Former Arizona Gov. Jane Hull dies at 84

PHOENIX (AP) — Former Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull has died along with her husband, Terry Hull. Jane Hull was 84.

Gov. Doug Ducey announced her death Friday on Twitter Friday, saying “Hull dedicated 25 years to principled public service.”

Jane Hull was Arizona’s secretary of state when she was elevated to the governor’s office following the fraud conviction and resignation of Fife Symington in 1997. She was later elected to her own term and left office in 2003.

Hull was Arizona's second female governor after Rose Mofford, and she was the first to be be elected to the job.

Former Gov. Jan Brewer said Hull and her husband died of natural causes within hours of each other.

“Jane worked tirelessly for our State, especially for AZ’s school children,” Brewer wrote on Twitter. “As my friend since 1981, I know AZ is better today because of her service. RIP.”

Hull served in the Legislature, including as the Arizona House’s first female speaker before being elected secretary of state in 1994.

Hull’s Jan. 4, 1999 inauguration as governor with four other women elected to statewide offices, collectively dubbed “The Fab Five,” gave the state an all-female line of succession.

Regarded as a conservative while serving as a legislator, Hull’s tenure as governor included moderate policy initiatives. She said while governor she was responding to broader responsibilities of a statewide office.

“I tried to steer the Titanic a little bit more toward the education of our kids, and I really put the focus on children. Unfortunately a focus costs money and that’s what we did,” Hull told The Associated Press in a December 2002 interview shortly before leaving office.

In her first year in office, Hull won legislative approval of a new school facilities funding program to resolve a decades-long political and legal fight over disparities among districts. She also won approval for subsidized health care for children from low-income families.

Those and other Hull policy initiatives put her at odds with some Republican conservatives, and the former legislative leader was not reticent about using her powers as governor to prod lawmakers. Those tactics included calling the state’s part-time Legislature into special session without first securing support for controversial proposals and vetoing unrelated bills to pressure lawmakers into taking action on her priorities.

In 2000, she got lawmakers to put a sales-tax increase for classroom education on the November ballot, and voters approved it. That issue, like others, saw her triumph opposition from some GOP lawmakers.