Groscost, former state House speaker, dies at 45
by Paul Davenport on Nov. 03, 2006, under Local, Special
Arizona Speaker of the House Jeff Groscost takes a call during a House special session in October 2000.
PHOENIX – Former state House Speaker Jeff Groscost, a prominent conservative lawmaker who was the architect of legislation that produced the state’s costly alternative fuel vehicles subsidy fiasco, died Friday, authorities said. He was 45.
Banner Baywood Medical Center spokeswoman Coiya Lynne confirmed that Groscost had died. “I know it was cardiac related,” she said.
A Mesa Police Department spokesman said Groscost did not respond to lifesaving techniques administered by paramedics who were called to Groscost’s home shortly before noon and that Groscost was pronounced dead at the hospital. “It appears at this point he passed away due to natural causes,” said Sgt. Chuck Trapani.
Rep. Mark Anderson, a former legislative colleague, said Groscost told him that he had gallbladder surgery in late October that resulted in the detection of blocked arteries and insertion of a heart-assist device.
Groscost seemed fine at a political event about five days after the surgery but then said several days later he did not feel well, Anderson said. “He sounded rather tired.”
Anderson and other former legislative colleagues described Groscost as brilliant at legislative strategy and willing to share his expertise with lawmakers working on a variety of policy issues.
“He was a brilliant political mind. He made a couple of mistakes,” Anderson said. “Obviously the one that we’ll all remember was alternative fuels. He absorbed all of the blame for that because it was his idea but in reality it should have been spread around.”
Groscost, barred by term limits from running for re-election to his House seat, lost the November 2000 election for a Senate seat normally safe for Republicans after being blamed for the alt-fuels scandal that broke months earlier.
Groscost was instrumental in drafting legislation that made an existing tax credit for the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles far more generous. At the same time, he was lobbying Congress to allow more vehicles to be eligible for state-subsidized conversions.
Buyers could get half or more of the car’s cost back, and many bought luxury SUVs at greatly reduced rates.
Fellow lawmakers were told the expanded program would cost up to $10 million but within months the feared cost rose to $680 million. At the urging of then-Gov. Jane Hull and then-Attorney General and current Gov. Janet Napolitano, lawmakers made changes that reduced its eventual cost to $120 million.
Groscost’s election loss cost Republicans outright control of the Senate for two years, putting them in a 15-15 tie with Democrats and forcing an awkward power-sharing arrangement that left GOP lawmakers frustrated with their diminished power.
Hull, a Republican who left office in 2003, said at the end of her term that the alt-fuel episode was a blemish on her gubernatorial tenure because she signed the original bill without anticipating its potential costs.
“There was enough blame to go around. Certainly the bill shouldn’t have been hustled through the process,” Hull said when asked whether she blamed Groscost. “Everyone learned something from that exercise.”
Hull said Groscost was “full of life, full of fun,” and she remembered that he was nicknamed “Captain Chaos.”
As speaker, Groscost was known for loose scheduling of House proceedings that sometimes forced fellow lawmakers to stay at the Capitol late into the night for anticipated floor sessions that could either last for hours or be canceled without notice.
After Groscost’s election loss, he resigned as House speaker and the state House Ethics Committee dropped plans to pursue complaints against Groscost for his role in the subsidy legislation.
“The greatest sanction we can give is expulsion. Once you’re gone, we lose jurisdiction. He’s no longer a member,” said then-Rep. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix.
Even after leaving office, Groscost remained active in politics behind the scenes. When he died, he was Republican Party chairman for Legislative District 18 in Mesa.
Arizona Republican Party Chairman Matt Salmon released a statement praising Groscost as a good-hearted person. “He was a strong man with a strong backbone,” Salmon said. “He had a keen understanding of human nature and was always able to motivate people.”
