Governor, lawmaker clash over new driver's license

BY HOWARD FISCHER, CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

December 12, 2007 - 11:12PM

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano lashed out Wednesday at the main foe of her plan for a "technologically enhanced'' state driver's license, saying the Mesa Republican lawmaker is on the political fringe.

"With all respects, you've got to look at who's making the press conference,'' the governor said of Sen. Karen Johnson. Napolitano said Johnson has "an ideological bent that ... doesn't represent the majority of Arizonans.''

Johnson responded that the deal Napolitano inked last week with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is a step toward totalitarianism.

"This isn't Nazi Germany,'' the senator said. "And I oppose requiring people to carry tracking devices in their pockets,'' she continued, referring to the fact these licenses will have radio frequency identification computer chips.

Napolitano also said those who fear the new license - and the databanks to which it might be linked - do not have to obtain one. But Johnson said those who oppose the plan are not "paranoid.''