In asession this summer in the writers room, where a bookcase was lined with titles like "American Sniper, " the staff ignored a bowl of baby carrots and sucked lollipops instead. (They pilfer candy from the better-stocked Fox sitcom "New Girl, " whose writers work next door).
In fact, she refused requests to put abortion bills on the agenda during a special legislative session this summer, preferring to discuss the natural-gas pipeline, which she pursued in such a bipartisan manner that she ultimately won more solid support for it from Democrats than from Republicans.