PHOENIX — If Republican lawmakers think that finally having Jan Brewer, a member of their own party as governor means they’re going to get everything they want, they could have a rude awakening.

Don’t believe it? Just ask the state’s last two Republican governors.

“I think it’s a difference in jobs,” said Jane Hull who served as governor from 1997 through 2002. “The tension has to be there between who makes the laws and who administers the laws.”

Hull said that’s not necessarily because a Republican, on becoming the state’s chief executive, suddenly gets new political views.

“A lot of what they want are things that you would want,” she said.

“But, on the other hand, as a governor you’ve got a broader and probably much more technical idea of what’s going on,” Hull continued. “You’ve been there for the whole year and not four months” of the legislative session.

In her own case, Hull said, she was forced to veto bills from the Republican-controlled Legislature because the state’s finances “didn’t support what they were doing” in adopting a budget.

And Fife Symington, Hull’s predecessor, said some of the difference is simply a matter of having a statewide constituency rather than representing a single legislative district.

“That’s basically the fundamental difference,” he said, which results in lawmakers approving measures “the governor does not want to see on his or her desk.” The result, said Symington, is going to be that the governor is going to reject the measure, regardless of the sponsor’s party affiliation.

But Symington said that doesn’t have to cause a major rift between the governor and legislators.

“The veto doesn’t have to be malevolent,” he said.

“It just can be a veto saying ‘I disagree and I’ve got the veto pen,’ ”he continued. “And don’t rub it in.”

Symington said one key to avoiding those situations is having a good relationship with House and Senate Republican leaders.

Hull said her own experiences show that’s true.

Before becoming governor, she was a state lawmaker representing north-central Phoenix. And she also was the speaker of the House.

“She needs to work very closely with the legislators to establish beforehand what her ground rules are going to be,” Hull said. By doing that, Hull said, Brewer can help ensure that bills do not reach her desk that she feels compelled to veto and, in doing so, publicly embarrass the legislator.

“Nobody’s put out on a limb to hang off,” she said.

Symington said that communication works both ways.

He said Brewer needs to surround herself with people who provide her with good information about what others, including lawmakers, are thinking. Those staffers, Symington said, also need to be able to “express their views candidly” to ensure the governor has all the input she needs.

“You end up in a bubble,” he said of the governor’s office. “And you can get yourself into great difficulty if you don’t hear a diverse set of intelligent, experienced opinion.”

Hull said that need of a governor to please a statewide constituency also to comes into sharp focus when someone who becomes governor wants to seek reelection.

It happened with Hull who took office after Symington resigned in 1997. She wanted  and got her own four-year term the following year.

And Brewer, who is succeeding Janet Napolitano in the middle of her term, already is eyeing the 2010 race.

“You’re going to have to think about those things,” Hull said.

Brewer, who was a state lawmaker and Maricopa County supervisor before becoming secretary of state, already is showing signs of charting her own path separate from what is shaping up to be the Republican legislative agenda.

She is balking at proposals by key GOP lawmakers to scrap statewide funding for full-day kindergarten. Brewer acknowledged the state’s deficit approach $1.6 billion and the more than $200 million in operating costs for the program.

“But I know that, on polling, almost 75 percent of the public, they do support all-day kindergarten,” she said.

And Brewer surprised many Republican lawmakers when, asked about options for dealing with the deficit, she said all options need to be on the table, including tax increases.