• BC-CNS-Lawmaker Profile-Alston, 180
• Mugshot available (thumbnail below)
• Multimedia: YouTube video

NOTE: This is one of a series of biographical sketches Cronkite News Service is producing about new members of the Arizona State Legislature. Each follows this format and includes a mugshot and video.

_ Name: Lela Alston

_ Chamber: House of Representatives.

_ Party: Democrat.

_ Profession: Retired high-school family and consumer science teacher.

_ Hometown: Phoenix (Central).

_ Legislative District: No. 15, which includes central Phoenix and stretches from northwest Phoenix to western Tempe.

_ Committee Assignments: Appropriations, Environment and Commerce.

_ Previous or Current Elected Offices: Current member of the Phoenix Union High School District Board; Arizona state senator from 1976-1995.

_ Highlights of Community Involvement: New Life Society; winner of the 2002 Girl Scouts World of Children award.

_ Why She Ran: “Things in Arizona were … severely handicapping all the things that I had worked for all those 18 years [that I served in the Senate] and all those 34 years that I had been teaching.”

_ Her Focus: “For the day-to-day work, it’s people wanting to work and not having jobs, not having opportunities. In the past, people could often go back to school, but we’re so underfunded in higher education today that even that’s not possible.”

_ A Bill: HB 2295 would require public power entities to offer net-metering to wind, solar and biomass power plants and create consistent guidelines for compensating these smaller facilities.

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Reporting by Ashley Slaney, Cronkite News Service

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Rep. Lela Alston, D-Phoenix