that case law is being written with each major decision.

• He flew up like a jack-in-the-box and ran out of the room and slammed the door.
• Source: Bangor Daily News   |   Maine   |   January 23, 2013
• Maine state Rep. Jeff Evangelos, referring to Gov. Paul LePage who reportedly stormed out of a meeting with three independent House members last week after calling them "idiots."

• We make over $100,000 and we don’t pay a nickel in state income taxes. That’s representation without taxation. That’s wrong.
• Source: Stateline/GOVERNING   |   Kentucky   |   January 22, 2013
• A retiree in Kentucky, whose testimony that him and his wife make over $100,000 between their pensions and Social Security checks prompted state lawmakers to consider a proposal to increase taxes for seniors.
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• If you ask folks here, ‘would you rather see the state act or would you want to put your faith in Congress?’ it wouldn’t be a tough call any year.
• Source: Politico   |   Nation   |   January 18, 2013
• Andrew Romanoff, the former Colorado House speaker and a potential 2014 congressional candidate, who says people prefer state action on gun laws, especially after watching how the fiscal cliff debate played out in Congress.

• The Legislature passed it. I didn’t have anything to do with passing it.
• Source: Miami Herald   |   Florida   |   January 17, 2013
• Florida Gov. Rick Scott, referring to a controversial election law that he signed in 2011, which led to fewer early voting days and long lines during last year's elections.
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• Saying 'no' to this plan would not save these federal dollars from being spent or direct them to deficit reduction. No, Arizona's tax dollars would simply be passed to another state.
• Source: East Valley Tribune   |   Arizona   |   January 16, 2013
• Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer, in her State of the State speech in which she pushed for Republican lawmakers to expand Medicaid under the federal health-care reform law that she fought in court.

• You can tell a story with statistics, but ... it makes us seem like we're just sitting there looking out the window doing nothing.
• Source: McClatchy/GOVERNING   |   North Carolina   |   January 15, 2013
• Dr. Gary Kushner, a children's dental program director of a local health department in North Carolina, which was recently ranked in the bottom five of states for school-based dental sealant treatment programs.

• There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   New York City   |   January 14, 2013
• Fiorello La Guardia, the former mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945.