At a Thursday meeting, the governor told her staff to ignore all the news reports to keep working like nothing is changing, according to gubernatorial press aide. In fact, L’Ecuyer said, Napolitano’s message to those in her administration remains that she is not looking for another job and likes the one she has.
But L’Ecuyer would neither confirm nor deny that her boss would take the job if offered — or the multitude of media reports that Napolitano is the president-elect’s pick for the Cabinet-level post. In fact, she said, the governor herself is not providing any hints to those who work for her.
 Gov. Janet Napolitano and Secretary of State Jan Brewer are shown in this photo taken during election certification following the 2006 vote. (Capitol Media Services) |
“What she said to staff is ... basically, the president-elect will make his decisions and will announce his decisions when he’s ready,” L’Ecuyer said.
No official word has come from Obama’s offices. But the possibility of Napolitano joining his team has been discussed since she chose to publicly back the Illinois senator in January while Hillary Clinton was still in the race.
“She’s just a singular talent out there,” Obama said of the governor, saying Napolitano has dealt with difficult issues in “a commonsense way that brings people together.” He said she has “the kind of tone and temperament I’d want to see in my government.”
While L’Ecuyer would not comment on the possibility of Napolitano taking a post in the Obama administration, she said lawmakers should not count on her leaving any time in the immediate future.
“If, indeed, she were to be offered that job, the president-elect does not become the president until Jan. 20,” she said. “And confirmation would come after that.”
A position in the Cabinet could cap a political career that extends back to 1991 when Napolitano was part of a legal team representing Anita Hill during the confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Hill had accused the nominee of sexual harassment.
President Bill Clinton eventually named Napolitano the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, though questions about how she handled Hill’s representation delayed her own confirmation.
Napolitano was elected state attorney general in 1998 and then chose to run in a four-way race in 2002 for the open seat as governor. She narrowly defeated Republican Matt Salmon.
Her re-election bid in 2006 against Republican Len Munsil came much easier.
The 50-year-old governor lives in a condominium near downtown Phoenix, as Arizona is one of the few states without a governor’s mansion. She is paid $95,000 a year.
