Governor: 'I'm not looking for a new job'

Gov. Janet Napolitano has a message for those wishing her farewell: I'm not gone yet. Napolitano on Friday continued to deflect questions about whether she is President-elect Barack Obama's pick for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

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"I'm not looking for a new job," she said.

Nor would she say whether one has been offered, or if she would take it if it were. "Until things are announced from Chicago, it's up to the president-elect," she said. "It's his prerogative to announce his Cabinet."

Because of the way federal law works, Napolitano could not become a member of Obama's Cabinet until she is confirmed by the Senate. And that process easily could drag into March, if not beyond.

But the governor's public protestations have not stopped both political friends and foes from acting as if she already has one foot out the door. And Napolitano, who continues to make public appearances, acknowledged some of the introductions sound a bit like eulogies.

"It's an odd space to be in, no doubt," she said.

And, the governor said, all the fuss can be disconcerting.

"I'm really trying to be very disciplined and focused on what we're doing for Arizona," she said.

Napolitano said, though, she remains governor and the person with whom lawmakers and others have to deal. And at the top of that list, she said, is plugging the state's $1.2 billion deficit.

Even if Napolitano does get tapped by Obama, all indications are that she would remain governor not only through the end of the year but even into January when the new legislative session begins.

That means she will not only be the one the Republican-controlled Legislature needs to deal with to solve this year's budget. It also means she will be the one to give the annual State of the State speech setting her priorities, and she will be the one who comes up with a proposed budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Much of that is simply a matter of timing. Obama will not be sworn in until Jan. 20. That is the first day he can make nominations for cabinet positions.

But it could take months for the U.S. Senate to actually have the hearings and vote to confirm. And, unlike state government, someone nominated for the post cannot actually take the job until formal Senate confirmation.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said that, by statute, the current undersecretary for management stays on after current Secretary Michael Chertoff leaves.

But there might be reasons for Napolitano to head to Washington before the Senate acts.

Keehner said Obama's nominee for head of the department could not act until confirmed. But she said her agency is able to give that person and staff "basic briefings." And Keehner said her agency already is preparing "tabletop exercises to educate the new administration on incident response procedures."

Anyway, Keehner said, the vast majority of the agency's 218,000 employees are career civil servants. And two of the department's seven major components - the Coast Guard and the Secret Service - have no political appointees at all.

"The change in administration will have minor impact on the day-to-day operations," she said.

In fact, she said, a new Homeland Security chief will be able to fill fewer than 200 political positions. Gubernatorial press aide Jeanine L'Ecuyer, while not saying whether Napolitano plans to go to Washington, said if that were to happen it would not be until after actual confirmation.

Whether there would be problems in the Senate is unclear.

Napolitano was nominated in December 1992 to be the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, a position that also required Senate confirmation. But the process was held up for nearly a year amid questions about her role as an attorney for Anita Hill during earlier confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Hill had told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Thomas had sexually harassed her. There were allegations - never proven - that a key witness, after being coached by Napolitano, failed to recall some key details which would have raised questions about Hill's credibility.